Posted by Annie Berrones on Twitch
Today, Twitch is about much more than sharing live gameplay. While still steeped in gaming culture, Twitch has become a social video platform for all kinds of passionate people and communities, both gaming and non-gaming alike. Based on your feedback, we’re launching two new features that will help you share even more of your life, and we’re updating our guidelines to match the way the community uses the platform today.
IRL — Share your Thoughts, Opinions and Everyday Life
Launching today is an all-new content category called IRL designed specifically to allow you to talk to your community and share your thoughts, opinions, feelings, and everyday life. Like a vlog, you can now interact with your audience in a one-to-many style, live or recorded, even when not playing a game. This includes sharing experiences and events with viewers live or with pre-recorded videos. Anything and everything you’re interested in can potentially become a topic of a stream. For more details, check our FAQ.
Mobile Broadcasting — Share Live Video on the Go
Next year, we will launch native streaming from the Twitch mobile app. This is designed to help you stay in touch with your community even when you’re AFK. Want to stream while roaming the expo floor at PAX West? Go for it! When mobile broadcasting launches, it will default to the IRL category. If you’d like to help us test it, please fill out this form for a chance to be added to a closed beta.
Updated Guidelines for our Community
In order to accommodate the above features and to help support those of you who have a desire to share non-gaming content, we are simplifying and updating our guidelines to welcome all creators.
Since the genesis of Twitch, we have enforced a set of Community Guidelines, formerly known as the Rules of Conduct, that restrict the kinds of content we allow on the platform. Initially that meant we allowed only gaming content. Then, based on feedback from the community, we started experimenting with Music , then Creative, followed by Social Eating, and other categories. Today we have thriving communities in a variety of both gaming and non-gaming content categories.
As our platform evolved to reflect your passions, we have thus decided to revamp our guidelines, while keeping the spirit with which they were launched. Starting now, we are removing all restrictions on non-endemic content. All creators are encouraged to share video on Twitch, gaming and non-gaming alike, just be sure to categorize your content appropriately.
If you have questions about IRL, we encourage you to check our FAQ first. We’ll be updating it regularly. Any additional feedback can be added to our IRL forum.
