Find content you love faster with the new Twitch mobile app

Earlier this year we started testing a redesigned mobile app to make it easier than ever to discover and enjoy content to watch on Twitch. We’re excited to share that the new mobile experience is rolling out to all users over the course of the week.

Why did we redesign the mobile app?

Live streaming will always be the foundation of Twitch. Communities are built over time through shared experiences. Today, most of the hours watched on Twitch come from our desktop experience. But in any given month, over 50% of users primarily use Twitch on their phone, with 40% exclusively using their phone. Most of our desktop users also check in regularly from the app. This is even more pronounced with new viewers — almost three quarters start watching Twitch for the first time on mobile.

We need to make it easier for these viewers to find content when they visit Twitch and make the experience more fun so that they come back more often. This allows streamers to maintain their connection with their existing community while also finding new viewers through shorter, more frequent interactions.

We want to get you to the content that you’re coming to see. And the best way to figure out whether or not you want to watch a stream is to actually see the stream. The redesigned app makes it easy to find streamers that you already love while also exploring and discovering new streamers.

What does the new experience look like?

The first thing you see when you open the new app is a feed of live streams based on personalized recommendations from streamers you already love and communities we think you’ll enjoy. Swipe to the next item in the feed to preview various live streams quickly, and simply tap the screen to join and chat in streams you want to watch. Or switch over to the Clips feed when you only have a few minutes and want to catch up on the latest clips.

Many viewers want a way to quickly see who is live from the streamers they follow. All you need to do is click in the upper left corner and a drawer comes out with all of your followed channels. Click on one of them and you are on their channel page.

We’ve designed this new mobile app experience so you can quickly get to everything you’re looking for, right from the home tab:

• The discovery feed to explore live content
• The follow drawer on the upper left to see who you follow is live
• The clips feed to see what you missed
• Stories to see what your followed streamers are up while they’re offline

With the redesign we also updated all of the other tabs on the mobile app.

• The Browse tab can be used for search or to browse by category
• The Activity tab has your notifications and whispers all in one place
• The Profile tab is where you go to manage your account details and subscriptions
• And last but certainly not least, the creator + button to get to your dashboard, post a story, or go live

What updates have we made based on feedback from early testing?

Since launching the experiment, we released an update to allow you to control whether the feed autoplays, muted the feed on open by default (you can adjust this in your settings), and added a mute button directly to the feed to give you more control over your viewing experience. We also enabled picture-in-picture over feed and have been continuing to improve app performance since launch.

What’s next?

This is just the first step towards improving the mobile experience for both a better viewing experience and a better discovery experience for our streamers. We’re actively working on addressing more of your feedback, like enabling vertical video viewing and adding category and collection filters to the feed. We welcome you to continue sharing feedback with us on UserVoice. Learn more about the changes and explore our FAQ here.

Download the new Twitch mobile app for iOS on the App Store or for Android on Google Play and make sure you’ve updated your app to the latest version to see it for yourself.

Jeremy Forrester
VP, Community Products