Twitch announced the rollout today of a new video sharing feature for its video game streaming platform. The new featured, referred to as “Clips”, allows users to share 30-second videos that links back to the original stream, and share them on different social platforms.
It’s much akin to how the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One allow players to quickly save and share gameplay clips, and will likely affect the way developers’ games are showcased and shared by Twitch broadcasters.
Clips will be saved when players hit the “clip” button, which records the previous 25 seconds of gameplay footage and the next 5 seconds to create a 30-second clip. Clips will link back to the broadcaster’s stream whether they’re still streaming or have gone offline, and will feature the ID of the original streamer in the URL.
In a blog post, Twitch’s Noreen McInnis states the company sees Clips as a growth of its social tools to allow its community of streamers and users to share their favorite game moments with each other. “Clips are available now to a portion of viewers on some Partnered channels, and we will be making them available for all viewers over the coming weeks.”
This feature expands Twitch’s efforts to expand beyond the live video features and into using pre-recorded video clips to share content. Last year, the company announced an expansion of their video features to include rolling video playlists and the ability to upload prerecorded video.