“Every app is TikTok now” – Streaming community reacts to Twitch’s “Discovery Feed,” which bears a striking resemblance to TikTok

TwitchCon 2023 is in full swing in Paris. On the convention’s first day, the platform announced a new feature called “Discovery Feed.”According to Chief Product Officer Tom Verrilli, this feature is a scrollable, short-video-sharing service that, as the name indicates, would increase a content creator’s discoverability on the platform.

Tom Verrilli provided more details about it, saying:

“The Discovery Feed will be a scrollable feed in the app, that shows users a personalized mix of clips. If a scrollable feed of bite-sized, funny, hype, (and) heart-filled moments sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the year 2023 and you own a phone. Sometimes, a good idea is just a good idea.”

The news was shared on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Numerous community members observed that Discovery Feed bears a striking resemblance to TikTok. Reddit user u/PM_ME_LULU_PLAYS remarked:

“Every app is TikTok now.”

How will Discovery Feed help streamers? Twitch’s Chief Product Officer explains

Comment by u/PM_ME_LULU_PLAYS from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

The announcement continued, with Tom Verrilli stating that Discovery Feed would allow streamers to attract more viewers to their channel. He provided a brief explanation of how the algorithm would function:

“Twitch is all about live, interactive channels. So, viewers spending hours on the clip feed is not our goal. Our focus is to help viewers discover your channel, so they join you and your community when you stream. Instead of getting more viewers to watch more and more clips, we want them to watch more and more streamers. So, we’re going to choose clips we show based on how likely they are to bring new viewers to your channel.”

Twitch’s Chief Product Officer also stated that the platform will be running experimental tests before its full release later this fall:

“We’ll be launching the Discovery Feed later this fall. But, before that full launch, we’ll be running experiments with limited versions of Discovery to help test and improve our algorithms.”

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Timestamp: 00:49:35

Tom Verrilli added that Twitch would provide streamers with additional controls, allowing them to specify which highlights they would like to be featured in the Discovery Feed:

“In making use of your clips to introduce yourself to new viewers, it is essential that we give you more control over which of your clips are shown in the Discovery feed. You already have control over who can make clips of your stream, and the ability to easily delete the ones you don’t like.”

Verrilli also announced that content creators will be able to tag their videos in an upcoming tool called “Feature Clips.”He elaborated:

“But, beginning in August, you’ll also be able to mark clips as, ‘Featured Clips,’ in your Creator Dashboard. We’ll prioritize showing your featured clips ahead of non-featured clips in Discovery, including in the Discovery Feed. And, over time, we’ll give you full control over which one of your clips appear in the Discovery Feed.”

Streaming community reacts to the new Twitch feature

Approximately 129 community members have shared their thoughts on Twitch’s Discovery Feed on the r/LivestreamFail subreddit. Some claimed that the addition of the service was “long overdue”:

Comment by u/binhpac from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Others expressed hope that the TikTok-style feature would help streamers gain more exposure on the platform:

Comment by u/chamber25 from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Meanwhile, Redditor u/Slightly_Famous referred to Discovery Feed as “TwitchTok”:

Comment by u/Slightly_Famous from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Here are some more notable reactions:

Comment by u/VirFalcis from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/James_Vowles from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/-Lopper from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/koodikalle from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

Comment by u/CTR__ from discussion Twitch announces Twitch Stories and Twitch clips feed in LivestreamFail

In addition to Discovery Feed, Tom Verrilli announced that the platform will launch a service similar to Instagram Stories called “Stories on Twitch.”He claimed this feature would provide “more value”to content creators’ paid subscribers.