Twitch is making a push to let people watch where they already do, with a range of new tools that make vertical video, AI-optimized highlights and simpler sponsorships the focal point of its next stage. The platform presented the updates as an attempt to expand the reach of livestreaming while offering creators more versatile ways to make money and keep communities in check.
Dual-Format Streaming Aims At Both Mobile And Desktop
The most significant new feature is dual-format streaming, which allows creators to broadcast in both vertical and horizontal format simultaneously. For the streamers themselves, there’s a more immediate upside that’s pragmatic: You’d no longer need to pick between capturing your widescreen scene with desktop chat or choose for phone-viewing friendliness with a vertical frame that takes up the entire screen. Twitch has been testing the feature with a handful of streamers since late summer, and is now framing it as a primary way to go live.
Creators have long hacked together split scenes in OBS, or they’ve relied on third-party cropping tools. Dual-format native support sidesteps that friction, puts mobile-first discovery inside the app, and connects Twitch to how viewers increasingly watch video. StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg, among industry trackers, have always pointed out how Twitch leads in live hours watched, but growth will come from dropping the casual barrier to watching — especially on phones.
Early adopters should design for overlays and alerts in both aspect ratios. For gameplay, that might be a tight vertical crop with stacked captions and reactions, while the horizontal has full frame and typical chat. IRL streamers will, meanwhile, have a cleaner avenue to capture portrait video without losing out on the desktop setup that fuels community engagement.
AI-Powered Highlights To Increase Discoverability
Twitch is also introducing AI-generated clips that capture the best moments from past broadcasts. The pitch is straightforward: Viewers continue to have the ability to catch up quickly, so even when a channel is offline, it keeps viewers engaged and more likely to return for subsequent live sessions. Twitch hasn’t revealed the specific signals behind the system, but companies in its industry typically mix a brew of chat velocity, audience retention and scene changes to suss out what segments are worth highlighting.
Giving a further nod to hands-free streaming, Twitch announced the launch of going live via Meta’s smart glasses: Expect app updates in the future that will streamline the process. For in-real-life creators, that means shooting those spontaneous moments without having to worry about holding a phone rig. Just as YouTube has embraced AI-enhanced editing and discovery for Shorts, Twitch’s focus keeps long-form live at the center while applying machine intelligence to bundle content into snack-size portions.
The strategic through-line is evident: vertical video and AI curation aren’t just features, they’re on-ramps. They shorten the distance from stumbling on a clip to becoming a regular in chat — crucial for a platform where concurrent viewership and chat density drive momentum.
New Sponsorship Tools to Increase Creator Revenue
Twitch is also expanding access to sponsorship workflows within the Creator Dashboard to a broader set, including Affiliates and other monetizing streamers — beyond just Partners. Consolidating briefs, deliverables, and reporting within Twitch fixes long-time pain points in brand coordination and disclosure; it gives advertisers more standard inventory.
The streamer-controlled promotions have “done a good job” of helping mid-size channels increase gifting revenue by about 30 to 45 percent since rolling out five months ago, the company said. That has mattered: while ads and subscriptions are baseline, sponsorships have frequently been the income cushion that keeps creators operating in the sub-monetary top percentiles from going broke. The new features suggest a clearer pipeline for branded streams, custom segments and integrated shout-outs without having to jump back and forth off-platform as they do today.
For marketers, Twitch is the act of translating live moments — watch-alongs to product launches to speedruns — into repeatable, measurable madness. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has noted rising spend in creator-led and live video, a trend that these Twitch moves bring it closer to the kind of workflow advertisers have come to expect from premium video platforms.
Policy And Community Tools Indicate Maturity
Apart from revenue, Twitch offered updates on enforcement of community guidelines and two new roles — lead moderators and a specific role for agents or managers. The mod lead assigns responsibility for safety, chat pace and feature toggles, while the representative role drums up guidance around access with creators on sponsorship integrations and analytics — which are increasingly useful as more and more creators operate like small production studios.
The company is also increasing its effort to surface and support groups through the Creator Clubs Program, a program for connecting themed collaborations and cross-promotion. Such programs also often help mid-tier channels punch above their weight class by sharing viewership around popular genres or events, which has been effective in esports and co-streamed launches.
Why It Matters For Creators And Advertisers
The unifying thread in these announcements is time-to-value. Dual-format streaming minimizes setup friction; AI clips keep channels alive when they go dark; integrated sponsorships cut down on production drag. With an increasing proportion of viewing on mobile, the vertical stream + auto-highlights combo could be Twitch’s biggest discovery upgrade shipped in years.
State of the stream: Twitch continues to lead in live streaming viewership by watch time, according to regular reports from StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg, but it’s competing for attention with more than just live. By grafting short-form discovery and professionalized sponsorship tooling onto its live core, Twitch is betting that it can add to the funnel without watering down what has set the site apart: real-time interaction, community culture, creator-led programming.
If the execution matches the ambition, then shall the next era of Twitch both feel wonderfully known and look completely different—wide chat energy on one side, portrait-mode discovery on the other, with AI stitching it all together in silent wonder.
