Meta Platforms is testing a new tool called Instagram Live Producer, designed to help creators achieve a more professional look from their desktops using streaming software, with initial support for Streamlabs, OBS Studio and StreamYard. The company says this new integration “opens up production features outside the traditional phone camera, including additional cameras, external microphones and graphics,” and is currently only available to “a small group of partners.” Previously, creators could only broadcast live video on Instagram Live from smartphones. Instagram Live Producer enables functionality more like Twitch or YouTube.

Live Producer lets creators “use a stream ‘key’ — a line of program code — to connect into the Instagram Live back-end. That will then enable you to run your content capture through the streaming provider of your choice,” feeding into the Instagram broadcast, explains Social Media Today.

Enabling the Live Archive will allow replays on demand, according to the Instagram blog. “Broadcasters will only be able to view and respond to comments within Live Producer,” writes TechCrunch in a detailed explainer on how to use the new tool.

Live Producer “could be a valuable addition, particularly as social apps look to push live shopping as a new opportunity, following the lead of Chinese social apps, where live commerce has become a $300 billion industry,” Social Media Today reports. ByteDance’s made-for-China alternative to TikTok, Douyin, “generated $119 billion worth of product sales via live broadcasts in 2021, a 7x increase year-over-year, while the number of its users engaging with e-commerce live-streams exceeded 384 million.”

The Douyin short-form video platform is going so strong “the Chinese government has sought to reign in the sector, and the high prices that influencers are now charging brands for live-stream exposure, which has slowed down its overall growth,” Social Media Today writes, noting, “many western social platforms are now also eyeing live commerce as a key opportunity, both to help creators generate more income, and to bring in more direct revenue for themselves.”

Live Producer debuts in the wake of Instagram chief Adam Mosseri’s Q4 declaration that the  platform is “no longer a photo-sharing app” and would be taking on TikTok. Earlier this month, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg “announced that Instagram is testing a full-screen feed that strongly mimics the company’s rival,” according to PetaPixel.