On your stream
4 min
Live video and chat on your page
Connect a YouTube channel, choose whether new shows show its live video and chat, and troubleshoot the embedded player.
What it does
Connect your YouTube channel once, and your listener page can show your live stream — and its chat — right above the gauge.
This lets listeners watch, chat, use the interest slider, and join audience features without switching between your stream and public HeatCheck page.
Especially worth it for audio-first shows
Connect your channel
- 1
Paste your channel
Any of these work: a full URL like youtube.com/@yourchannel, a bare handle like @yourchannel, or a channel ID.
- 2
Confirm it found the right channel
Review the connected channel name, avatar, and YouTube link when available. Open the link if you need to verify a similar or easily mistyped handle.
This is a one-time step. It is your channel that is connected, not a particular stream, so it keeps working for every show.
Turning it on for a show
The Live video panel on the dashboard has two switches, and the second depends on the first.
Show video
- Embeds your current live stream on your listener page.
Show live chat
Needs video on
- Adds YouTube's live chat beside the video on a wide screen and immediately below it on a phone. Your audience chats in YouTube; it just appears on your page too.
It finds whatever is live on that channel
When it does not appear
Nothing shows on the listener page
- Is the HeatCheck show live?
- Is Show video switched on for this show?
- Is the connected channel the one you are streaming from? A second channel is the usual culprit.
If the page shows Waiting for the stream, the HeatCheck setup is active but no live YouTube video has resolved yet. Start the stream on the connected channel and leave the page open; it updates without a refresh.
Video works, chat does not
Confirm Show live chat is on. Chat also needs a specific live video to resolve and must be embeddable for the HeatCheck domain. If YouTube has disabled chat or embedding for the stream, HeatCheck cannot override that setting.
There is a delay
The embed is YouTube’s own player, so it carries YouTube’s latency. Listeners voting on what they are watching are voting a few seconds behind you — worth knowing before you read anything into a sudden dip.