Twitch Is Testing 3 New Chat Features

By Tanner Dedmon

Twitch is holding one of its big TwitchCon events this week with the TwitchCon Amsterdam presentations and announcements still going on now, and through this event, we learned a bit more about some of Twitch's future plans for the streaming platform. Part of those plans include some new features – some of which have already been introduced to a degree – which aim to improve some aspects of the platform including how users are ablet to chat with one another.

During the opening ceremony of TwitchCon Amsterdam, Twitch CEO and co-founder Emmett Shear took the stage to talk about some of Twitch's plans. During part of that conversation, Shear spoke of features specifically related to the chat function on Twitch, the place where most viewers reside while they watch their favorite content creators. While the features were largely geared towards content creators themselves given that this is a TwitchCon event, they're still features that viewers will see affect them, too.

Some of those features may have already been seen as well. The ability to highlight notable chat messages and members like those who are chatting for the first time, are returning after a while away, or chats from subscribers and mentions was one feature Shear discussed. That feature was revealed initially in October 2021, and while it's still in testing, viewers may have seen it used in some streams already.

The second feature discussed was the ability to pin messages to the top of Twitch chat. The uses for this feature are varied and include pinning an inside joke or an informative message, Shear pointed out, and while this feature has also been in testing for a bit, Shear said the goal is to start rolling this out on a broader scale.

Finally, in a more viewer-focused feature, Twitch is looking to give an option for users to introduce themselves in chat and receive greetings – or whatever else might be thrown their way – from the users already in chat.

No specific release dates for the full release of these features were shared, so expect to see more on these from Twitch in the future before they're fully available across all streams.

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