Twitch, renowned for its chat ban tools, is set to empower streamers with a heightened ability to manage their audience even before a stream begins.
During the latest installment of Patch Notes, a monthly show dedicated to product updates, Twitch unveiled a forthcoming feature that will permit streamers to prevent banned users from not only participating in chat but also accessing the livestream itself in real time. This initiative serves as an extension of Twitch's ongoing efforts to combat harassment and enhance user safety.
Scheduled for release within the coming weeks, this anti-harassment enhancement will seamlessly integrate with Twitch's existing blocking mechanisms, ensuring that users on the blocklist are automatically denied entry to a stream. While the feature will not be enabled as the default setting, streamers will have the flexibility to activate it through moderation settings.
During the Patch Notes presentation, Trevor Fisher, Twitch's Senior Product Manager, acknowledged the feedback from the community over the years, indicating a strong desire for more robust tools to manage channel bans.
"The demand for channel bans to have a more significant impact has been a recurring theme, and we have listened to our community's voice," Fisher explained.
It is important to note that this new option will have certain limitations. It will solely apply to logged-in users who are on the block or ban list, restricting their access to ongoing livestreams. However, the feature will not extend to IP blocking at this stage, and identifying anonymous, logged-out users remains a challenge for the platform.
Additionally, this enhancement will not affect the viewing of VODs, highlights, and clips by unwanted viewers, although Twitch has plans to incorporate this functionality in the future. This step showcases Twitch's ongoing commitment to refining its tools and features for streamers' benefit and the overall improvement of the streaming experience.