How to Use a Side by Side Stream Viewer

A side by side stream viewer lets you watch multiple live videos from different channels on a single screen. To use one, you typically paste the stream links into a tool like ViewGrid, which then arranges the video players into a grid for you. This is useful for following multiple perspectives during a gaming event, tracking different news sources, or just keeping up with all your favorite creators when they go live at the same time.

Instead of constantly switching between browser tabs, you can see everything at once. You control which stream's audio you hear, and you can focus on a single stream or view them all equally.

Setting Up Your First Side by Side View

Getting started is straightforward because it works directly in your web browser. There's no software to install. You can create a grid with streams from Twitch, YouTube (both live and regular videos), Kick, and Rumble.

Here is how to build your layout:

1. Go to ViewGrid. You’ll see an empty grid with input boxes.
2. Add your streams. You can do this by pasting the full URL of a channel or video into one of the boxes. You can also just type the channel name for Twitch, YouTube, or Kick, and it will find the live stream. For YouTube, there's also a search button to find live streams directly.
3. Choose a layout. As you add streams, they will fill the grid. You can use the layout buttons in the toolbar to change the arrangement. Options range from a simple 2-stream split screen up to 20 streams on a desktop monitor.
4. Manage the audio. Every stream you add starts muted. To hear one, just click the speaker icon on that video player. Clicking the icon on a different stream will automatically switch the audio to that one, muting the previous one. This prevents a mess of overlapping sounds.

That’s the basic setup. You can have a two-stream view running in less than a minute.

Common Uses for a Multi-Stream Layout

While you can use a grid for anything, certain situations benefit the most from seeing everything at once.

Live Events and Esports

This is one of the most popular reasons to use a side by side viewer. During a big tournament, you might have the official broadcast on one side and your favorite player's point-of-view stream on the other. For events with multiple stages or simultaneous matches, you can build a grid to monitor all the action. You can find pre-made grids for many popular tournaments on our live events calendar.

Creator Collaborations

When several streamers team up for a game or a podcast, watching just one perspective only gives you part of the story. By putting all their channels into a grid, you can see every reaction and hear any conversation, switching the audio to whoever is speaking.

Breaking News

When a major news story is unfolding, different channels offer unique coverage. You can set up a grid with several news sources to compare their reporting in real time.

Hobbies and Interests

You can also use a grid to follow different creators in the same niche. You might watch several artists drawing at once, follow a few different financial market streams, or keep an eye on multiple space mission cameras from NASA.

Fine-Tuning Your Viewing Experience

Once your streams are loaded, you have a few tools to manage the view and make it work for you.

Changing Focus

Sometimes you want one stream to be the main event, with others visible but smaller.
Focus View: Click the "Focus" icon on any stream to make it the large, primary video, with the others arranged in a smaller column or row. Click it again to return to the balanced grid.
Fullscreen: Each individual stream player has its own fullscreen button, just like on the source platform. This will make that single stream take over your entire screen.
* Immersive View: In the main toolbar, there's an option to hide the ViewGrid interface. This removes the header and borders, giving you a cleaner look that focuses only on the video content.

Interacting with Chat

You don't have to give up on live chat. You can open the chat for any single Twitch, YouTube, or Kick stream in your grid.

Click the chat icon in the main toolbar, and a side panel will appear. From there, you can select which stream's chat you want to display. This lets you follow the conversation for your main stream while still keeping an eye on the others. If you're looking for a setup focused only on one stream and its chat, our guide on how to Watch Streams and Read Chat Side by Side might be more suitable.

Sharing and Saving Your Layout

The URL in your browser's address bar updates automatically as you add or remove streams. This means you can share your exact layout with someone just by copying and pasting the link. When they open it, they'll see the same streams in the same arrangement.

If you want to save layouts for later, you can create a free ViewGrid account. This lets you save your favorite setups so you can open them again with a single click.

Things to Keep in Mind

A side by side stream viewer is a powerful tool, but there are a few practical limits to be aware of.

Internet Connection and Computer Performance

Watching multiple video streams at once requires a stable internet connection. If you load 12 streams and set them all to 1080p, you are using a lot of bandwidth. If you experience buffering, try lowering the resolution on some of the less important streams or reducing the total number of videos. Your computer's processor also has to work to decode all the videos, so on older machines, you might notice performance slowing down with a large number of streams.

Mobile vs. Desktop

ViewGrid works in mobile browsers and has dedicated apps for iOS and Android. However, due to the smaller screen size, the experience is slightly different. On a phone, you can view a maximum of 6 streams at once, whereas on a desktop you can have up to 20.

Watching on a TV

To get your grid onto a television, you'll need to use your device's features. ViewGrid doesn't have a built-in "cast" button. The most common methods are to connect a laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable or to use the screen mirroring function of your computer, phone, or browser to share your screen with a smart TV.

For those with more screen space to work with, you can expand your view even further. If you're interested in that, check out our Dual Monitor Multi Stream Setup Guide for ideas on how to use two screens effectively.

Ultimately, a side by side viewer is about giving you control over how you consume content. You can build a simple two-stream view for a quick comparison or a complex dashboard for a major event. You can start building your own layout on our multi-stream viewer page.