New features galore: Here’s everything new Twitch announced last week

Twitch used the end of September as an opportunity to unload and unveil a slew of new features ahead of the platform’s yearly convention, TwitchCon, this coming weekend.

While some of the tools are more significant than others, it may have been difficult to process and keep track of everything that seemingly came out all at once, but there’s no need to worry.

In this article, you can find information about everything that Twitch announced across its multiple Twitter accounts and its official blog. There was a handful of features introduced or moved through the pipeline including Shoutouts, Chat Highlights, Chat Cues, Chat Activity, and most notably Elevated Chat.

Here are all of the features Twitch posted about this past week.

Elevated Twitch Chat

Elevated Chat received the most attention among all of the things Twitch released last week, and it wasn’t necessarily for good reasons. The feature allows viewers to pay money to have chat messages “elevated” and pinned to the top of a channel’s chat.

The amount of time the message spends at the top of chat depends on how much money a viewer spends. Where the platform caught flak was in the details though. The pricing of Elevated Chats make them a more expensive version of YouTube Super Chats.

It’s not too late for the feature to be redeemed though. It is still in an experimental phase with a select number of streamers having access to it. The test will last four weeks, and pricing could change following feedback.

Chat Activity 

Chat Activity is a new tool that streamers can use in their Stream Summary. The chart syncs up with a channel’s VODs and tracks the number of messages posted in chat throughout the stream.

By clicking portions of a stream that had especially high or low message volume, creators can analyze what gets their chat engaged, and what is missing the mark. This tool has been fully integrated, but because of the nature of the tool, it’s only available if streamers have VODs enabled.

Shoutout

Another tool streamers can start using is the Shoutout. This command allows streamers and moderators to give specific viewers a little bit of time in the limelight.

If you have a friendly viewer you’d like to promote on your stream, you can give them a Shoutout making it so their channel information gets displayed prominently in chat for a moment. This also encourages viewers to follow the account being shouted out. 

The feature is one that can help enhance and promote collaborative content among streamers. It was rolled out last week, and creators should be able to use /shoutout now.

Chat Highlights

Chat Highlights were initially rolled out to some streamers last year as a way to help creators notice first-timers in their chat, and last week, the tool was expanded to include more ways to help creators with their chat engagement.

Streamers can now customize what is highlighted in their chat. Whether it’s new chatters, returning viewers, or anything in between, there are many ways to make sure you don’t miss opportunities to personalize the way you engage with viewers.

Chat Cues

Similar to Chat Highlights, Chat Cues are meant to help streamers get the most out of their viewer engagement. The feature uses audience insights to give streamers suggestions about when to tell viewers to do things like drop the channel a follow.

Unlike Highlights, however, this feature is still in the experimental phase and is only available for a select number of creators. It’s starting with just a follow cue, but the platform intends on expanding on that as the experiment continues.