Twitch: Everything You Need To Know About The Platform

Millions of people visit Twitch every single day. But what exactly is Twitch? Is it something y'all should business concern yourself with? In that location's a good chance that you may have heard of Twitch before, but aren't exactly sure what it's all most.

In short, Twitch is a video streaming site. But at that place's a lot most Twitch that you lot may non know. And that's where this guide comes in. For all intents and purposes, this will be a post that attempts to cover everything about Twitch that is worth knowing. Whether you're interested in streaming or simply desire to exist a spectator.

What is Twitch?

Twitch is a video streaming website that, initially covered just games. Any you played, you could probable detect people streaming gameplay of it over on Twitch. These days, Twitch is still very much that, just it besides now has streams for a wide array of interests.

It's more than than just video games and includes broader categories. Making it possible for Twitch to become a home for anyone to stream about, well almost anything. Within reason of course.

This makes Twitch the go-to location for many people who enjoy watching streamers exercise what they do. Twitch is also related to Prime Gaming, as Amazon owns Twitch. You can find out more than about Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime) hither.

What platforms is Twitch available on?

Pretty much every platform y'all can think of. Yous tin can view everything on PC and Mac via the browser using the Twitch.goggle box website. But you can as well sentry streams using the mobile app. Which is available on both Android and iOS.

Additionally, you lot can find apps on Fire TV, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series 10|S, NVIDIA SHIELD, Chromecast, and Apple Tv set. There'due south even an official app for some smart Television brands. Vizio for instance has an official app you can install.

And then wherever you programme to consume almost of your content, there's probable a Twitch app available to picket streams. There is no official Twitch app for Roku.

Does Twitch cost coin?

The answer to that is yes and no. To sign upward and accept an business relationship, information technology doesn't toll you anything at all. Yous tin create an business relationship, log in, and use the site every bit much equally you want without having to pay a dime. But in that location are sections of it that tincost money.

These are completely optional though, and they're less related to a Twitch subscription itself and more related to a particular streamer. And so, yes, Twitch does toll coin if y'all choose to spend it. It also doesn't toll money as you lot could simply choose to view stuff for gratis.

Though, beingness a paying subscriber of someone you relish watching create content does have its benefits. And so at that place is incentive to spending coin if you visit the site regularly and consume content from the same streamer all the time.

Y'all tin even buy Twitch souvenir cards on Amazon and ship them to friends or family. And, if you're an Amazon Prime member you get one free Prime sub per month to use on your accented favorite streamer.

What are the subscription costs?

That volition depend on what blazon of subscription you make up one's mind to pay for. The monthly subscription for any streamer is $four.99. Although, right now as of October 27, 2021, about or all subscriptions are 20% off and but cost $3.99 for the first month. With monthly renewals bumping to $4.99 thereafter.

If yous determine to subscribe for more than than i month at a time, so the toll will become upwardly based on that. In addition to monthly, you can as well subscribe on a iii-month or six-month basis. The upfront cost will be more than, just past subscribing to a streamer with one of these two options does likewise include savings. So you do cease up saving coin when the price is cleaved down to the monthly amount.

There are also additional subscription tiers. With tier 2 subs costing $ix.99 a month and tier three subs costing $24.99 a month. These should be the aforementioned across all streamers. And they come up with actress special rewards as well. Though these rewards will vary from streamer to streamer as well.

What are the benefits to subscribing?

This volition vary from streamer to streamer. Most streamers will have a serial of rewards that can be unlocked based on your amount of fourth dimension subscribed. For most streamers these rewards will include sectional emotes that can be used in chats, custom badges that appear adjacent to your proper name, and the ability to earn extra channel points.

Some streamers volition also take rewards for sub-simply chats and subscriber streams. And of course, the crème de la crème of rewards, ad-complimentary viewing.

What sorts of features does Twitch take?

Twitch has features geared towards both creators and users. At that place's a chat for each channel on the platform so everyone talk during streams. You lot can send emotes in chat, earn rewards by watching streams, and every bit a creator yous can apply the new Soundtrack by Twitch feature. Which lets you have access to a whole collection of rights-cleared music to have playing in the background during your streams.

There's also all sorts of channel moderation tools for moderators, new tags to label channels correctly, and there's new categories also. One of our favorites is the popout player and then you tin can continue viewing a stream as yous scan other parts of the site.

Other features include Dark Mode (this should be bachelor in nearly of the app versions in addition to the website), and theater mode for streams.

Does Twitch have ads?

Twitch does take ads. Only as mentioned above information technology is possible to get rid of ads. To do so you lot volition demand to subscribe to a channel. Though keep in mind, this only gets rid of ads for that particular channel. And any channels you sentry volition notwithstanding show ads unless you subscribe to them too.

What can I watch?/What are the content categories?

