The Twitch App is the official mobile client for Twitch, the live streaming service built around gaming, creative work and real-life broadcasts. It runs on iOS and Android phones and brings together watching live channels, chatting with communities, catching up on clips and, for streamers, managing a channel from a phone. The app is free to use; subscriptions, gifted subs and Bits are optional purchases that support individual streamers.
Finding streams through the discovery feed
The Twitch App opens on a discovery feed of live streams chosen from personalized recommendations, based partly on the channels a viewer already follows. Swiping moves from one live preview to the next, and tapping the screen joins the stream and its chat. Viewers can turn autoplay on or off in the feed. Playback starts muted by default and has its own mute button.
Next to the live feed sits a clips feed for short sessions, where viewers can watch recent clips from streams back to back. A swipe opens a drawer in the upper-left corner. It lists followed channels with sorting, titles and thumbnails, and shows which ones are live at that moment. Selecting a name opens that channel’s page.
The remaining tabs split the app by task. Browse handles search and category browsing. Activity gathers notifications and whispers, the private messages between users. Profile holds account details and active subscriptions. A plus button gives creators access to their dashboard, Stories and going live.
Watching and chatting on a phone
Once inside a channel, the Twitch App plays the stream with its live chat alongside. Picture-in-picture keeps the current stream playing in a small window while the viewer moves around the feed or leaves the app. It always gives priority to the stream the viewer is watching. Viewers can resume past broadcasts (VODs) from where they stopped.
Some channels broadcast in Dual Format, sending a horizontal and a vertical version of the same stream at once. On a phone held upright, these channels appear in a full-screen vertical view. Viewers can switch to the classic split view with chat. Turning the phone sideways changes to full-screen horizontal video.
Channel support works inside the app. Viewers subscribe, gift subscriptions and buy Bits from their phone. They can use Prime subscriptions in the iOS app. Drops, the rewards some game channels give for watching, have their own pages in the app for checking inventory and progress.
Clips, Stories and Recaps
Clips are short excerpts cut from a live stream or VOD. Each clip is created with a portrait 9:16 version for phones. Viewers can make portrait clips directly in the Twitch App. Before a clip is published it gets a title, and the trim and portrait crop can be adjusted. Users can then share clips to Stories, the discovery feed or other social platforms by link. Automatic captions are rolling out for clips. Users can edit the text, timing and style of a clip’s captions.
Stories are short posts that streamers publish from the mobile app between broadcasts: photos, clips or text compositions with channel emotes and backgrounds. They expire after 48 hours, appear in a shelf for followers, and accept emote reactions. Streamers with enough subscribers can limit a story to subscribers only. Followers get a notification when a new story goes up, and the frequency of these alerts is adjustable.
Stream Recaps turn the best clips from a broadcast into a short highlight reel. Followers see Recaps in a shelf at the top of their feed when they open the app, so they can catch up on a stream they missed. Streamers build a Recap after the stream from the plus button. The Recap automatically includes clips made by the streamer and their editors. Other clips can be added, removed, cropped or re-captioned. Saying “Twitch Clip That” during a broadcast creates a clip that goes straight into the Recap.
Watch Streaks count how many consecutive streams a viewer has watched on a channel. A missed broadcast can still keep the streak going if the viewer watches a clip, Story or the VOD within 24 hours.
Tools for streamers and moderators
For creators, the Twitch App works as a mobile control point for the channel. From the plus button they can open the creator dashboard, post Stories, assemble Recaps and go live. Shared Chat merges the chats of up to six channels during a Stream Together collaboration.
Moderators have Mobile Mod View, a set of moderation tools laid out for small screens. They can follow a channel’s chat and act on messages from a phone instead of the desktop site.
