Elgato Screen Link Lets You Create the Ultimate iOS Twitch Stream

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Elgato unleashed a range of peripherals and apps at CES 2019 aimed at helping content creators put together the ultimate Twitch or YouTube broadcasts.

LAS VEGAS - Streaming to platforms such as Twitch and Mixer right from your iPhone typically consists of settling for a live feed from your phone's camera, or using a shoddy third-party app to broadcast your gameplay.

Elgato's new Screen Link app for iOS, which is available now as a free download, might be the most elegant solution yet to getting a high-quality gameplay stream from your iOS device.

Credit: Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Screen Link transmits whatever is on your iPhone or iPad's screen to your computer, allowing you to hop on your PC and customize the look and feel of your mobile gameplay using popular streaming apps such as OBS Studio and Streamlabs OBS.

Once you have Screen Link installed, all you have to do is activate it right from your iOS device's control center under the Screen Recording menu. I got to briefly try the app out at Corsair's CES 2019 event with an iPad Pro set up to broadcast to a MacBook Pro, and was impressed by how quickly the action happening on the iPad's screen was transmitted to the laptop.

The free version of Screen Link allows you to broadcast for up to 15 minutes at a time, with an option to upgrade to unlimited streaming coming soon for $9.99. If you're looking to broadcast your Pokémon Go adventures, show off your Fortnite wins, or showcase some of the iPhone's many AR games to your audience, there's no reason not to give it a spin.

Credit: Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Screen Link is just one of many new services and products that Elgato unleashed here at CES 2019 for content creators. The company's new Key Light is a super-bright LED light panel that streamers can customize right from their PC or mobile device (or their Elgato Stream Deck), allowing them to adjust brightness and color temperature on the fly without having to take their eyes off of the action.

Speaking of the Stream Deck, Elgato's highly customizable streaming keyboard now has an SDK for developers, meaning you'll likely have even more wildly creative options for doing things like, say, applying a silly voice filter or mixing in your favorite music with the touch of a button. Elgato also debuted its Thunderbolt 3 Pro Dock, which allows you to connect a range of USB 3.1 Type-A, Type-C, Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort, Eithernet and audio devices all through a single 40GB-per-second Thunderbolt cable.

We've long been fans of Elgato's video capture products for our own in-house streams and videos, and now that the company is under the wing of peripheral giant Corsair, it looks like its making an even bigger push towards providing a complete ecosystem for aspiring Twitch and YouTube stars. We look forward to putting all of these new gadgets through their paces throughout the year.

Credit: Tom's Guide

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Michael Andronico
Michael Andronico

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.