At that place'south a lot of different categories of content to view. Although, everything is cleaved downwardly into four major categories. This includes Games, IRL (in real life), Music, and Esports. For the games category, you lot'll find streamers covering everything from the biggest hits to the smallest, niche titles. Hidden gems we'll phone call them.

For instance, you'll come across people streaming Amazon's newest game endeavour, New Earth. An MMO about settlers making their fashion to a supernatural island to discover the mysteries of the country. There's also plenty of streamers for Minecraft, FIFA, League Of Legends, and of course Fortnite. But y'all can also find people streaming much smaller games like Russian Line-fishing 4.

Then there's the IRL category, which contains genres of content that cover almost anything that isn't games. Like Merely Chatting, which often includes streamers who are sitting in front of the photographic camera just having conversations with viewers as they do random stuff.

It as well includes streamers who are doing cypher but slumber. You lot can notice genres for Nutrient & Drink, Science & Tech, Sports, Podcasts and more besides. There's even a genre called Pools, Hot Tubs, & Beaches to cover everything from the infamous hot tub streams.

Esports and music should be pretty self explanatory. Music includes streams of live events as well equally everyday people playing instruments. And Esports basically covers everything from Esports competitions to highlights and streams from pro players.

Does Twitch accept rewards for watching specific streams?

All. The. Time. In fact, you can easily discover all of the drops bachelor that are electric current and upcoming. This includes when a specific drop started and when it ends, as well as what game it's for.

Alongside that you can run across whatever drops you've received from prior or electric current campaigns. You can view this by clicking on your Twitch avatar in the tiptop right corner of the web page, under theDropssection of the dropdown imprint that appears. Tabs for drops you lot've earned and claimed volition have its own tab dissever from theAll Campaignsdrops. All Campaigns besides lists current campaigns every bit well every bit campaigns that have recently concluded.

What are drops?

Drops are basically incentives for viewers to picket certain streams. They tin also be a nifty way for streamers to boost their viewership and subscriber counts. Which can in turn earn them more coin. For viewers, drops are usually rewards in the form of in-game boodle.

They will always be for the game that driblet campaign belongs to. For instance, Naraka: Bladepoint has a driblet campaign that started on October 24 and goes until October 31, with the advantage beingness an 'Immortal Treasure' chest that can contain items and other goodies for use in that game.

If you're a Destiny 2 player, and so that game had a drop campaign at ane signal which rewarded viewers with a shader for their gear. And Back during beta, Valorant had a drop entrada where viewers who didn't have access could get beta invites.

How do I earn drops?

Usually to earn a drop y'all're required to watch a particular stream for at to the lowest degree one hour. Some campaigns volition accept additional rewards you can earn if you watch those same streams for longer. Merely when you lot get right down to information technology to earn drops all you commonly have to practice is sentinel a stream.

Sometimes the drop may give out extra goodies to viewers who gift subscriptions. As was the case with the Destiny 2 shader.

How do you communicate on Twitch?

In that location are a couple of ways to communicate on Twitch. The main way people communicate is via the conversation organisation on any given aqueduct. The channel'southward chat will allow generally anyone to talk with the others watching the stream (including the streamer), though sometimes yous may need to meet specific requirements to talk. Like subscribe to the channel.

You tin can too ship Whispers to other users. And this is like Twitch's direct bulletin system for user to user communication. You lot can hands send whispers to your favorite streamers, or if you have friends on the platform who are likewise viewers, you can ship whispers to them too.

Worth noting is that it is possible to enable a Do Not Disturb mode if you don't desire to become notifications from these and if y'all merely don't want to exist bothered.

Does Twitch offer two-factor authentication?

Yes. There is a 2FA protocol in place for ameliorate security. And like anything else that offers this, we'd highly recommend that you enable information technology as shortly as possible. Because y'all tin never be too conscientious these days when it comes to your online privacy and security. Obviously, information technology'southward not a bad idea to change your password from time to time either. But with 2FA enabled, y'all can at least worry about having to do that a little less oft.

Can you add friends?

Y'all sure can. To do this, but look for the search bar at the bottom left corner of the website. Information technology should say "search to add friends" right in the omnibox. Merely click on the box and type in a friend's proper noun then add together them to your friends list. That's all there is to it.

It goes without saying that you'll need to know your friend's Twitch username before you tin can add them. As there's no system in place to add them based on real names like at that place is for some accounts.

You can sort and filter streams

When you're looking for something to watch on Twitch, you can easily just roll through the website'south front folio, where everything you see will be recommendations. You can besides browse streams based on categories, but if you want to narrow things downwardly farther you can apply the sorting and filter options.

You tin can sort results two ways. Either by electric current viewership numbers, which is from high to depression, or by "recommended for you." Which is more or less the aforementioned as the recommendations on the forepart page but with all of the different categories.

You tin can also add filters. For example, maybe yous're looking for channels that are defended to a specific game or game franchise. Finding those is easy. Just blazon that game or game franchise in the filter search box and hit enter.