Twitch extensions are live and ready to customize your page
Your favorite Twitch stream might look a bit busier and more colorful than usual now that the platform has switched on the extensions it announced at PAX West. Streamers can now customize their pages with interactive experiences they can display over their live videos, including Hearthstone match tickers, virtual pets, the channel’s top cheerers, various overlays, live trackers, in-game statistics and the like.
Some extensions like “Gear on Amazon” can help them earn affiliate money by giving them a way to display their favorite products on screen — they don’t even have to leave their dashboard to create their list. While the platform has a bunch of extensions streamers can use, they can also create their own plug-ins if they need something more personalized.
Twitch is giving third-party developers access to free asset hosting and fanout messaging on its Extensions platform. That means streamers can commission people to conjure up plug-ins for personal use if they can’t create their own, allowing them to add their own flair to their channels.
Twitch Product Manager for Extensions Ryan Lubinski said in a statement:
“Twitch is a platform where communities create, share, and interact with the content they love. With Twitch Extensions, we’re taking interactivity to the next level by empowering our developer community to create customized interactive content, directly integrated with the Twitch platform, opening up a whole new world of creator-viewer interaction.”
Although the feature is now live, it sounds like the company has yet to reveal everything about it. Twitch promises to share more at TwitchCon Developer Day on October 19th, including “how streamers and developers can make money through Twitch Extensions.”
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