Twitch Stream Teams - Revamp
Stream Teams used to be a cornerstone of Twitch and worked like small networks or guilds. Back when hosting was a feature you could set your team to be auto-hosted which gave mutual support to anyone on your team automatically. When that was removed Stream Teams atrophied and are now a nearly worthless feature.
I'd like to bring Stream Teams back into the spotlight and hopefully save this feature and improve it for everyone. As such, here are a list of potential improvements and reworks that may get it back on track.
If you've never heard of a Stream Team you can find ours here. https://www.twitch.tv/team/piratecrew
You can also read about Twitch Teams here. https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/twitch-teams?language=en_US
Stream Teams linked in Stream Title
Currently Stream Teams are only listed in the about section of your channel and only as a single line of text next to your follower amount. This text line is only modifiable by changing the Brand Color for your entire channel. Setting your color to black makes this link grey text like everything else on the page. https://i.imgur.com/wSb1Hmr.png Making this feature more visible and doing it in a way that streamers can control would go a long way. You can currently link to other channels in your Stream Title with @ so why not leverage this same tech for Stream Teams?Following Stream Teams
Right now a viewer needs to follow each member of a Stream Team to see them online. This is cumbersome and requires going to each streamers page to follow them. There would be much less friction for the viewer if they could follow the Stream Team and have each stream show up on their follow list as long as the streamer is in the followed team.Allow Affiliates to make Stream Teams
Right now you can only make a team if you are a Partner and then only through a support ticket request. This adds extra work for Twitch and makes the feature very exclusionary. Streamline the creation process by making a tab in account options. Open this feature to Affiliates to increase adoption.Team Emotes
Have emotes that unlock for viewers that follow the team as described in section 2. This would incentivize engaging with this system and give team logos and branding a place in the ecosystem.Team Charity Events
Right now the only way to do this is through third party tools and Twitch only allows first party integration on a single channel not shared with the team. Setting up a call to action on the Stream Team page would be a huge benefit and give a common goal for a group of communities.Team Hype Trains
A special Team Train could start when more than one streamer in a team is live. This would then visually combine the Bits/Subs between the communities involved in the train. This would encourage teams to stream together and make flash-point support moments where everyone wins. Bits/Subs thrown into the train would still go to their respective streamers but this brings a greater sense of community to teams and supporting streamers.
Understand that this is not an exhaustive list and there are tons more options. My hope is to use this as a springboard and save this failing feature before it gets cut for underperformance. Make sure you leave a comment below with your ideas!
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ItsMeJuvy commented
yippie
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centaurianmudpig commented
These Stream Team suggestions sound like they would help Affiliates collaborate early on to build their audience, and a larger cohesive community, instead of going alone until a time when they may be allowed partnership.
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Pravus6926 commented
I think this makes a lot of sense for both smaller streamers and bigger streamers. Safety in numbers, you know? Overall it only benefits the platform
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Tazdij commented
I am not a streamer as of yet (plans under way), but this is a feature I am looking forward to using, as I have found it greatly beneficial as a viewer of various channels. When they are members of stream teams, as a viewer, when I check in on my favorite streamers, I am able to see other channels that I might like. Not selected by some algorithm, or randomly selected from a category, but hand picked, by the streamer I am already following. This is great for the viewer who is looking for other streams they might like. When I start streaming, I think it would be awesome to be able to have or be part of a stream team, as it would co-mingle the audiences of streamers who have some commonality and wish to share in each others' community. This feature should not be hidden away, but expanded and enriched. Thanks
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Rainzz____ commented
I second all that was said. I for example been using twitch for a while now and i still have never heard of twitch teams. People just either dont seem to know about it in the first place or dont see any gain in making a twitch team.
I think these changes would help to revitalize the feature and bring more communities together.
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its_just_bill commented
For smaller streamers, discoverability is already so hard. I like a lot of ideas here, but I especially like opening up Stream Teams fo Affiliates (along with other features mentioned).
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celadon5 commented
Wish that teams meant more than just an arbitrary name in the about section, they could be a great way to find new streamers to watch if it didn't feel so tedious to find teams through creators I already watch, many of which have outdated teams.
Perhaps a discover section dedicated to teams and not just individual channels, that could include advertisement for large fundraisers, group events, etc. to help a new viewer find and integrate themselves in that community.
