Remember Stories? That feature that everyone stopped using when TikTok launched? Well, get ready, y’all — Twitch is bringing Stories back.
In a blog post, the company announced that it is rolling out Stories to its mobile app on iOS and Android starting today. Eduardo Fenili, a senior product manager at the company, said that the company is adding the feature as a way for creators to further engage with their community directly inside of the Twitch app rather than having to go out to other platforms.
Fenili said, “we’ve heard from you that trying to connect with them through multiple services limits your reach and can feel rather disconnected from your shared experiences on Twitch.” Stories can be created using the Twitch app and will expire in 48 hours — the usual fare for a feature that has existed on other social media platforms for years now.
According to Twitch, access at launch will be limited to streamers who are either a Partner or Affiliate with the company. The feature is launching today and will be available to all users under the Following page in the app.
Starting today, all Twitch users with the latest version of the app installed will see the new stories shelf at the top of the Following page. Creating stories is currently limited to Partners & Affiliates who have had at least one stream in the last 30 days. Access to eligible streamers will roll out gradually by the end of the week and on an ongoing basis as streamers meet the minimum eligibility requirements. We may extend creation access to more streamers as we test the safety measures we have in place.
Creators are going to get a lot of features when creating a story. According to the company, creators will be able to share “photos, clips, or freeform content using text, custom channel emotes, and backgrounds” in their Stories. In addition, creators with at least 30 subscribers will be able to create Stories that are exclusive to those who subscribe to their channel, setting up another way for creators to monetize their content and charge viewers for access.
Twitch says, “Push notifications will alert your followers when you’ve created a new story, and we’ve added stories-specific notification settings so your viewers can control how often they are notified. We’re initially launching stories to expire after 48 hours because we want to give your followers more time to see each unique post.” The company also says that, over the coming months, it will be building out the feature, adding the ability to “find your story through your Channel page, mentions of other Twitch users, creating polls, uploading videos, clip editing capabilities, and more.”
It’s interesting to see Twitch release a Stories feature in 2023. Other companies like YouTube and Instagram have both pivoted away from the feature in place of their own versions of TikTok — meaning short-form videos. Instagram still has Stories but has focused its app greatly on Reels — its TikTok knockoff. YouTube has gone all-in on Shorts — its own TikTok clone — and completely killed Stories on its app.
We’ll have to wait and see if Stories picks up on Twitch. If so, it could be a way to get more people on the app more frequently — something that I’m sure Twitch would like.
