In low-stakes scenarios like a FaceTime or a phone call, an unstable connection is annoying but not the end of the world. For streamers, a disconnected stream doesn’t just mean technical friction—it means losing your entire audience because of one malfunction. If a stream drops for even two minutes, viewers migrate to other streams.
“It’s hard enough for content creators to think of entertaining ideas to do on IRL live streams and actually make them happen. They shouldn’t have to worry about internet and connectivity issues too,” said Ashray Urs, Head of Streamlabs at Logitech G.
In the past, reliable IRL streaming required expensive hardware and complex setups that cost thousands of dollars. The existing IRL streaming experience was insufficient because it was not easy to navigate nor accessible.
When building Network Boost for the Streamlabs Mobile App, our goal wasn’t just to match high-end hardware performance, but to make reliable IRL streaming accessible to all. With Network Boost, creators can achieve more reliable connections using devices they already own, without having to invest in specialized equipment.
How Does Network Boost Work?
At its core, Network Boost addresses a fundamental limitation of mobile streaming: a single phone having only a single active network. If that primary cellular connection drops at any moment, your stream goes down with it.
To bypass the need to carry around heavy backpacks and specialized equipment, Network Boost uses Relay Devices.
Network Boost allows creators to pair additional iOS or Android devices—such as an old phone or iPad sitting in a drawer or a friend’s device—as secondary “relay devices.” Each relay node can run on a completely different carrier network (e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile, Xfinity Mobile). Instead of pushing the entire stream through one line, the primary streaming device fragments and distributes the data across the local network to the available relay nodes. Therefore, the network is “boosted” by fusing multiple device connections.
The Development Process
Creating a custom transport protocol from scratch is notoriously difficult. Fortunately, we didn’t have to build the foundational infrastructure from scratch.
Over the years, Streamlabs has engineered an extensive multistreaming infrastructure capable of processing, transcoding, and routing massive volumes of live video data with minimal latency.
“Every time we had a different demo or a different thing to test, we were learning something new,” said Ashray Urs. “A lot of the team was at TwitchCon Rotterdam testing this out. Even just walking around the conference floors and comparing having Network Boost enabled versus not, we learned so many interesting things and figured out how to optimize the functionality”.
Field Testing in the Wild at TwitchCon Rotterdam
During development, the engineering team took early builds of Network Boost directly to TwitchCon Rotterdam to stress-test the implementation under worst-case network conditions.
By actively testing on the show floor—comparing baseline single-connection streams directly against Network Boost-enabled configurations—the team observed crucial network behaviors in real time.
“The most surprising thing for the team during development was when it actually worked!” exclaimed Ashray Urs. “The Streamlabs team puts so much effort into building features like this, and these are the very satisfying moments that make all that work worthwhile. Doing that first test and it worked, it was surprising and exciting at the same time. The entire team started thinking about how functionality like this could help us in our own everyday lives and not just streaming.”
Designing for Accessibility
Solving the technical pipeline was only half the battle. If a feature requires advanced knowledge to understand how to use it, then more limitations are placed on streamers once again.
For Network Boost to truly lower the IRL streaming barrier, the user experience had to be seamless. Pairing a relay device needed to feel as effortless as joining a local Wi-Fi network, hiding the complex process beneath the surface.
Lowering the Barrier to IRL Content
IRL streaming represents one of the fastest-growing categories in live content, but the financial and technical cost has kept countless creators from participating.
By eliminating the issue of connection stabilization, Network Boost shifts the focus back to where it belongs: the creators.
About the author: Olivia is a communications intern at Logitech who frequently enjoys watching live streams.
