Twitterone of the most used platforms to broadcast live through Internethas decided to remove the function of host. The developers of this route, a pioneer of the streaming and a solid choice for content creators in cyberspace, they will withdraw the “accommodation” as a way to renew their proposal.
“We made the decision to deprecate this feature (host) because the experience it provides to viewers does not match their expectations when they visit Twitch. Viewers want to interact with the streamer when they are live and host mode blocks this.” explains the platform from its official blog.
Certainly, the streaming platform has a point. While this feature allows users to view a live broadcast from a person’s offline channel, they cannot interact in chat unless they visit the hosted broadcast. So the function RAIDwhich allows content creators to transfer all of their viewers to another channel, became much more popular.
However, the reasons behind this decision do not seem to have completely convinced the community and they expect new features.
What is the host feature on Twitch and how is it different from Raid
Twitch, the American platform belonging to the company amazon, allows you to make live broadcasts. As of 2014, it allowed host and raid. Both of them allow streamers to send their viewers to another channel.
It is a way for content creators to help each other and show different content to their audience. In other words, the best-known streamers with the most followers, such as Ibai Llanos, TheGrefg or AuronPlay, redirect their viewers to smaller channels once they finish their live.
While these two functions are very similar, there are some differences between a RAID and a host from Twitch. What makes the first one special is that all viewers who are currently watching the channel are automatically moved to the new streamer’s channel and become part of the chat.
Raids are a more effective way to get other streamers to new viewers because potential followers don’t have to do anything. Unlike the host, with the raid don’t have to click on the new channel to meet the content creator.
How the public has reacted to the news on social networks
Chris Gamble, a former Twitch developer, shared his opinion and stated that this feature stopped being really useful a long time ago. “Host mode was a great and important feature for its time, but it hasn’t been relevant for years,” he commented on Twitter.
Even so, the decision generated mixed opinions. Dozens of users and content creators have already expressed their discontent and concern on social networks about the closure of the function, which has been active since 2014.
It’s worth noting that Twitch will replace “Autohosting” with a system known as Suggested Channels, which will allow streamers to share a list of recommended channels.
Options to support other creators
Even so, from Twitch they have wanted to help the creators, and for this, they have shown the ways to help other streamers that can be used despite not having the host. Among them stands out a new function, the list of Suggested Channels. This is a number of creator names that appear on the channel when the streamer is not live. Also, when it is, the list will come up, in a ‘carousel’.
Also add a command called ‘/shoutout’, which allows creators to display a follow button in their own live chat to those streamers they think deserve it. But of course, do not forget that raids (/raid), are still active.
