SplitCam is free streaming software for Twitch, YouTube and Kick that keeps your scenes, game source, recording and every stream in one app. Sign in to Twitch or YouTube once and it fetches the stream key for you — on Windows it does the same for Kick — or paste a key by hand if you prefer. On Windows, minimize it behind a fullscreen game and a floating mini window shows one indicator per stream, so a click tells you which destination is still up.
This is the once-per-channel setup, not a first-broadcast walkthrough: sign-in instead of keys, a game source that is still pointed at the right game next week, something to watch once the game is full-screen, and a recording you still have afterwards.
Since v10.7.32 the Stream Settings dialog offers optional authentication for Twitch and for Google (the YouTube account), and with it SplitCam retrieves the stream key itself — there is nothing to copy out of a creator dashboard. The Twitch sign-in runs in an embedded WebView2 browser as of v10.8.50, a release whose notes also list a YouTube authentication fix; the dialog then shows you which account is logged in. Since 11.0.13 the same works for Kick on Windows: SplitCam signs in to Kick and gets the stream server and key automatically.
Game Capture on Windows covers titles running on DirectX 9, 10, 11 and 12 — check your game against that list before you build a scene around it. If the hook DLL is not injected, SplitCam switches that source over to window capture rather than leaving you to notice mid-stream. And since v10.7.11 game capture sources are saved with the project and restored after the game or SplitCam itself is restarted, so a weekly show opens next week with the source already on the right title; v10.7.11 also widened capture to more games, including ones with anti-cheat protection.
Mic levels drift over a long session — you lean in, you get louder as the run goes badly. The Windows volume indicators put a scale on that instead of leaving it to feel: volumes over 75 dB are marked yellow and volumes over 85 dB red, so you have a visible line to speak under rather than a vibe. Set it once with the game audio and the music playing, not against silence.
Minimize SplitCam on Windows and a floating always-on-top mini window appears with the scene preview and stream indicators; click an indicator and the title bar names that stream and its state. The mini window is restored to the monitor it was last visible on, and if you do not want it at all, the mini window can be switched off in Settings. For numbers rather than a glance, the main window has statistics buttons and there is a floating statistics panel with graphs.
Recording to file and an outgoing stream are a supported combination — starting a stream with a recording already in progress is explicitly handled, including when the optional restream server — the slow-internet mode — is switched on. The bitrate limitation that used to apply to recording to file was lifted in v10.5.92, so the recording is no longer held to that cap. From v10.8.25 the output file is saved in the fragmented MP4 format, for one stated reason: a program crash or another error does not take the recording with it. On macOS, v1.23 runs a vertical and a horizontal scene at once, each with its own virtual camera output, and records both to file.
Two settings worth doing before the first scheduled stream. On Windows the Automation Timer is a layer type, and the program switches scenes on its timer event — a starting-soon screen that hands over to the main scene at the minute you announced, with nobody clicking anything. And in Settings → Additional (since v10.8.70), the Virtual video device input option decides what the virtual camera shows: any selected scene, or a single layer out of any scene — which is how a guest sees your camera in a call instead of your whole overlay stack.
Settings you stop thinking about after five minutes and are glad of in the third hour.
On Windows, minimizing SplitCam for a fullscreen game pops a floating mini window with stream indicators, so you are not alt-tabbing out to check. Click an indicator and the title bar shows that stream's name and status. It reopens on the monitor it was last visible on, extra floating panels open from its title bar, and there is an option to stop it popping up at all if it gets in the way.
Your ears adjust over a long session; the meters do not. In the Windows build the audio volume indicators mark anything over 75 dB in yellow and over 85 dB in red, which is the cue to pull a source down before the chat starts typing about it. SplitCam 10.8.25 for Windows also added an audio source monitor.
On Windows, since 10.8.70 the virtual camera can be pointed at a chosen scene or at a single layer from any scene — Settings → Additional → Virtual video device input. A guest joining on Discord or Zoom then sees just your camera layer instead of the whole composition you built for the stream.
