Twitch Introduces Friends List Feature To Select Users: Here's What To Expect

At the Twitch Town Hall in the first day of PAX East, the video game streaming service announced that it is launching the Friends List feature soon.

The feature will allow Twitch users to connect with the other users on their Friends List as they will be able to see who is online. Sending a message to friends who are online can be done through a single click, and users can add up to 500 other users on their Friends List.

Twitch said that it will soon be sending out the first batch of invitations to select users to participate in the beta of the feature. Once users have received the invitation and are part of the Friends List beta program, they can send Friend requests to other users on the service. These Friend requests will also be serving as invitations to other users to participate in the beta program.

Unfortunately, signing up for the Friends List beta program can only be done by attendees of PAX East, with Twitch to set up the registration booth for the program on April 23. Those who are not going to PAX East but are hoping to participate will have to wait until another user who is already a participant sends them a Friend request.

The addition of the Friends List feature to Twitch continues the platform's integration of social networking features. Twitch has previously added profile updates, Party Chat and private messaging, known as whispers, to the service.

"Friends is the latest social feature in Twitch's ongoing effort to help gamers connect with one another," said Marcus Graham, the director of programming for Twitch, who added that while broadcasters have utilized the platform to connect with their viewers, the new feature will allow the viewers to also connect with each other.

In other news coming from PAX East, Twitch has teamed up with Old Spice to give out free deodorant to attendees of the event. Thousands upon thousands of people attend what is known as one of the biggest gaming conventions, with overwhelming body odor one of the negative side effects of such massive attendance numbers.