TwitchCon San Diego is taking place this weekend and as always, the platform had some news to announce during the opening ceremony. Among other things, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy said that the service will provide more clarity to streamers and viewers who violate the rules about why their accounts were banned.
Soon, Twitch will share any chat snippets that resulted in a ban with the user in question via email and the appeals portal. Eventually, this will expand to include clips, so streamers can see how they violated the rules in a livestream or VOD. “We want to give you this information so you can see what you did, what policies were violated, and if you feel our decision was wrong, you can appeal,” Twitch wrote in a blog post.
The service also recognizes that permanent strikes on an account can pose a problem for long-time streamers who may be banned for a minor slip-up. To that end, Twitch is implementing a strike expiration policy starting in early 2025. “Low-severity strikes will no longer threaten streamers’ livelihoods, but we will continue to enforce the rules for high-severity violations,” Twitch said. “We’re also providing more transparency by showing you exactly what led to a strike.”
As for broadcasting, viewers of streamers using Twitch’s Enhanced Broadcasting feature will be able to watch streams in 2K starting early next year. This option will initially be available in select regions, but Twitch plans to expand it to other regions throughout 2025. Also notable is that Clancy said that “we’re working on 4K.”
Also starting in 2025, Enhanced Broadcasting users will be able to stream videos in both portrait and landscape formats simultaneously. The idea behind this is to provide viewers with an optimal experience depending on which device they use to watch the streams.
Additionally, Twitch is planning some improvements to navigation in its revamped mobile app, such as accessing the channels you follow with a single swipe and prioritizing audio from the picture-in-picture player. Streamers will have access to a feature called Clip Carousel, which highlights the best clips from their latest stream and makes sharing easier on desktop and mobile. The platform says it will also be easier for viewers to create clips on mobile.
Additionally, Twitch will be rolling out a shared chat option in the Stream Together feature next week, allowing up to six creators who stream together to merge their chats. Streamer moderators will be able to moderate all messages in a shared chat and time-block or ban anyone who crosses a boundary. Creators participating in a Stream Together session can also disable shared chat for their own community.
Last but not least, Twitch will be expanding its Unity Guilds and Creator Clubs. The idea behind both is to help streamers connect, learn from each other, and grow with the help of Twitch staff. In the last year, Twitch opened the Black Guild, the Women’s Guild, and the Hispanic and Latin Guild, and just announced a Pride Guild for the LGBTQIA+ community. All four guilds will expand next year to include members from around the world.
Creator Clubs are a new thing Twitch introduced last month for the DJ and IRL categories. Twitch says engagement has been higher than expected, with four more Creator Clubs coming soon for the Artist/Maker, Music, VTuber, and Coworking/Coding categories.
