Twitch Announces Chat Cues, Elevated Chat & Shoutout Features
Source: Twitch
Things haven’t been going too well for Twitch lately. A series of moves made by the streaming platform have caused a stir among creators. However, this didn't stop Twitch from announcing several new features at the end of September.
Chat Cues
Twitch is experimenting with Chat Cues, a set of new features to help creators to maximize viewer engagement. The first feature is Follow Cues. When creators are live, and the percentage of their audience who aren’t following them is higher than usual for their channel, they will receive a notification reminding them to tell their viewers to follow them.
Chat Cues empower creators with prompts to take action based on real-time data. Many streamers juggle multiple things when they are live, which can cause them to miss opportunities to engage more deeply with their audience or, in this case, convert viewers into subscribers.
Elevated Chat
Another experiment is Elevated Chat, a feature similar to YouTube’s Super Chat. Through Elevated Chat, viewers can support streamers by making a one-time payment to elevate their message in chat. They can choose from five monetary support tiers, ranging from $5 to $100, to have their message elevated from 30 seconds to 2 minutes and 30 seconds. After taxes and fees, streamers will receive a 70/30 split of purchased Elevated Chats.
Viewers and creators can extend their relationship with the feature. Viewers can show their support and appreciation for their favorite streamers while getting their message amplified in front of others watching the stream. Creators gain a new source of revenue with a creator-friendly revenue split.
Shoutout
Lastly, Twitch is rolling out a Shoutout command. Creators and moderators can promote another channel to viewers and share a follow button in their chat.
Through Shoutout, creators can give back to the creator community by encouraging their viewers to follow other creators. A potential replacement for the popular Host Mode that was recently sunsetted, Shoutout arrives as more platforms build native features for creators to collaborate and support each other. Other examples include Instagram’s Collabs and, more recently, Facebook’s Creator Endorsement.
A Rocky 2022 For Twitch
So far, Twitch has had an eventful year. Unfortunately, as soon as it makes valuable moves for creators such as these new experiments, it undoes the progress with decisions that go against creators' wishes shortly after.
Twitch isn't the first and won't be the last platform to receive continued backlash from creators. With competitors like YouTube seemingly placing a high value on feedback and opinions from creators, if Twitch continues down this path, it could negatively impact its long-term relationship with creators and overall success.
