Twitch’s host mode is a channel feature available to all users across the site. It gives each and every broadcaster the ability to host live broadcast of another channel on their own channel page. This is done so without them having to change their chat.
This allows viewers of that channel to see the content channel owners choose while interacting with the viewers in the chat room. Any broadcaster can host another channel on their own channel as well as any channel which can be hosted.
How it works? It works just like using an embedded player on another website. On Twitch, it works directly. At the moment, Host mode works on web browser, on mobile and on Xbox One. It means that any Twitch user’s host choice is effective to a lot of potential viewers from their community.
Let us now look at the benefits of Twitch and how to host on Twitch.
How hosting can help Twitch users grow
If Twitch users get a chance to let their peers host them automatically (i.e. auto host them), it pays them off in large margins. Everyone expects to see a growth of around 10% in minutes watched in Twitch users get 10 of their peers to auto host them.
As any Twitch user would expect, each additional channel auto hosting them helps and bigger channels help users grow more, in comparison to smaller channels.
When users start hosting another channel, their player and panels drop down. They are then replaced by a new player showing the selected broadcaster’s channel. There is a banner which appears diagonally on the top of channel’s page notifying all viewers that they are watching content that is being hosted.
The button under the video player allows users to return to the channel’s offline video screen and info area, if they want to.
When users are hosted by someone else, they will see a notification in their chat and on their dashboard that tells them who has just started hosting them. It also shows how many viewers they are connected to so they can feel free to thank them for the extra exposure done so from community sharing.
Viewers can follow, subscribe (provided the promoted channel is a Twitch Partner) and navigate their way to the hosted channel from the hosting channel’s page. Viewers continue to use their subscription features to the channel’s chat room in hosting mode, as they are able to do so.
The Benefits of Hosting
The many benefits of hosting are as under:
- It helps in keeping the community together.
- It also helps it grow stronger as well, even if it is offline.
- It helps channel owners promote the content they enjoy.
- It also helps them share new angles of their personality with their channel’s audience.
- It supports other broadcasters & builds relationships with them as well (which is a new aspect networking).
- Channel owners and users can watch their favorite broadcasters & events with their friends on their own channel.
- It also helps them remain listen in the directory pages moving from live channels section to the live hosts section. Here, they gain more exposure and the channel they host also gains the same.
How to use the host mode on Twitch?
The host mode can be used by implementing the following steps:
- In the chat, users should type “/host CHANNELNAME” (For Twitch Weekly show, the command type: /host twitch).
- Users can change to another channel using the /host command up to three times in a given 30-minute period. Hence, if the channel the user is hosting goes offline, they can then switch to hosting a different channel.
- To exit host mode, users can type the command “/unhost” in their chat (the host mode will remain on until the command is executed.
Users will then receive a notification in the chat which says that they have existed the host mode.
Over to you
It is still the stream of the users. All viewers have to do is count towards the hosted channel’s count. Additionally, they will also be able to follow and subscribe to their channels from the host channel’s page directly.
If a user is a Twitch partner, they can continue to receive 100% of their advertising revenue share under their normal terms.
