• by Colin Kirkland , July 11, 2023

At its recent event in Paris, livestreaming app Twitch announced several new features highlighting its push into short-form video — including a TikTok-like Discovery Feed that will host stories resembling those on most leading social media platforms. 

To assist creators who have long awaited a way to reach their users when they’re not livestreaming, Twitch is introducing clips taken from creators’ streams in a personalized, scrollable feed. 

“One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we get is that you want help growing even when you’re not live,” Twitch wrote in a blog post addressing creators. The platform’s answer is a vertical scrollable feed that shows users a personalized mix of Clips whether a streamer is live or not. 

“Because Twitch is all about live, interactive channels, it’s not our goal for viewers to spend hours in a Clips feed,” Twitch explained. “Our investment in Clips is to help viewers discover your channel so they join you and your community when you stream.” 

The platform says it will launch the Discovery Feed later this fall, but until then will be running experiments “to help test and improve our algorithms and the overall experience.” 

In addition to the feed, Twitch is launching several new editing features that aim to help streamers post their content onto social sites “with minimal effort,” such as trimming functionality and the ability to grant access to video editors. 

The platform is also bringing the Clip Editor to mobile and, in August, will allow streamers to directly export content to TikTok. 

The stories format –– first made popular by Snapchat, then Instagram and Facebook –– is set to launch on Twitch in October. Stories will exist on the Following page of the Twitch mobile app, where they’ll be subject to the company’s Community Guidelines and automated safety systems. 

Creators will be able to set their stories to be viewable by anyone following them, or exclusive to paying subscribers –– abilities that sets the feature apart from other leading apps’, according to Twitch. 

Finally, Twitch announced that later this month, creators will have more control over when ad breaks play during their streams. 

Building off the current ad countdown timer in the app’s dashboard, Twitch will now show streamers when an ad is coming up, with the added option to accept or “snooze” the ad break. 

The update comes shortly after Twitch experienced widespread backlash from its creator community after announcing restrictive changes to its branded content guidelines that many felt would hinder their ability to monetize original content and land brand deals. The platform has since revoked the controversial ad policy.