Vidgo, the live TV streaming service has added YouTube to its social TV experience, while also adding AirPlay and Chromecast support. The new features are understood to be live now but may require an update to the latest version of the mobile app to take effect.
Vidgo is one of the newer entrants to the live TV streaming market considering the service only properly launched in late 2019. One of its main selling points is the price with the entry level plan cheaper than most other live TV services. Another major selling point is Vidgo’s emphasis on a social experience due to what the company refers to as “social TV.” This is where users can watch live content together in virtual chat rooms.
Expanding on the social element, Vidgo has now announced its latest update ads virtual YouTube parties to the social side of the service. Essentially, Vidgo explains that users can now watch YouTube together in real-time, as well as “cueing up their favorite YouTube videos to watch together.”
In addition to the YouTube watch parties, Vidgo also conformed AirPlay and Chromecast support have also now been added to the iOS and Android mobile apps, respectively. With these supports added, users will be able to cast Vidgo from a smartphone to a cast-enabled TV.
Vidgo is cheap, but still limited on features
Vidgo’s announcement on the expansion of features is not surprising considering features is arguably the service’s major weak point. The company has so far spent much of its time focusing on the social element to stand out from the rest that it is lacking in even some of the most basic live TV streaming features.
A clear example of this is cloud DVR which remains unavailable through the service either as a feature included with a package or as an additional extra that can be added to a plan at an additional cost. It seems unlikely this skewed emphasis on social features is going to change anytime soon. For example, in the same announcement the company made clear more social-based features will be announced soon with the next one likely to be “Live React.”
The upcoming feature will allow users to share “brief live streams of themselves” reacting to events as they unfold in real time. As Vidgo explains, an “instant reaction to a wild dunk during a basketball game” or a reaction “during the rose ceremony of their favorite reality dating series.”
