Twitch’s next change is the removal of its rerun feature, which Amazon’s platform users are divided on.
Streamers who are currently offline can watch a rerun of an older stream on Twitch. The ‘Just Chatting’ and ‘ASMR’ communities use these to keep up with interactions and potential donations while they are away.
Twitch intends to remove the feature, among other things. Twitch has also started removing the friend’s list feature, citing a lack of use among its users. Most streamers will simply load up a video file via their preferred program and broadcast that while away, so Twitch is removing the rerun feature because it isn’t being used enough by the wider community.
Zach Bussey, a reporter for all things streaming, broke the news of the removal. According to Bussey, there is no set date for the removal yet.
Although some streamers and viewers are more upset than others, the Twitch community isn’t yet raising their pitchforks over the potential change. Everything that doesn’t really fit into the other categories goes in the ‘Just Chatting’ section of the website, with ‘ASMR’ being spun out to avoid clogging up the list of streams.
The ‘tingly’ feeling you get when you hear something pleasant or whisper to another person is known as ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response).
It’s extremely popular on YouTube and Twitch, and it’s one of the most common uses for the rerun feature, as creators frequently run them while they’re away, for their late-night viewers to enjoy.
While both Just Chatting and ASMR make extensive use of the feature for repeat sessions or podcasts, its removal could exacerbate an issue that already dominates certain categories.
As previously mentioned, one current strategy is to load up video files and then leave the stream running for several hours. Even though no one is actually present, the streamer is highlighted as being live.
Several of these channels will be marked with! If it is a rerun, it will be abbreviated as RR’, but no effort will be made to display this on screen for those who are unfamiliar with Twitch’s abbreviations.
As of this writing, only two of the top ten ASMR streams are actually live on Twitch, while the other six are reruns that aren’t using Twitch’s feature. Only two of the six reruns are currently using the feature, and one of the six has a ‘not live’ sign on their stream.
