Twitch released a small but powerful product update on Thursday, introducing a new tool that allows streamers to create and share short vertical video clips in seconds.
The new clip editor can be accessed through the clip manager in the creator panel. Clicking “edit and share clip” opens the fancy editing tool, which makes things simple. You can select a split view that captures two rectangular portions of a clip at once (the game stream and the camera, typically) or keep it streamlined with a full vertical portion of the clip. The only other option is to toggle to include your channel name, which sits at the top of the clip.
Within the clip editor, Twitch offers direct social sharing integration with YouTube Shorts. Direct sharing to TikTok or Instagram Reels isn’t supported for now, and it’s easy enough to do it manually, but Twitch plans to add more integrations in the future.
“We are committed to helping streamers grow and this is just one part of our broader 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 are likely to be relieved that a workflow that previously sent them to third-party tools like StreamStairs it is now integrated 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 works well with others and for streamers who rely on cross-promotion to build their audiences.
Unlike other social media platforms that suffer from multi-year identity crises (looking at you, Instagram), Twitch has long been committed to its core product: long-form live streaming. Twitch’s new adoption of vertical and short-form video is a small thing, but it’s easy to imagine how the company could further leverage clips to help get new streamers discovered.
Twitch’s emphasis on live streaming is a double-edged sword. Discovery remains a pain point on the platform, keeping creators tied to grueling streaming schedules, incentivizing more live time above all else. But the company’s leadership seems well aware of that fact, realizing that keeping streaming sustainable for the long term is one of the biggest challenges facing the platform today.
Even with its laser focus on live streaming, there’s nothing stopping Twitch from getting creative with short-form videos to solve some of its discovery problems. For now, the new clip editor is just a handy solution for overworked creators, but Twitch might be smart to turn it into something much bigger in the future.
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