As TwitchCon Las Vegas approaches, Twitch is stepping up its game by unveiling a ‘stories’ feature, aiming to bridge the gap between streamers and their audience even when not broadcasting live.
If you’re a Partner or Affiliate on Twitch, and you’ve managed a live stream for at least 45 minutes in the past month, you’re in luck. You qualify to post stories that will be accessible to all your followers and subscribers via the Twitch mobile app. What sets Twitch’s stories apart from those of platforms like Instagram or Snapchat is their shelf life. Instead of disappearing after a day, these stories stick around for a full 48 hours. Moreover, streamers boasting 30 or more subscribers have the special privilege of posting subscriber-exclusive stories. Twitch aims to make this feature available to qualifying streamers over the course of this week.
Eduardo Fenili, Twitch’s Senior Product Manager, shared his insights on this novel addition in a recent blog post. He pointed out the obvious: many Twitch streamers have audiences spread across different platforms. “Juggling multiple platforms to stay connected with your Twitch community can be cumbersome,” Fenili remarked. This new stories feature promises a more cohesive way to engage with fans right on Twitch, negating the need to hop onto other social platforms to share updates or notify followers about potential delays. To ensure followers never miss a story, they can activate push notifications for alerts whenever their beloved streamers share something new.
What can streamers post? Beyond photos and text-based updates, Twitch is also allowing the inclusion of clips—either from the streamer’s own channel or from elsewhere on Twitch. As for interactions, viewers get the ability to respond using their favorite Twitch emotes. For the streamers, a dashboard showing view and reaction metrics will help gauge which content truly clicks with their audience.
But Fenili also emphasized the lighter side of things: “Your stories can be casual. Want to ignite a lively debate among your followers about the top-tier cereals? Share a photo of your breakfast and let the conversation begin. Encourage interaction with emote reactions. Maybe even carry that cereal debate over to your next live stream.” In essence, it’s all about fostering and enhancing those connections anytime, anywhere.
Safety and content quality are paramount. To ensure this, Twitch has implemented automated measures that screen the content for any potential violations. All stories are subject to Twitch’s Community Guidelines. Plus, the platform provides its users with the ability to report any content that might breach its safety norms.
This is only the beginning. Twitch has grand plans for its stories, hinting at new features in the pipeline. Think polls, the ability to tag fellow streamers, and even editing tools. Earlier in TwitchCon Paris, the platform showcased a plethora of new tools. Over the past few months, features like the discovery feed and robust anti-harassment measures have been steadily integrated into the platform, showcasing Twitch’s commitment to evolution and user satisfaction.