Put an Automation Timer layer in the pre-show scene and the countdown your viewers are watching is also what moves you to the main scene: on Windows a timer event drives the scene change. The top of the hour stops being a cue you have to hit while you are still fixing a mic.
Recording runs at the same time as the live streams, and on Windows the output has been saved in fragmented MP4 since 10.8.25 — a container chosen so a session that dies partway still leaves something you can open and cut clips from. Worth recording anything long: the bitrate limit on recording to file came off in SplitCam 10.5.92 for Windows.
The macOS build has a YouTube extension that browses, edits and adds broadcasts from the main window, so setting up the next broadcast is not a separate trip to a browser tab. The Mac build can also auto-detect the lowest-latency server for every streaming platform it supports.
Prefer a physical key to a keyboard shortcut for the switches above? The official Stream Deck plugin runs on Windows only, from SplitCam 10.8.25 onwards — see what it can trigger.
Nothing below is a wish-list. Every line in the SplitCam column is a shipped release note with the build it landed in, so you can check it against the changelog before you trust it. The right-hand column names no product and makes no claim about anyone else's software — it is the part of the job that stays yours when every function lives in a separate tool: an encoder here, a recorder there, a meter, a chat window, a browser tab on each dashboard.
| On a long live session you need to… | SplitCam | One tool per job |
|---|---|---|
| Get the Twitch and YouTube keys in | ✓ Optional sign-in retrieves the stream key for Twitch and Google (YouTube) automatically; signing in on macOS also synchronizes the broadcast settings into the appWindows, v10.7.32 · macOS, v1.12 (build 131) | Open each dashboard, copy the key, paste it in, and do it again when you reset one |
| See stream state with the game fullscreen | ✓ Minimize and a floating window appears over the game — always on top, with an indicator for each stream. Click an indicator and the title bar shows that stream's name and status. It comes back on the monitor it was last onWindows, v10.3.42 · v10.3.51 · v10.4.8 | Alt-tab out of the game to look, or hand a whole monitor to the encoder window |
| Read how the broadcast is behaving | ✓ Statistics buttons in the main window, plus a floating statistics panel with a graph viewWindows, v10.4.89 · v10.5.12 | Read each tool's own window and reconcile the numbers in your head |
| Keep audio off the ceiling three hours in | ✓ Per-source volume level indicators: anything over 75 dB is marked yellow, over 85 dB red, plus an audio source monitorWindows, v10.4.22 · v10.8.25 | Go by ear for three hours, or put a meter in the chain and watch it |
| Walk away with a usable recording | ✓ Recording to file keeps working with the optional restream server switched on, the output is fragmented MP4 — the release note's promise is that a program crash or other error will not lose the recording — and there is no bitrate cap on recordingWindows, v10.3.51 · v10.5.92 · v10.8.25 | A second recorder in the chain, and your own trust that the file survived the session |
| Join a guest call without your overlays going with you | ✓ The virtual camera can be set to show a selected scene, or a single layer from any scene — Settings → Additional → ‘Virtual video device input’Windows, v10.8.70 | Send the whole composition, or build and then maintain a second clean scene |
| Put one element on the second screen | ✓ Projector, in a layer's context menu, opens any one layer in its own window, independent of the other layers on the scene — one layer, not a Preview/Program multiviewWindows, v10.7.20 | Mirror the whole preview and hunt for the corner you actually care about |
| Capture the game | ✓ Games running on DirectX 9, 10, 11 and 12. Game capture sources are saved with the project, and capture falls back to window capture when the hook DLL is not injectedWindows, v10.4.1 · v10.7.7 · v10.7.11 | Notice mid-game that the capture came up black, and sort it out live |
| End the ‘starting soon’ card on time | ✓ An Automation Timer layer, and scene switching on the timer eventWindows, v10.5.62 | Keep half an eye on the clock and click when it is time |
| Keep a horizontal and a vertical scene running at the same time | ✓ On macOS a vertical and a horizontal scene run at once, each with its own virtual camera output; both record to file, and either can be screenshotted on its own. On Windows both canvases exist but are set up separatelymacOS, v1.23 (build 272) · Windows, v10.9.2 | Run the session twice, or crop the vertical cut out of it afterwards |
| Watch every platform's chat | No — the Chat button in the main window was disabled. The multi-platform chat is in the SplitCam apps for iOS and AndroidWindows, v10.6.53 | A browser window or a chat client on the second screen, the way you already do it |
One thing to plan around if you drive both canvases: since v11.0.11 the virtual microphone takes its audio from the horizontal scene only. Three parts of this setup have pages of their own instead of a row here — one encode to several platforms at once, with what happens when a single destination drops; the virtual camera other apps see as a webcam; and the Stream Deck plugin and the phone remote.
