Twitch's revised mobile app will arrive this summer
The key announcements from the TwitchCon Europe opening ceremony.
A new, redesigned version of the Twitch mobile app will arrive this summer, as announced by CEO Dan Clancy at this year's TwitchCon Europe event.
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 at TwitchCon Europe's opening ceremony, along with other new features like Creator Clubs and Enhanced Broadcasting.
Mobile is a key area of focus for Twitch: 70 percent of new viewers start watching Twitch on mobile, so the aim is to make it easier for these viewers to find streams for shorter, more frequent visits. What's more, 50 percent of all users are primarily using the mobile app (as well as desktop), while 40 percent are exclusively on the mobile app.
The Discovery Feed, first announced at last year's TwitchCon Europe, is the main landing page of the app and allows viewers to find new streamers to watch based on recommendations through viewer settings and habits.
Eurogamer spoke with VP of product, community products Jeremy Forrester to discuss further the importance of mobile for the streaming platform.
"I think our mobile experience just hasn't been invested in heavily in a long time," said Forrester. "The previous experience works really well, for people who have been on Twitch a long time...but we're really trying to strike that balance between helping streamers get discovered, helping new viewers find content, and really get engaged with communities, while at the same time still trying to make it as easy as possible for people that have been on Twitch a long time and use the app a lot to be able to get back to the channels they follow and go back to the creators that they know and love."
The Discovery Feed has been put at the forefront of the app to alleviate the current back and forth required to enter and view streams. Now streams can be viewed directly in the feed, or easily scrolled by, as well as easy to find follower lists, clips, and more.
However, the goal of the feed is not to simply scroll - this isn't aiming to compete with Instagram or TikTok, for instance. "The goal of the feed is to get you to a channel page," said Forrester. "We don't want you to just be swiping forever, that's not our purpose. Our goal is to really find you something to watch, find you the thing that you're looking for, get you into that channel page, so you can engage with the creator and hopefully, ultimately become part of their community, because that's really where everyone wins."
While it's too early to see the impact of the Discovery Feed since last year, Twitch has experimented and evolved the feature and will continue to listen to user feedback to introduce, for instance, the ability to mute videos or not autoplay. Forrester believes "signals are good" that the feed is working as intended to engage with new users.
Elsewhere at the opening ceremony, Clancy announced the introduction of Creator Clubs to assist creators in finding communities of like-minded streamers. These are modelled around the 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-form posts; optimising the creation of clips with an automatic portrait view designed for mobile viewing; and a new "drop-in" feature for Stream Together to allow streamers to collaborate easily, with setup options to dictate who can collaborate and built-in support for custom layouts.
Clancy also reiterated the platform's new DJ Programme, in partnership with major record labels, to allow DJs to stream popular music on the platform, as well as its new Power-ups feature that allows viewers to use Bits for enhanced features. So far, 25 percent more users have used Bits since its launch.
Lastly, Enhanced Broadcasting is now available for all streamers in the OBS Studio, providing streamers with more control over the video quality of their streams and paves the way for better technology for all.
Twitch has two TwitchCon events each year in Europe and the US, to celebrate its community of streamers and viewers. The opening ceremony is used to celebrate the top streamers in Europe, with a new Streamer Achievement Programme offering trophies to the most engaged users - those who "bleed purple".
However, headlines recently have been dominated by streamer Dr Disrespect admitting to messaging a minor before his ban from Twitch back in 2020. The streamer reportedly sent explicit messages to a minor even once their age was known.