TwitchCon San Diego is taking place this weekend, and as always, the platform has some news to share during the opening ceremony. For one thing, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said the service will provide broadcasters and viewers who violate the rules with more clarity on why their accounts have been suspended.
Soon, Twitch will share an excerpt of any conversation that led to a suspension with the user in question via email and an appeals portal. Eventually, this will expand to clips, so broadcasters can see how they’re breaking the rules live or on VOD. “We want to give you this information so you can see what you’re doing, what policies are being violated, and if you think our decision is wrong, you can complain.” Twitch wrote in a blog post.
The service also knows that constant account alerts can be problematic for longtime broadcasters. To that end, Twitch is implementing an end-of-holiday policy beginning in early 2025. “Low severity strikes will no longer put broadcasters’ livelihoods at risk, but we will still enforce the rules for major breaches” Twitch said. “Additionally, we’re adding more transparency by showing you what caused the strike.”
On the streaming front, viewers of streamers using Twitch Advanced Broadcasting the feature will be able to watch broadcasts in 2K from early next year. This option will initially be available in select regions, with Twitch planning to expand it to other locations throughout 2025. Also note that Clancy said, “We’re working on 4K.”
Coming in 2025, it’s also an option for those using Advanced Broadcast to stream vertical and landscape videos. The idea here is to offer viewers an optimal experience based on which device they are using to watch the streams.
Elsewhere, Twitch is planning some improvements to navigation in its overhauled mobile app, such as one-swipe access to your watched channels and a preference for audio over a picture-in-picture player. Broadcasters will highlight the best clips from their latest broadcasts and gain access to a feature called Clip Carousel, which makes it easy to share them across desktop and mobile devices. The platform says it will be easier for viewers to create clips on mobile devices as well.
In addition, next week Twitch will introduce a shared chat option in the “Broadcast Together” feature, which will allow up to six creators who stream together to merge their chats. Streamers’ mods will be able to manage all messages in a shared chat and ban anyone who crosses a timeout or line. Creators joining a Broadcast session can disable Shared Chat for their community.
Finally, Twitch will expand Community Guilds and Creator Clubs. The idea behind both is to help streamers build relationships, learn from each other, and grow with the help of Twitch staff. Over the past year, Twitch has launched a Black Guild, a Women’s Guild, and a Hispanic and Latino Guild, and just announced a Pride Guild for the LGBTQIA+ community. All four guilds will expand next year to accept members from around the world.
Creative Clubs is a newer thing that Twitch debuted last month for the DJ and IRL categories. Twitch said engagement was higher than expected. Four more Creative Clubs will come soon For Artists/Creators, Music, VTubers and Coworking/Coding categories.
