Twitch’s drive to diversify the amount of content it has on its platforms jumped another hurdle today as it announced Twitch IRL, an additional programming category designed to share content captured from [creators’] everyday lives.
Twitch has always been a primarily gaming platform, but back in 2015 the streaming platform opened its doors with Twitch Creative and then earlier this year, Social Eating was added as another category.
“While still steeped in gaming culture, Twitch has become a social video platform for all kinds of passionate people and communities, both gaming and non-gaming alike. Based on your feedback, we’re launching two new features that will help you share even more of your life, and we’re updating our guidelines to match the way the community uses the platform today.”
– Annie Berrones, Product Marketing.
Furthermore, in order to aid content creators who don’t want to carry around their laptops with them as they stream, Twitch is working to launch native streaming from the Twitch app next year. Currently the app is only capable of letting users watch streams. When mobile broadcasting launches, it will default to the IRL category. This is to help bolster Twitch IRL which in turn is seen as a direct competitor to Facebook’s video and live-streaming service.
Just like when the two previous additions to Twitch’s catalogue of streaming categories, Twitch’s General Conduct rules have been altered to reflect the change.
“As our platform evolved to reflect your passions, we have thus decided to revamp our guidelines, while keeping the spirit with which they were launched. Starting now, we are removing all restrictions on non-endemic content. All creators are encouraged to share video on Twitch, gaming and non-gaming alike, just be sure to categorise your content appropriately.”
