Twitch revamps channel pages to help streamers express themselves

When you visit the channel of a Twitch streamer who’s offline, you’re greeted with a pretty sparse page -- some recent broadcasts and a few top clips. The company is changing that, though. Over the next few weeks, all users will be able to customize their channels with custom branding, curated video shelves, and more. The changes are similar to YouTube’s approach, which emphasizes channel art, a trailer and video shelves, a bio and social media links. Twitch says that the redesign will make it easier for streamers to express their personality and interests, even when they’re offline, as well as help viewers discover new content.

Twitch streamers will be able to customize the look of their channels with bigger banners, more prominent avatars and color schemes. A bio, social media links and a channel trailer will help new visitors quickly learn more about the channel, and videos can be organized into shelves so viewers can easily find the content they’re looking for. Streamers may be able to communicate better with fans by sharing schedules with viewers. Twitch says that these changes are the result of a year’s worth of user feedback, so hopefully both creators and viewers will have a better experience on the streaming platform.