Twitch released a small but mighty product update on Thursday, introducing a new tool that lets streamers craft and share short, vertical video clips in seconds.
The new clip editor is accessible through the clips manager in the creator dashboard. Clicking “edit and share clip” opens the slick editing tool, which keeps things simple. You can select a split view that captures two rectangular portions of a clip at once (the game stream and the camera, usually) or keep it streamlined with a full vertical snippet from the clip. The only other option is a toggle for including your channel name, which slots in on the upper portion of the clip.
Within the clip editor, Twitch offers direct integration for social sharing to YouTube Shorts. Direct sharing to TikTok or Instagram Reels isn’t supported for now — and it’s easy enough to do manually — but Twitch plans to add more integrations in the future.
“We’re committed to helping streamers grow and this is just one piece of our larger strategy to help streamers find new viewers while making it easier to promote their content on and off Twitch,” the company said of the update.
Twitch streamers will likely be relieved that a workflow that previously sent them to third-party tools like StreamLadder is now built into the platform itself. The feature update ultimately makes Twitch feel more connected to the broader social media ecosystem, a boon for a platform that plays well with others and one for the streamers who rely on cross-promotion to build their audiences.
Unlike other social media platforms suffering from multi-year identity crises (looking at you, Instagram), Twitch has long been single-mindedly committed to its core product: long form livestreaming. Twitch’s fresh embrace of vertical, short form video is a small thing, but it’s easy to imagine how the company could further leverage clips to help new streamers get discovered.
Twitch’s emphasis on livestreaming is a double-edged sword. Discovery remains a pain point on the platform — and one that keeps creators bound to strenuous streaming schedules, incentivizing more time live above everything. But the company’s leadership seems well aware of that fact, realizing that keeping streaming sustainable over the long haul is one of the biggest challenges facing the platform today.
Even with its laser-focus on livestreaming, there’s nothing stopping Twitch from getting creative with short form video to solve some of its discovery woes. For now, the new clip editor is just a handy solution for overworked creators, but Twitch might be smart to build it into something much bigger down the road.
Taylor Hatmaker
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