I'd also like to see a built-in system where you can have multiple streams and/or chats open at the same time, like multitwitch. That way you can watch multiple Team POVs at the same time during an event, and would encourage people to sub to all of the streamers to get ad-free viewing on all POVs.
On the previous note, maybe a team sub feature, which could cost the same as subbing to each individual creator but would just be less work for the viewer to manage, as it would become one subscription instead of multiple subscriptions all renewing at different times. Creators would get their shares separately as managed by twitch.
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Cotillion11 commented
I like the idea of team community hype trains because it is not only beneficial monetarily to the streamers involved and twitch it is ALSO a great way to bring different communities together and build the base for both streamers which increases user enjoyment and engagement which is good all around.
Bringing Affiliates into the stream team capable fold will dramatically increase the usage and availability of this products and also let streamers engage and promote their stream and can be a fun way for not huge streamers to pool their peoples and help the affiliates grow (hopefully to partners) and enlarge their communities. Also, with more people online to watch there will be more ad revenue capability for twitch and those streamers.
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bs000sb commented
I would like this feature to be more relevant as lately it appeared to be nearly useless. Implementing these changes will be a welcomed change to a seemingly useless feature as it stands at this point. Thank you for your time.
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foulsham_art commented
My stream Team slowly fell apart dude to a lack of meaning behind the teams in general. I FULLY Support these ideas and believe it would make being on a team fun and actively enjoyable to participate in
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RussEby commented
I think the Team idea would be great to make it easier to find more streams to watch. Instead of relying on hunting out channels to watch, once we find one, a team would introduce other channels that are similar quickly.
Smaller Streamers could use Teams to stay engaged with viewers even if they aren't able to stream as often. It'll be a way for smaller Streamers to support each other. -
Flapps commented
This sounds like great way to revive the Stream Teams feature.
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Chris92 commented
As an avid Twitch user since 2012, I am really sad that this feature has not gotten any love in basically a decade.
Stream Teams used to be really huge back in the day, with teams such as LookAtMyGaming, Main Menu, etc being at the forefront of what a collection of like-minded individuals could achieve on Twitch, yet sadly this feature has fallen into that realm of obscurity barely anyone knows about.
Teams are lacking tons of customization options that current Twitch profiles already offer and which could be a great addition to Team profiles if this feature received an overhaul:
- Links to Socials and Websites
- Panels to promote Sponsors, merch stores or other endeavors
- A UI that matches the current Twitch website design
- Mobile/TV supportWith brands, agencies, record labels, game development studios, sports clubs and esports organizations investing more and more into livestreaming as a way to connect with their audiences, I feel like this is one of those features that could benefit Twitch greatly if it received some love and attention.
I also very much agree with all the points made by PirateSoftware as additional features that would just make sense to have should teams be revitalized for the modern era of Twitch.
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Rovendoug commented
Being a part of a Stream Team used to be a really cool experience, but I agree with Thor, that as Twitch has changed, Stream Teams has not been kept current with the changes.
These changes are a great first pass at bringing value back to the Stream Team ecosystem and the entire community as a whole.
I disagree that Affiliates should be able to create Stream Teams, but I do agree that Partners need to be able to create a Stream Team without manual intervention on the behalf of Twitch.
If Affiliates are allowed to create Stream Teams, then I would propose that only Affiliate and Partners should be allowed to be a part of a Stream Team.
All in all, I am all for these changes!
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kirina_the_cat commented
I really like an idea of team subscribtion/following. It's like you get a bundle option with your favorite streamer seal of approval. I would use it!
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olliesdad85 commented
This is awesome write up and stepping stone to making Stream Teams relevant again.
Get a team together of actual streamers (not corporate types who don't understand) and brainstorm this further.
It would be a much appreciated tool for many streamers, old and new alike. -
FirmieFirms commented
I follow a variety of streamers that are members of different teams, but not all of them use tags on their broadcasts to be explicitly identifiable when they're live. I believe this proposal would add motivation and value for creators, but it would also add value as a viewer who likes the dynamics of group streams (e.g. Stream Together streams).
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arynthernium commented
Nuking teams' featureset was a terrible move from Twitch. I'd love to see more from them on this.
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oofmoment420 commented
what about a collective team raid feature as well?
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Snailienz commented
Adding more accesiblity and features to stream teams would improve the morale of affiliates that want to boost their fellow affiliates. That sort of community fostering could stop the amount of content creators that give up because they feel alone or unsupported. These are all great ideas!