CEO Dan Clancy announced at this year’s TwitchCon Europe event that a new, revamped version of the Twitch mobile app would be released this summer.
The redesigned app was first announced by Clancy in an open letter in March, detailing the company’s plans for 2024.
The new app was shown off at the opening ceremony of TwitchCon Europe, along with other new features such as Creator Clubs and Enhanced Broadcasting.
Mobile is a key focus area for Twitch: 70 percent of new viewers start watching Twitch on mobile, so the goal is to make it easier for these viewers to find streams for shorter, more frequent visits. Additionally, 50 percent of all users primarily use the mobile app (and desktop), while 40 percent use the mobile app exclusively.
First announced at TwitchCon Europe last year, the Discovery Feed is the app’s main landing page and allows viewers to find new streamers to watch based on recommendations through viewer settings and habits.
Eurogamer spoke with VP Product, Community Products Jeremy Forrester to further discuss the importance of mobile to the streaming platform.
“I don’t think there’s been a heavy investment in our mobile experience in quite some time,” Forrester said. “The previous experience works really well, for people who have been on Twitch for a long time… but we’re really trying to find that balance between helping streamers get discovered, helping new viewers find content, and really engage with communities, while still trying to make it as easy as possible for people who have been on Twitch for a long time and are using the app a lot to be able to go back to the channels that they follow and go back to the creators that they know and love.”
The Discovery Feed has been moved to the front of the app to alleviate the current back and forth required to enter and view streams. Streams can now be viewed directly in the feed, or easily scrolled through, and follower lists, clips, and more are easy to find.
The goal of the feed, however, isn’t to simply scroll; it’s not meant to compete with, say, Instagram or TikTok. “The goal of the feed is to drive you to a channel page,” Forrester says. “We don’t want you to be swiping all the time, that’s not our goal. Our goal is to actually find you something to watch, to find you what you’re looking for, to get you to that channel page so you can engage with the creator and hopefully ultimately become part of their community, because that’s really where everybody wins.”
While it’s still too early to see the impact of the Discovery Feed since last year, Twitch has been experimenting and developing the feature and will continue to listen to user feedback, such as introducing the ability to mute videos or disable autoplay. Forrester believes “signals are good” that the feed is working as intended to engage new users.
Elsewhere at the opening ceremony, Clancy announced the introduction of Creator Clubs to help creators find communities of like-minded streamers. These are modeled after existing Guilds (Twitch recently launched a Pride Guild in the US, for example), with two clubs launching first for DJs and IRL streamers.
Other new features include access to Stories on the mobile app for Affiliates later this summer to create short posts; optimize clip creation with an automatic portrait view designed for mobile viewing; and a new “drop-in” feature for Stream Together that makes it easy for streamers to collaborate, with setting options to control who can collaborate and built-in support for custom layouts.
Clancy also reiterated the platform’s new DJ program, in partnership with major record labels, to allow DJs to stream popular music on the platform, as well as the new Power-ups feature that allows viewers to use Bits for enhanced features. So far, 25 percent more users have used Bits since launch.
Finally, Enhanced Broadcasting is now available to all streamers in OBS Studio, giving streamers more control over the video quality of their streams and paving the way for better technology for everyone.
Twitch has two TwitchCon events each year in Europe and the US to celebrate its community of streamers and viewers. The opening ceremony will be used to celebrate the best streamers in Europe, with a new Streamer Achievement Program offering trophies to the most engaged users – those who “bleed purple”.
However, headlines have recently been dominated by streamer Dr. Disrespect admitting to messaging a minor before he was banned from Twitch in 2020. The streamer allegedly sent explicit messages to a minor even after their age was known.