Twitch is officially rolling out its new TikTok-style discovery stream to all users this week, the company announced Tuesday. The new stream, which launches as a tab within the Twitch iOS and Android apps, allows viewers to scroll through pieces of content to discover new streamers. The official launch follows Twitch’s previous streaming tests that began in August 2023.
With this launch, Twitch now joins several other popular apps that have launched their own short-form video streams following TikTok’s rise in popularity, including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Uber Eats and LinkedIn to we mention a few.
There are two tabs in the stream: a live stream and a clip stream. The “live” stream shows live streams from both streamers that users already follow and streamers that Twitch thinks they would like. The “clips” stream showcases highlights from streamers across Twitch, allowing viewers to discover content from streamers even when they’re not live.
While people usually go to Twitch when they have enough time to watch a live stream, the new clip stream is designed for moments when users only have a few minutes to spare.
To further personalize what you see in the stream, you can click the thumbs or thumbs button on a live stream or clip to indicate the type of content you want to see more or less of.
The arrival of the new stream comes as Twitch streamers have long called for the company to introduce new features to help them reach new audiences. Since Twitch is not a fully algorithmic platform like TikTok, Twitch streamers have not had many ways to attract new viewers other than promoting themselves on other platforms or partnering with other streamers. With this new discovery feed, small and medium streamers have the ability to reach new audiences.
Twitch says all live streams and clips are automatically eligible to appear on the stream if they meet the platform’s content guidelines. While streamers cannot directly upload content to the spot stream, Twitch encourages them to create and post clips of their content for a chance to be featured in the stream.
