In spite of being the leader in video game streaming, Twitch still has a lot of room for improvement. The gaming community continues to grow and Twitch is implementing new features catering to their needs. A couple of these changes were announced for early 2016 at TwitchCon, on Friday.
The most important change is that users will be able to upload videos of gameplay, but without the public pressure of streaming it first. Twitch will allow customization of videos in the form of playlists and personalized thumbnail art.
The transition to HTML 5 will provide a step up in video quality. Currently running on a mix of Flash and HTML 5, the service puts too much stress on PCs, causing performance issues. With the use of HTML 5, there is promise for a streamlined and sleek visual experience.
Twitch says the whisper functionality will be tweaked in such a manner that it will resemble a standard messaging service. "Whispers 2.0" means that texting will no longer be lost, as each conversation will be neatly categorized. Discussions will get archived, so you can resume the dialogue whenever you want.
It is apparent that the Amazon-owned Twitch is reacting to the strong presence of YouTube's game streaming features. Even if the two companies are not competing directly, the video game streaming service feels that the Google-owned YouTube is drawing a surging number of gamers to its side. The change in Twitch's perspective is visible; not so long ago, hosting videos was unthinkable. Now, it is flexible and encourages users to create custom playlists of pre-recorded videos.
The company says that next year will bring dedicated apps for other platforms, such as PlayStation Vita, Sony's PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.
"Our new PlayStation app gives you the full Twitch experience. You can watch, follow, or interact with any broadcaster or game live on Twitch. With Twitch on PlayStation 4, you can now broadcast your game with the touch of a button," the company stated on its official site.
It also proudly pointed out that Twitch is used by 1.7 million broadcasters streaming game videos and that there are more than 100 million active users who access their service each month. The numbers are expected to increase in the second half of 2016, after Twitch's improvements are implemented.
