by Colin Kirkland
Source: www.mediapost.com, August 2024
After losing significant market share to competing gaming livestreaming platforms in the second quarter, Twitch is focused on expanding its social sharing features.
The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform is rolling out video stories — similar to Instagram’s popular Stories feature — in an effort to maintain more social output on the app.
Per Twitch’s announcement, streamers on the platform are now able to record videos up to a minute long directly in the Twitch mobile app, or upload a video from their camera roll to the web version — a first for the platform.
Streamers can also pinch the screen to resize the video, add text with @mentions, and include emote stickers — features similar to Instagram’s.
Followers will then be able to watch their favorite creators’ social feeds in a way they would on leading social-media apps like Instagram and TikTok. However, by launching short-form video highlights in the Twitch app itself, the company may retain more user engagement, and in return, see more ad revenue.
By facilitating a new promotional and engagement tool that is popular on other social platforms, Twitch also hopes to help streamers reach audiences on the go and better connect with their viewers.
Twitch’s video stories allow streamers to ask questions on video, inviting their viewers to take a poll in response via the Reactions option.
Streamers can also utilize the feature as a way to create ongoing highlight reels from their recorded gaming sessions, with the option to share clips for those who may have missed them.
In addition, Twitch suggests streamers can post time-sensitive updates about schedule changes, upcoming guest streams or personal brand events.
The update comes after Twitch launched photo and text stories on the mobile app last October — which stay live for 48 hours.
In a blog post, the company says eligible streamers now have the ability to choose how long their story posts stay up — either 1, 12, 24, or 48 hours.
Right now, video story access is rolling out to all eligible streamers by the end of the week.
Twitch says it is working on more tools, including interaction and story resharing options, and will soon release more details on eligibility and content guidelines.
