Mixer released a few changes to its platform today, including a redesigned homepage, ad breaks, and higher quality emotes. The initiative comes about half a year after the platform pinned down popular content creators shroud and Ninja for exclusive streaming rights deals.
Perhaps the most notable change that Mixer has made to keep up with other platforms like Twitch is its new homepage. The new layout gives a stronger focus on featured content creators.
The page closely resembles the homepage of Twitch now, with tabs in the upper left corner to browse followed pages and game categories. The upper left corner has notifications and account information.
The biggest difference in the page is the “partner spotlight” that shows thumbnail photos of the website’s top influencers, like shroud, Ninja, and Ewok. Additionally, the featured livestreams on the homepage have a notably more spread out feel to them compared to Twitch’s current homepage, making it easier to see all of the featured live pages.
In addition to changing the homepage, the platform has made a few changes to how Xbox viewers can use the platform. The features added are meant to help viewers get to their favorite channels as quickly as possible.
The platform also announced a few other features, including auto-hosting for all pages. Last month, auto-hosting was tested exclusively by partners. But now, all streamers on Mixer will have access to automatically hosting specific streamers.
Meanwhile, the website is improving its emote quality by allowing for 28 pixel emotes. Twitch emotes are also 28×28 pixels. Along with those changes, Mixer made a few other tweaks to its user interface, including improvements to clip creation, notification UX, and partner badges on the homepage.
Although getting influencers like Ninja and shroud wasn’t able to sway the platform’s viewership market share, Mixer’s continued improvements are a signal that it isn’t going to sit idly by while YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch duke it out.
