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Telegram is a messaging app that now also allows creators to livestream. Livestreaming on Telegram can even be part of a multistreaming strategy using Restream.
In this article, I discuss:
- How to set livestreaming on Telegram
- Adding livestreaming on Telegram to your multistreaming strategy
- Should a brand livestream to Telegram?
Even if you don’t want to go live, you can distribute a pre-recorded live stream.
How to setup livestreaming in Telegram
Of course, the first step is to set up a Telegram account. Consider the branding if you plan to use it mainly to livestream your podcast. You have to use a cell phone number to create the account, so consider using a company number for this purpose.
Once that’s set up, start a new channel from the app.
Telegram channels are, as Telegram says, “a one-to-many tool for broadcasting your messages to unlimited audiences.” In other words, even people you don’t know can find and watch your livestream.
You may have seen Telegram channels quoted by the New York Times and other media as victims of the war in Ukraine share updates that way.
Create a unique URL and make sure it’s set to public.
Then click the picture in the top right to set up your livestream. That gets you this screen:
Click on the “live stream” button on the left. That gives you these options:
- stream directly from the app
- schedule a stream
- set up a stream with a third-party platform like Restream or Switcher Studio.
Once you added the RTMP information into your third-party platform, which is how I do all of my multi-streams, you have to come back into the Telegram app and start the broadcast sent over from the streaming platform.
Once you finish the stream in Restream, be sure to end it in Telegram as well. I didn’t realize it on the first one, and my Telegram account showed my stream broadcasting for 19 hours. It didn’t look like it was broadcasting, but it said the stream was still live because I didn’t manually end it in the app.
It’s a similar process when going live on Amazon.
The actual livestream looks pretty decent and displays the video in a 16×9 format, just like LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.
How to livestream your podcast to Telegram
Go to “add destinations” from your Restream account and click on the new Telegram connection.
From there, you’ll need to connect your Telegram account. To do that, add the RTMP URL and key, which I mentioned earlier.
It’s not a genuine direct connection as you have those two items to paste in, which can also be done in the add RTMP connection settings. But, this is excellent marketing by Restream because it certainly alerted me of this even being a possibility.
Read next: Am I live? How to make sure your livestream works
Should a brand livestream to Telegram?
Adding channels to livestreams can be challenging when those channels can’t be integrated into the current process. Telegram allows the third-party connection, so it’s relatively easy. However, the additional step of starting and stopping the stream in the Telegram app is cumbersome.
Either way, it’s probably worth trying. Maybe Telegram favors livestreams at some point, and it could be an excellent way to grow the audience. Of course, it’s still unknown if the right audience is actually on Telegram, but did we truly know that our audience would be on Twitter when we first tried using Twitter?