After years of complaints from its creators about the lack of growth opportunities for smaller streamers, Twitch is finally rolling out a Discovery Feed. This feature, along with several others, is part of the company’s effort to support short-form video content on the platform.
The Discovery Feed: A New Way to Discover Content
The Discovery Feed will be a scrollable vertical feed in the Twitch app that serves users clips from creators’ streams even when they’re not live. Unlike TikTok and other short-form video platforms, Twitch has made it clear that it’s not prioritizing bite-sized content over streaming.
"We’re not trying to get viewers to spend hours in a Clips feed," said a Twitch spokesperson in a blog post. "Our investment in Clips is to help viewers discover your channel so they join you and your community when you stream."
The Discovery Feed will launch in the fall, with limited versions of the feature being tested before its official release.
New Editing Features for Short-Form Video
In addition to the Discovery Feed, Twitch is also introducing new editing features that allow creators to natively edit clips from their streams into a vertical format. This means that creators can now easily share content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts without having to leave the Twitch app.
Twitch will now support direct exports to YouTube, starting in August, and users will be able to directly export clips to TikTok. The clip editor will also be available on mobile devices, making it easier for creators to edit their clips on-the-go.
Sharing Content with Minimal Effort
According to Twitch, the ability to share content with minimal effort is a "win" for all streamers. With these new features, creators can easily share their clips and other short-form video content without having to spend hours editing and publishing it.
Stories: A New Way to Engage with Viewers
Like nearly every other major social platform, Twitch is launching stories in October. Stories will appear on the Following page of the Twitch mobile app, and creators can set their stories to be publicly viewable or exclusive to paying subscribers.
According to Twitch, the stories format will include ephemeral clips, pictures, text updates, and polls. The company also emphasized that stories must adhere to Twitch’s Community Guidelines and will be moderated by automated "text and image scanning technology."
Reaching All Viewers with Stories
What’s exciting about Twitch stories is the ability to reach all viewers or share content exclusively with paying subscribers, said a Twitch spokesperson.
"The stories format is well understood," said the spokesperson. "But what’s exciting about Twitch stories is your ability to reach all your Twitch followers or to share with subscribers only."
Ad Breaks: A New Approach
Twitch is also shifting its approach to ad breaks, which have been a point of contention between the platform and its users. Starting this month, streamers will be able to turn on a chat countdown timer to get more warning before ads interrupt their content.
This feature allows streamers to "snooze or pull ahead" during ad breaks, giving them more control over when they’re interrupted by ads.
Guest Star: Collaborating with Other Streamers
Under Guest Star, the feature that allows streamers to collaborate with each other, creators will be able to invite guests onto their channels and stream simultaneously. The "streaming together" feature will begin rolling out for a select number of channels in August and will allow streamers to collaborate on live streams.
Conclusion
Twitch’s new features are designed to support short-form video content and provide more opportunities for creators to share their content with viewers. With the Discovery Feed, new editing features, stories, and ad breaks, Twitch is taking a major step forward in its efforts to compete with other social platforms.
As the platform continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these new features impact the community of streamers and viewers on Twitch.
