- TwitchCon 2024 just ended, and we were on the ground at the convention!
- We got to chat with a number of key people behind the scenes who manage Twitch.
- The subject of this interview is Jeremy Forster, VP of Community Products.
As we have said before, TwitchCon 2024 Just wrapped up this weekend. And while you might not think it, we were actually on the ground covering it! So, what does one of the world’s biggest streaming platforms have to do with mobile? A lot really.
That’s why we had the chance to talk to some of Twitch’s biggest personalities while we were there. Including some pretty interesting ones of their own. It’s not the streamers themselves, but the multitude of people behind the scenes that help the platform run and (hopefully) grow.
Today’s subject is Jeremy Forster, Vice President of Community Products. He works on many features that help Twitch streamers and viewers get out, and most importantly, he and his team had a big hand in the development of the redesigned Twitch app. .
So let’s dig in and find out what he thinks about mobile gaming on Twitch, and a little more about the new app that made its public debut at TwitchCon 2024.
Can you tell us a little more about what you do, Jeremy?
Jeremy Forster: As VP of Community Products here at Twitch, my team is responsible for all user-facing features.
I would divide my work into three major areas. So a bunch of streamer-facing functionality like content management, dashboards and analytics. As well as interactive features; Things like chat and channel points. And then features that allow streamers and viewers to interact.
And then finally, discovery and how viewers find content, how they get new streamers to watch. Experience when they watch it and how they discover new streamers.
What is your favorite mobile game if you have one?
My favorite mobile game at the moment is Marvel Snap, which you probably hear a lot about. I think they did a really good job, and I love mobile games where you can jump in and play full sessions very quickly. This is my sweet spot when I have a few minutes to spare; Being able to kind of jump in, play a game and be done.
What do you think about the current state of mobile gaming and given the success of gaming on Twitch? Interested in making this thread even easier?
The state of mobile gaming is fantastic. I’ve been a mobile gamer for a long time, and I think we’ve really seen a natural evolution of core games into more games that are a little more involved, and a little more advanced.
And there were a lot of games where they got boring over time or you played them once and that was it. And now I think we’re really seeing games that have the same level of complexity and investment as more traditional games, especially those that have multiplayer aspects and online aspects. I think they’re in a really good place. I’m always amazed at how good some games are these days.
And they have huge player bases. So going to your second question, we continue to look at ways we can expand mobile gaming on the platform. I think the games that are most successful to play on Twitch are primarily online multiplayer games. Because one thing that’s important to streamers is being able to play a game over and over again, without getting boring.
And I think for people who play single player games and they usually do something like either speed running where they play through the game over and over to see how fast they can finish it. . Or they just keep playing new games, and that’s what keeps their content fresh.
But for many people who care about games like League of Legends or Valorant, what makes it unique and interesting is that every match is going to be different.
And I think historically, as you think about mobile games, they haven’t been great streamable games because they haven’t had a lot of online aspects to keep each game fresh. But now we see games like Marvel Snap, which I mentioned, have huge followings on Twitch.
And I watch a lot of Marvel Snap Streamers and their content. And part of the appeal is that these are rich games that are very replayable and each match is new, with something unique.
So it’s not just card games like Marvel Snap, but also mobile FPS games and battle royale games that have advantages. So I think we’re getting to the point where mobile games can be content that’s really successful on Twitch.
And we’re starting to see some streamers grow large viewer bases that want to consume this type of content. That’s why we’ll continue to find ways to make streaming mobile games easier and work with mobile game developers to do things like Drops to make it more rewarding for viewers to watch that content on Twitch. Want and want to play as well. the game.
Is there any interest from Twitch in getting things like Playables, which we’ve seen companies like TikTok and YouTube add to their mobile apps?
I think we are definitely always trying to make our mobile application more attractive. For example, on the monetization front, we just announced power-ups. And we think there’s a lot of value in that and making it a fun and engaging experience for viewers to interact with streamers on mobile. And we’re also interested in finding ways to kind of help them cooperate with each other and bring and give them things. So give them activities to do and streamers are collaborating with each other.
They are like the biggest areas of focus. I think we also have interesting overlaps with games with products like Drops where you can earn in-game items or get in-game rewards for watching content on Twitch. As such it has been a really successful product for many years. And I think that’s one area where we have a strong overlap with games and mobile games in particular.
Feature-wise with the new look of the Twitch mobile app, what do you think is important for mobile-first viewers in terms of features?
The biggest change is that we’re really moving towards what we call a feed-first experience. So really making feeds front and center for a mobile application.
I think historically the mobile application has been really great for existing viewers who have watched Twitch for a long time and probably started watching Twitch on their desktop and have a long following. There is a list.
Like bringing people back to channels they already follow has been a really great experience. But I think with the new mobile application, we really want to make it, especially for new viewers, really easy to find something to watch.
So with the feed you’re going to be dropped right into the live streams and you’re going to be able to navigate through them really quickly and through our recommendations and hopefully find what you really want to watch.
What’s a little different from other products like Feed is that our goal at Feed is to really get you to a channel. We don’t want to just keep you on the feed. Our goal is really to get you into a streamer’s channel that we think is right for you, hopefully you want to join and be a part of that community, you want to engage with the creator and Want to co-create with them and hopefully come back. And see them often.
Because that’s really what Twitch is at the heart of. Viewers are investing in streamers’ communities.
Yeah, I think the focus has come recently because what we’ve really started to see (and Dan mentioned this in the keynote) is that we’ve historically increased our viewership. I am starting to see more change. The majority of our audience is still on PC and desktop, but especially when we look at new users, we see that many of them are coming to Twitch for the first time on mobile.
And as Dan mentioned earlier, our data is now at the point where 50% of our customers are primarily using mobile.
They may use a TV application or a website, but they spend more time on mobile phones and 40% of them are mobile only.
Our old application was really great, especially for people who use Twitch on both desktop and mobile. But this new experience, we’re really trying to design it to not only be great for existing viewers, but a really good experience for discovering content, even if you’re coming to Twitch for the first time.
We see mobile as an increasingly important part of our user base and indeed an important part of streamers’ communities. And so we wanted to make sure that we really created a great experience for them.
Why is it that TwitchCon 2024 attendees are your target for the app’s first public beta?
I think there are a few different reasons. One is to reward people for coming here, especially those who come early, come to the keynote and really want to engage with the community. We wanted to give them something they could try, something they could play with. So rewarding them for staying here, leaning in, and being part of the Twitch community is an important factor. I think also, it’s a great opportunity for us to get feedback.
So of course, we usually put things like that into experiments as well. And we see feedback through the voice of our users and through public spaces like Reddit and Twitter. But there’s something magical about being able to talk to someone in person and ask them if they’ve tried a new mobile app, help them set it up, and then see what they think and their feedback. Listen to feedback. Listen to what they like, what they don’t like and take them all into consideration.
Because I think one of the really important things at Twitch is that we’re really trying to build with the community in mind and our streamers in mind. So having the opportunity to actually talk to people about it as they use it for the first time is really invaluable to us..