Owncast Newsletter August 2026
A newsletter about the developers and users of Owncast, an FOSS streaming server built with the Fediverse in mind.
In This Issue
- A Note From The Editor
- Technical Updates
- Features
- Closing Remarks
A Note From The Editor
I'm not going to lie, friends. This newsletter has been one of the hardest to actually get out the door. It's not just the usual "adult life problems", but also in part because I've run headlong into an old maxim in journalism – you're only as good as your sources.
One of the things I've kept as a regular part of the newsletter is the featured streamer segment. This hearkens back to my original plan of being "the community calendar for Owncast streams". Every issue has included a segment on a stream I've found, either through my own wanderings or, far more commonly, through a recommendation. Finding someone to feature used to take anywhere from a day to a week. This time, it took over a month. It was a struggle to even get some people to approach about a feature. Then, emails went without response. One finally, after a mail hosting snafu, got back to me, but it's too late and now the newsletter needs to get out.
So, for the first time since I started, this newsletter won't have a featured streamer, though we'll hopefully have one ready to go next time. Please remember, my dear readers, that I can't cover what I don't hear about. If someone's doing amazing work, please share it with me.
But, on with the show. We've got some updates on the Owncast project and a big announcement about an event coming up soon!
Owncast Updates
Following on from the incremental release I announced last issue, I caught up with Gabe Kangas, the principal of the Owncast project, about what's been cooking.
The first big thing to mention was an update to Owncasts for iOS and tvOS. Owncasts is a family of small side projects maintained by various developers close to the Owncast project. These are usually kept up by people who just happen to use a particular device's ecosystem and want extra native support. I help maintain Owncasts for Roku; Gabe has been behind the iOS and tvOS variants.
We don't get much time to work on these, so it's a big deal when we do, and the latest features don't disappoint: improved iPad layouts, support for chat, and...what this?...streaming from your iOS device. That's right, iPhone and iPad users can now start a stream from their mobile devices. This is a really huge step up in turnkey independent streaming, so iOS and tvOS users should check it out!
The other big news is a pair of exciting new features in Owncast v0.3.0:
- Feature Streams: a new feature to let streamers feature one another on their own Owncast instances. Not only does this let communities promote their own members, but it will enable people to create their own versions of the Owncast Directory.
- Plugins: Fully-native code to expand and enhance the features of your Owncast server, and a "marketplace" for one-click installs. No more dealing with the limitations of the API system, and streamers can focus o their streams, not fiddling with their servers.
I asked Gabe what the community could do to support this ambitious release, and the biggest need right now is basically beta testing. "A lot of these features require two participants to try them out," Gabe explained to me. "When these types of features are built, I could really use help with people testing it in the real world to see what works and what doesn't for them. It's something you can do even if you're not a software developer."
Want to help out with the testing? Just stop by our Matrix channel and say you want to help!
NHAMFest26
It feels like it's happened enough times to call it a tradition, but it's late summer and time for another decentralized festival of indie content, a thing we've come to call a "par-raid", in a joking nod to Twitch's "raid" system of dumping your viewers on a new stream when you sign off. Owncast, of course, doesn't have a raid feature (yet), but Owncast/Fediverse culture is also more voluntary in nature, so it's perhaps more fitting that the schedule is published in advance.
NHAMFest26 will take place from August 26-28 2026. It's being brought to you, of course, from NHAM (the people who are Naturally Hopeful About Music, among other things). Carrying on the mantle from Radio Free Fedi's summer par-raids, their Owncast instance is a point of coordination of the action and a host to backbone content, but the point is to take a tour of the interesting art, film, music, and more, that the Fediverse is making available on their own servers.
It's a great lineup this year, including some "friends of the newsletter" like The Indie Beat, Doctor Deathray, Meljoann, and Kristoffer Lislegaard. Of course, there's far more than just the newsletter's former feature streamers. From film shorts to sock puppets, there's going to be something for everyone. It's capping off with Gabe from the Owncast project talking about the state of independent streaming. Head on over to the NHAMFest26 schedule, follow the #NHAMFest26 hashtag on the Fediverse, and plan your watch time!
Closing Remarks
This newsletter is something done with love by a single person, but it tries to reflect back a community I find important. I don't have help locating events, building a calendar, or even getting quotes for the articles. I rely extensively on people in the community sharing their announcements and stories with me. Please, if you want to see something in the newsletter, get in touch with me. I might just decide to release an edition because of what you bring to me.
Additionally, if you'd like to help build the social fabric of the Owncast community, please consider checking out the #owncast-community channel on Matrix or the Owncast community on Lemmy.
Until then, be good to each other and keep the streams running!