Twitch Is Dropping a Beloved Feature for Viewers and Streamers

Twitch is dropping one of its most beloved features, but the reasoning does make some sense. Twitch is one of the most dominant platforms on the internet, even for non-gamers. Although it started as a place for people to stream their games and is still widely used for that very reason, it has become a general live streaming platform. Talk shows, game shows, movie watch parties, and more all help fill out the wide variety of streams available on the platform and as Twitch continues to grow, the platform is trying to find ways to highlight creators. One of the ways that Twitch previously supported this was by allowing streamers to host another creator, basically letting their viewers watch another stream without leaving their channel.

Twitch has decided to remove the hosting feature in order to allow streamers to grow their community better. The platform noted that hosting limits growth potential because they can't chat with people who are watching from another channel. As such, the chance to connect and build a community with new viewers via hosting is essentially impossible unless they come to the actual channel. Instead, Twitch will be encouraging more raids which directly redirects viewers to another stream or using a new feature called shoutout, which is scheduled to be available this month. The shoutout feature will let streamers put a follow button for another creator in their chat and also tell the chat when their next scheduled stream will be.

"Viewers want to interact with a streamer when they're live and host mode blocks this from happening," said Twitch with regards to removing hosting. "Preventing viewers from interacting with the streamer they're watching also limits a streamer's growth potential because they're not able to build meaningful connections with those new viewers."  

Whether or not this will make any noticeable difference remains to be seen, but at least it's adding new features to help make up for it. Twitch does appear to be using this to boost other creators, rather than doing it to create any kind of frustration. It's one of many changes Twitch has made in recent months following things like the ability for partners to stream on other platforms.

What do you think of Twitch removing hosting? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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