MICROSOFT RENAMES BEAM, IS NOW CALLED MIXER

Microsoft has renamed the Beam streaming service it purchased almost a year ago. Beam shall now be referred to as Mixer. Mixer is pretty much Twitch, but by Microsoft. The main reason to use Mixer is that it’s baked right in to Windows and has low-level system integration thanks to its inclusion in the latest Windows 10 Creator’s Update. This level of integration allows you to do funky things such as “co-streaming,” where up to 4 streamers can combine their streams into a single viewer split-screen experience. The streamers in the party can each be doing different things, they don’t even need to be playing the same game. Mixer also distinguishes itself by touting “livestreaming that’s actually live” with minimal one or two second latency, a huge advantage over Twitch’s 10 to 15 seconds for non-partners. With low latency, conversations between streamer and audience can be a lot more natural.