This weekend in Rotterdam, Twitch held its famous TwitchCon. The event, which attracted hundreds of creators and thousands of European viewers, unveiled numerous new features on the opening night. While some of these are aimed at technical improvements, others could profoundly change the way creators produce their content, as well as how viewers consume it. Among the dozen announcements, three stand out for their importance for the platform's users.
The arrival of rewind
This may be the addition viewers have been waiting for for years without knowing it (just kidding, we knew it only too well). As expected, Twitch will introduce a rewind feature, which will allow you to go back a few minutes in a live stream to catch up on a missed sequence, before returning to the live stream seamlessly.
This feature has already been available on YouTube for several years, so Twitch is making up for lost time in this area. It brings Twitch closer to an on-demand viewing experience, while retaining the live aspect. It will be tested this summer with a small group of users in the coming months before a wider rollout.
The dual broadcast format is finally available
Last year, Twitch announced the complete overhaul of its mobile app for a more intuitive user experience. The latter is used by many viewers, but does not have the best configuration in portrait format. That's why the company is testing a new way to stream starting this summer. Creators will be able to broadcast horizontally and vertically simultaneously, with a version optimized for smartphone screens.
Content will thus be intelligently resized according to the viewer's screen, without loss of information or interaction. This innovation not only improves visual comfort, it redefines the way to design a stream. For Twitch, it's a way to stay in the race by responding to rapidly evolving uses, particularly among young audiences.
Becoming an affiliate will be much simpler
The last major change is that Twitch is fundamentally reviewing the criteria for becoming an Affiliate. Concretely, it will now be simpler and faster for creators at the beginning of their journey to access this status, which allows them to monetize their streams through subscriptions, bits, or ads. To qualify, you had to reach the number of 50 followers and a limit of streaming hours per week. Now, all platform users can start talking about money. Twitch explains:
This repositioning marks a strategic shift. Where Twitch was often criticized for favoring large channels, the platform sends a strong signal to small and medium-sized creators. Encouraging more people to take the plunge into streaming, and offering them concrete prospects for progression, could give a second life to the platform most used by live content creators.
Many more new features to come
Many other features have been announced: enriched clips, an improved portrait mode, support for the Arabic language, new tools for moderators, as well as a dedicated Discord server. All TwitchCon announcements can be found on the Amazon subsidiary's website (in English).
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