Pick where you want to go live, give the app a way in to each destination — a sign-in, or a stream key pasted once — set up a scene with your camera, your game or your screen, and press start. In SplitCam that means adding Twitch, YouTube or Kick as a destination, building a scene from your sources and starting the broadcast; the setup above is the once-per-channel part, and after it every stream is the last step alone. The YouTube guide walks through a first broadcast end to end.
Beyond the software: a computer that can run your game and encode video at the same time, a microphone, a camera — a webcam, or a phone that SplitCam can use as one, see phone as a webcam — and an internet connection with enough upload speed for the quality you pick. SplitCam covers the software side for free: scenes, game capture, audio mixer, recording and every destination, with no watermark on the stream.
Add both as destinations before you start — each needs its own stream key or a sign-in — and SplitCam sends the stream to all of them directly from your PC. On Windows, new destinations cannot be added while a broadcast is in progress, so build the list first. The multistreaming page has the full walkthrough.
On Windows, yes — any layer has a Projector command in its right-click menu, and it opens in a window of its own, independent of the rest of the scene. That is the one to throw at your second monitor — the guest camera or the game feed at full size, while the SplitCam window stays where you are clicking. It arrived in v10.7.20. Two exceptions before you plan a layout around it: text layers and timer layers cannot be projected.
Not if you sign in. Twitch and YouTube both offer an optional sign-in, and on Windows — since v10.7.32 — the app then pulls the stream key itself; on Windows, Kick works the same way since 11.0.13. On macOS the equivalent arrived in v1.12 (build 131), where signing in synchronizes the broadcast settings into the app. Twitch's sign-in moved into an embedded WebView2 browser in v10.8.50, which the changelog credits with fixing the earlier trouble over key retrieval. Other pre-configured destinations already have the server side filled in and want the key pasted once; a custom RTMP endpoint is the one that also wants a server address typed in.
On Windows, minimizing SplitCam pops a floating always-on-top preview with stream indicators on it; click one and the title bar names that stream and its state. On two monitors the mini window comes back to the monitor it was last on, and if it gets in your way it can be switched off in Settings. The main window also has statistics buttons and a separate floating panel with graphs; on macOS the compact view window carries the control-panel buttons and the stream statistics instead. Audio has its own tell on Windows: a source's level indicator goes yellow past 75 dB and red past 85 dB, so a mic that crept up an hour ago is visible without opening anything.
Game Capture is the Windows source, and it supports DirectX 9, 10, 11 and 12 games. If the hook does not inject into a particular title, that source switches itself over to window capture rather than sitting there. Game capture sources have been saved inside the project since v10.7.11, so reopening yesterday's scene brings the game source back with it instead of making you add it again every session.
Plan on not doing it there. The Chat button in the Windows main window was disabled in v10.6.53 and no later entry brings it back; the macOS changelog has never described a chat panel at all. So chat stays in your browser or your usual client while the desktop app handles video and audio. The pooled, every-platform-in-one-feed version lives in the SplitCam apps for iOS and Android.
Recording to file runs alongside the broadcast, and on Windows the file has been written in fragmented MP4 since v10.8.25 — a format picked so that what is already on disk survives a crash instead of ending up an unplayable container. There has been no bitrate ceiling on recording since v10.5.92, so the local copy is not pegged to what you were sending the platform. On macOS, v1.23 records the vertical and horizontal scenes to file at once. Version by version in the changelog.
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