Twitch is removing host mode and Streamers are not Happy
When this function was introduced in 2014, streamers could point viewers to the live stream of any other Twitch personality, even if that person wasn’t online at the time. It was one of the most effective strategies to gain your friend’s attention when they are not there. Twitch is now eliminating it, alleging that the host mode prevents users from commenting on streams and interacting with streamers.
Twitch announced the news as it was happening:
Because the experience it provides to viewers doesn’t meet up to their expectations when they visit Twitch, we have decided to deprecate this service. “When a streamer is in real life, viewers want to communicate with them, but host mode prevents this from happening. The ability for a streamer to expand is also limited by preventing viewers from interacting with the streamer they are watching because they are unable to establish meaningful relationships with those new viewers.
Since host mode only functions when the streamers’ primary page is down, the justification doesn’t seem valid. Additionally, it is quite simple to start a direct conversation with the broadcaster by clicking on the hosted stream. Other than this, the ability for a streamer to direct their audience to another person who is online right now is still available.
However, given the goals of these two additions differ, I am not overly pleased with how the aforementioned feature ended.
Despite the fact that twitch has other plans, streamers are not pleased with this move and are venting their resentment online. We’ll have to say goodbye to this feature on October 3rd if the corporation doesn’t alter its plans.
