LinkedIn will no longer allow real-time live streams

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LinkedIn will no longer allow members to live stream, with users now required to schedule streams in advance if they want to broadcast in the app, per an announcement last week on the LinkedIn Live help center page.

As per LinkedIn: “We’re evolving LinkedIn Live to make it simpler, more discoverable, and more impactful for our members. Starting June 22, 2026 all live events must be scheduled ahead of time. While the ability to go live spontaneously will no longer be available, you can still go live on short notice by scheduling your event just minutes in advance.”

So it’s not a major change, in that, if users really want to, they can go live close to real time. But the change is designed to maximize audience engagement with a live stream.

That could be helpful because gathering an audience for a live stream can take time, with streamers often delaying the beginning of their stream until enough people tune in. Clearly, LinkedIn has found that many unplanned streams also go unwatched, so it’s now forcing users to set out a scheduled start time in order to maximize viewership through at least some level of planning.

In October last year, LinkedIn’s Chief Operating Officer Daniel Shapero shared that the platform had seen a 24% increase in events shared in the app quarter over quarter, underlining the rising value of the platform as an events hub.

But planning is key to event engagement. In November, LinkedIn reported that event ads drive 31% more viewership of events, on average.

As such, it makes sense that LinkedIn would want more people to plan live stream events ahead of time, and ideally advertise them as a means to maximize user engagement.

Maybe forcing people to plan ahead will accelerate this, while also reducing LinkedIn’s need to support live video for events that nobody is tuning into.