How Twitter’s LiveCut Compares to SnappyTV

In July 2019, Twitter announced that it would be sunsetting SnappyTV by December 31, 2019, and replacing it with LiveCut, which is now part of its Media Studio. Both tools let you create clips from live or recorded feeds, and also let you directly share clips to Twitter.  

However, there are a few differences between the two tools as well (note: we aren't covering other tools, such as SnapStream, in this post. You can learn more about SnapStream's features here). 

Twitter LiveCut Only Lets You Directly Share to Twitter

It’s important to post your content to a variety of social media channels, so you can reach different types of audience members (for example, Instagram users tend to be younger). 

SnappyTV would let you directly push your content to a variety of social media channels, including Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. However, LiveCut will only let you directly share videos to Twitter. If you want to share a video you created with LiveCut to another social media platform, you’ll have to download the video file and manually post it, which will delay how fast you can get your content to Facebook and YouTube.

You Can't Create GIFs and Screenshots with Twitter LiveCut

GIFs and screenshots are some of the most popular types of content to use on social media. They help add variety to your social media strategy—and a great GIF can go viral and become part of the online conversation. 

While SnappyTV would let you create GIFs and images in addition to video clips, LiveCut only lets you create and share video clips.

Twitter LiveCut Doesn't Support CDNs and OVPs

Third-party Content Delivery Networks and Online Video Players like Brightcove and Ooyala are integral for many organizations. While SnappyTV supported a few different CDNs and OVPs, LiveCut does not support any third-party platforms. 

That means that with LiveCut, anytime you want to upload a clip to a third-party CDN or OVP, you’ll have to download it and manually do so.

Twitter LiveCut Doesn't Support HLS Streams

Your organization might use a variety of content stream formats, including both RTMP and HLS streams. 

You can ingest both RTMP and HLS streams in SnappyTV. However, with LiveCut, your only option is to use RTMP streams.

SnapStream makes TV social. Our technology lets users instantly capture, create, and share HD quality video clips, GIFs, and screenshots to Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as create square and vertical clips for Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. SnapStream's customers include BuzzFeed, Major League Soccer, and the Arizona Coyotes. 

SnapStream Product Demo (watch now)