Twitch Launches Video Stories to Compete with Instagram

Twitch is expanding its storytelling capabilities by rolling out a new video stories feature, complementing the photo and text stories introduced last year. Now, streamers can create and upload 60-second videos either directly via the Twitch mobile app or from their camera roll. This is prepared by SSP.

This new feature aims to help streamers engage with their audience while they’re away from their streaming setups. Historically, streamers have used platforms like Instagram Stories and TikTok for short-form, behind-the-scenes content, but Twitch wants to bring this type of engagement to its own platform as well.

The concept of "stories" became popular over a decade ago with Snapchat and has since been adopted by nearly every major social media and messaging platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Telegram, and multiple smaller startups.

Besides helping streamers reach their audience while on the move, Twitch sees its video stories as a tool for strengthening the connection between streamers and viewers. Streamers can pose questions via video and invite viewers to participate in polls, or use the @mentions feature to create personalized content highlighting new subscribers. They can also use video stories to share clips and highlights from recent streams, announce upcoming streams, and notify users of schedule changes.

Twitch hopes this will reduce the need for streamers to use other social media platforms like Instagram to engage with their audience and keep them updated about their streams and daily activities. However, it’s unlikely that top creators will rely solely on one platform.

Although text and photo stories were initially available only on the mobile app, Twitch has now made all types of stories accessible through the web app too. According to the company, this decision was made because most users spend the majority of their time on Twitch via the web.

In conclusion, Twitch’s new feature aims to bring more interaction and engagement to its platform, offering streamers multifaceted ways to connect with their audience without relying on external social media platforms.