Slowly but surely, Twitch is expanding into content categories other than video games. In fact, Twitch’s mobile app has now been downloaded more than 83 million times, Tom Robertson, senior
director of product management at Twitch, said Thursday.
With a focus on content discovery, the app is getting a new look and some additional features, which are expected to roll out through
July.
“With this redesign, we’re ensuring that our amazing creators … are more discoverable than ever, both to their existing fans and those who have yet to find
them,” Robertson stated.
Twitch has named its new content recommendation and discovery feed Pulse.
With the changes, users should also find the app “more fun and
intuitive,” according to Robertson. Content creators can also now begin live broadcasting directly from a smartphone camera with mobile streaming.
Other new features include instant
content playlists, an inverted color scheme dubbed “Dark Mode,” and a section of featured streams popular among users of a specific region or language.
Live video apps are an
extremely competitive bunch, made up of established players like YouTube, newer entrants like Twitter’s Periscope, and lesser known upstarts.
At stake is a rapidly growing audience.
Indeed, nearly half of all online viewers are now watching some sort of live video at least once a week, according to a report
from Magid Advisors.
According to Magid, Facebook Live leads the sector with a 45% market share, followed by YouTube Live with 44%, Instagram with 28%, Twitter with 19%, Snapchat with 17% and
Twitch with 12%.
Amazon agreed to pay $970 million for Twitch back in the summer of 2014.