Streamlabs (formerly TwitchAlerts) is a software company headquartered in
San Francisco,
California. The company was founded in 2014 and distributes a variety of software centered around
live streaming and
content creation.
History
Streamlabs was founded in 2014 as TwitchAlerts, a
fork of
OBS Studio that gave
streamers the tools to add on-screen visual alerts that are triggered by viewer interactions such as new following, subscribing, and donating.[1]
TwitchAlerts had no official affiliation with
Twitch, and was later renamed to Streamlabs in 2016.
Logitech purchased the company for $89 million on September 26, 2019.[2][3]
Products
Streamlabs Desktop (formerly Streamlabs OBS) is a free and
open-source streaming software that is based on a fork of OBS Studio.
Electron is used as the software framework for the user interface.[4] Streamlabs distributes the user's content over platforms such as
Twitch,
YouTube, and
Facebook.[2][5]
Crossclip is a video converter website that allows users to convert, edit and share live streaming content across multiple platforms.[6]
Willow is a link-in-bio link tool designed to help users increase
revenue and make their links more discoverable. It includes a tipping feature and allows users to tip directly on the page.[7]
Melon is a browser-based podcast live streaming platform. Users can broadcast their live streams to Twitch, YouTube, Facebook,
LinkedIn, or a custom
RTMP destination.[8]
Oslo is a video review and
collaboration tool. Users can
upload and share projects in the cloud, and Oslo's project management and annotation tools provide ways for teams to receive and review feedback, as well as upload videos to YouTube.[9]
Streamlabs
Charity is a free
fundraising platform that assists charities in raising funds and connecting with streamers. Excluding standard processing fees, the platform takes no cut from donations, allowing all proceeds to go to charity.[10][11]
Criticism
On November 16, 2021, Streamlabs released 'Streamlabs Studio', a cloud capture software for the
Xbox One,
Xbox Series S, and the
Xbox Series X.[12] After the release, the streaming service Lightstream accused Streamlabs of plagiarizing their promotional materials.[12][13] Later that same day, the OBS Studio team claimed in a tweet that Streamlabs used the name "OBS" in their products despite OBS Studio already denying Streamlabs permission to use the name. This gave the false appearance of being in partnership with
OBS Studio.[14]
OBS Studio's tweet resulted in Twitch streamers, including
Pokimane and
Hasan Piker, threatening a boycott of their product if changes were not made.[15] Other companies, such as
Elgato and 1UpCoin, have also spoken up on
Twitter about Streamlabs copying their products.[16][17] The company subsequently removed the name "OBS" from their products.[18][19]