Twitch CEO announces new shared chat feature coming soon

During a TwitchCon announcement, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy revealed the company will roll out a shared chat feature very soon.

The chat functionality has evolved several times since Twitch‘s inception, as the platform continues to implement fresh ideas.

For instance, June 2023 saw Twitch introduce the Hype Chat feature, giving viewers new ways to stand out and show their support during live streams. And an update this past June brought in Chat Warnings, so streamers and mods can better manage harassment from chatters.

According to company CEO Dan Clancy, another interesting wrinkle will soon enter the mix. The executive announced during a TwitchCon stream that a shared chat feature is in the works.

Clancy explained, “When we knock on these people’s door, we will all be in one chat stream… that way everyone is in one chat session, hanging with each other…”

As such, if three or four content creators all pile into one stream with one another, their respective communities will all merge in a single chat session.

Twitch demoed the new shared chat feature live with Simply during Dan Clancy’s stream on September 19. Simply reacted by saying, “Wait, everyone’s blogging together. This is so cool!”

The Twitch CEO further confirmed the change will go “live for everyone next week.” As of writing, though, there is no official launch date set.

While this could mark an interesting step in community integration between streamers, it may also prove rather complicated in the short and long term. Moderators, in particular, already have a lot on their plates, so this may put a strain on how they manage things.

And even though Twitch provides streamers and mods with tools to alleviate toxic behaviors in chat, shared comments between multiple content creators could result in more trouble arising. Hopefully, these are concerns the platform will address once the feature starts rolling out.