Starting today, Beam.pro will be no more. Beam will now be known as "Mixer," or "Mixer.com," as Microsoft asserts its intentions to take on Amazon's Twitch.tv at a global level. The intent behind the Mixer brand is to emphasize the community aspects of the service across Xbox Live and Windows 10. Soon you will also be "mix" your stream with up to three friends, according to Microsoft, combining four feeds, and four chat channels into a single stream. But wait, that's not all!

Co-streaming, Xbox One dashboard page Leveraging Mixer's industry-leading low latency, co-streams utilizing Mixer's faster than light (FTL) stream protocol will display in near-real time to viewers, providing a brand new perspective on cooperative streaming. Naturally, the implications for collaborative play and eSports spectating is huge, and because Mixer is connected directly to Xbox Live and Windows 10, it gives Microsoft a unique opportunity to get a leg up on Twitch.

Additionally, Mixer will soon be directly integrated into the Xbox One dashboard, under a new page to the right of the home screen. Here, Microsoft will display content and coverage from across the service, whether it's popular and trending streamers, or eSports channels featuring Gears of War, Forza, and Halo. In the future, you should expect Xbox (and maybe even Windows and Surface) to begin using Mixer as the exclusive location of its future live streams. New apps for iOS and Android (and maybe Windows?) Mixer will also debut a new app, called "Mixer Create," which is the service's take on mobile screen streaming and live feed streaming. Users will be able to stream their camera directly to Mixer, similar to Twitter's Periscope service, broadcasting live across Xbox, the respective Mixer apps, and the Mixer website. It will also leverage Mixer's FTL codec, making it far faster than competing services. We asked about the possibility of Mixer Create hitting Windows 10 phones in the future, but as you might expect, it's not in the company's immediate plans. Xbox is going where the users are first, which sadly, isn't Windows 10 Mobile. E3 2017 and the future Co-streaming might require FTL, but Beam told us that the upload speed needed to achieve FTL is decreasing all the time. The service is activating new servers on a routine basis, as demand swells from users across Windows 10 and Xbox Live. (Let's not forget that Project Scorpio will also support native 4K streaming.)