Hello! If you attended Twitchcon, I hope you had a great time! I'm sure you're feeling a range of emotions right now. There's nothing quite like the post-Twitchcon high (and slight post-con depression) that comes from meeting your community and making new friends, mixed with all the walking, food/drink choices, and late nights. Take that feeling and use it to power through to year-end! If you weren't there, and you've been running on FOMO all weekend, start planning to be at the next one! (The dates are listed below!)
In either case, through the ups and downs of the last year, Twitchcon continues to offer the best reminder about what makes this space unique, worthwhile, and valuable: the community. All the rest falls to the wayside when people get together, and that's true both in person and digitally through chat. There's nothing quite like the streaming community! In any case, you're not here for me to glaze you all this much, so let's get into the news!
Twitchcon News
- Twitch announced that Channel Strikes will expire over time. The expiry timer will be displayed on a new Appeals Dashboard.
- Twitch will soon provide an excerpt of the chat message, a clip of the infraction, or other information to explain a suspension.
- A new Single Tap Bits system is coming to both mobile and desktop. It effectively takes the idea of TikTok LIVE Gifts and brings it to Twitch. This is what it will look like in the mobile app.
- Vtubers, Music, Coworking/Coders, and Artists/Makers are getting their own Creator Club. You can apply here (tell them I referred you!)
- The Women, Latin, Black, and Pride Unity Guilds are going global, allowing Affiliates and Partners worldwide to apply.
- Twitchcon Rotterdam 2025 will be from May 31 to June 1st.
- Twitchcon San Diego 2025 will be from October 17th to 19th.
- There are new global emotes TWITH, GRASSLORD, and 4KLimon.
- This year's Twitchcon Community Gift included a plastic bag, an acne cleanser sample, and joystick covers. The Twitchcon's Partner gift was white sunglasses and a Partner visor, while affiliates received purple sunglasses.
- Next year, Enhanced Broadcasting will offer streaming at 1440p at an 8000 bitrate to all creators and launch Vertical Streaming, allowing you to send a vertical feed to mobile and a widescreen feed to desktop.
- A Twitch-organized Streamer Tools Hackathon aims to see developers make tools for community experiences and stream appearance improvements.
- Clip Editor improvements are coming to the mobile app.
- After every stream, a new Top Clips Carousel will help you determine which ones to post to YouTube or TikTok.
- Shared Chat will launch soon as part of Guest Star. This is how moderation works during those sessions if you use it. Twitch says next year, you won't need to use Guest Star to use Shared Chat. THANK GOD!
- Twitch launched a YouTube channel.
- There WAS an issue with payments last week, which was blamed on their payment processor. It has since been rectified.
- Twitchcon was protested for its primary event sponsor, Chevron.
- GameMaker has introduced an extension to connect to Twitch, allowing game developers to integrate subs, bits, channel points, predictions, raids, and more into their games.
With all the renewed energy and inspiration coming out of Twitchcon, it's the perfect time to grow your business as a creator! There's no better way to do that than with Fourthwall! You can create your own memberships with a 95% split or set up your own merch store. Best of all, with features like Community Gifting and a personalized app, everyone can be involved! That's really just scratching the surface! Check out Fourthwall and get a $15 sample credit just for signing up!*
*This is an ad.
YouTube News
- Hype is a new feature coming to YouTube that aims to help creators find new viewers. Viewers can Hype a video within its first seven days, which gives it points to put it into a "Hype Leaderboard." Smaller creators get a bonus multiplier. You can learn more here.
- YouTube vertical streams (in the US, at first) are getting a new monetized feature called Gifts payable with Jewels. Functionally, it looks like a copy of TikTok's Gift & Coin system. Wild! Twitch and YouTube announced (functionally) the same feature within two days of each other!
- Creators and their followers are getting a new Communities experience in the coming months on YouTube.
- Auto-Dubbing will be available to more creators on YouTube in the coming months. Creators can opt to have videos automatically translated and dubbed into various languages. The feature is a spin-off of Aloud.
- YouTube is testing the ability to fix community guideline violations on videos and then reinstate the video without restrictions.
- YouTube is revamping the Inspiration tab with suggestions for content, titles, thumbnails, and more.
- Pausing a video on YouTube will get ads on the screen soon.
