TwitchCon 2018 Keynote: Everything You Need to Know

Today we celebrated the streamers and fans that make Twitch unique at Day One of our fourth TwitchCon. We kicked off the morning in San Jose recapping the incredible accomplishments we were all a part of this year and shared our battle plan for how we’re playing support for streamers with new tools designed to help them grow, connect, and thrive.

We also announced the expansion of our esports program, Twitch Rivals, that will more than double in size in 2019 and introduced Twitch Sings, a new category of game built by Twitch with streaming in mind, that will enter closed beta this year.

More people are joining Twitch every day, and once they’re here, they experience what this community has known all along — that together you’ve created something new: Multiplayer Entertainment. You’re not just here for the show; you are the show.

At Twitch, streamers aren’t a sidequest. Making sure creators and their communities are succeeding more than ever is our main goal. Here’s a summary of what we announced today, and you can catch the VOD of the live stream here.

Grow

Whatever you stream, we’re making it easier for creators to get discovered.

• Squad Stream: Up to four creators will be able to stream together in a single view that viewers discover when they visit any one of their channels. Viewers can watch on desktop and mobile as well as easily follow and subscribe to all channels. Chat is linked to whichever channel a viewer selects as their main view, so they can hang out with their friends or jump over to another community with just a click or a tap. Select streamers will be testing out Squad Stream later this year.

• Highlight Editor updates: Highlight Editor will now allow streamers and editors to stitch together moments from across a video into a single highlight. Look for this update in January.

• New featured sections on the Twitch homepage: Starting later this year we’re rolling out a range of new featured sections like ones highlighting up-and-coming streamers, new Partners and Affiliates, or streamers local to the viewer.

Connect

We’re giving streamers more tools to build stronger communities and relationships with their viewers. Strong communities spread the word about their favorite streamers, support each other in times of need, and welcome new viewers into the fold. Those relationships are part of what makes Twitch so different.

• VIP Badges: Streamers will now be able to recognize valuable members of their community without requiring them to subscribe or moderate with VIP Badges. VIP members are recognized with a badge and can also chat in slow, sub-only, or follower-only modes. Creators earn 10 badges when they complete the “Build a Community” achievement by reaching 50 followers and 5 unique chatters in a stream and can earn up to 100 badges as their community grows. Look for this in a few weeks. (Update: VIP Badges are live as of Nov. 13)

• New moderator tools in chat: By clicking on someone’s username, mods will be able to see how long that person has been on Twitch and details on their activity in the channel, like chats, number of timeouts, or bans. The update also includes a new comment tool that lets mods work together by leaving notes for each other. These new tools arrive in January.

• Roles management page: Streamers will able to see and change their community members’ roles– from editors, to mods, to VIP from the new roles section on their dashboard. This is coming alongside VIP Badges in a few weeks. (Update: The Roles page is live as of Nov. 13)

• Subscription badges now show total number of months: We heard your feedback loud and clear that subscription badges need to reward consistent supporters, even if they miss a sub one month. Sub badges will now change to show the total number of months a viewer has been subscribed. If a viewer is on an amazing streak, they can still choose to share it when they re-subscribe. This update is coming in January.

• Extensions: As Extensions continue to grow on Twitch, we’re bringing you more ways to interact by teaming up with brands like Adobe, Tiltify, Spotify, as well as our friends at Amazon.

Today at TwitchCon, we showed off Snap Camera, Snap’s brand new standalone desktop app that works with a custom Extension built just for Twitch. Snap Camera lets you use Snapchat’s best Lenses live on your stream with your webcam. With the Snap Camera Extension, viewers can use Snapchat to scan the Snapcode on screen to try on the Lens and streamers can reward subs by activating a custom Lens of the streamer’s choosing when someone subscribes.

We also created custom Lenses for the Twitch community: like a purple, Super Saiyan power-up, for when you take chat’s energy; or a rain of bits to celebrate Cheers. Snap Camera is available now, you can learn more here. To learn more about all the new Extensions that launched at TwitchCon and Developer Day visit the Developer Blog.

Thrive

To make it easier for streamers to find sponsored opportunities that feel authentic and align with their communities’ interests we’re opening Bounty Board to 30 more brands starting in November. Partners and select affiliates in the U.S. and Canada will be able to use Bounty Board to earn even more, and coming in 2019 and we’ll open it to more affiliates and more countries beginning with the UK.

Twitch Sings

We’re just starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible when everyone wants to play together. There are many games and genres that are made better on Twitch, and we believe there’s an opportunity for a new category of game to emerge that’s made to be streamed, where the audience isn’t a ‘nice to have’ — they’re a crucial part of the game experience.

We knew karaoke would be the perfect place to start. It’s live. It’s always entertaining. And when it really gets going, the line between the crowd and the stage disappears completely.

With Twitch Sings, you can sing your heart out, share your performances across Twitch, or perform duets with your community. And being in the crowd is just as much fun as holding the mic — and just as important. In chat you can request songs, give your favorite streamers crazy challenges to tackle, and when you cheer you will see Bits will rain down on the crowd. We’re testing Twitch Sings on the expo floor at TwitchCon and soon with a handful of streamers live on Twitch in closed beta. We can’t wait to hear what you think and you can go here and register if you’re interested in trying it out. More of you will be invited as space opens up.