Update to Offline Video Player

Two weeks ago we ran an experiment with the Twitch offline video player (the player that appears when viewers land on your channel when you’re not live). For a long time we’ve believed that this was an underutilized space that could have profound effects on broadcasters’ viewership. We want to offer viewers a good experience when they land on a channel, whether that channel is live or not.

The experiment involved inserting video highlights into the video player when the channel was offline. The original experiment, which rolled out to 20% of broadcasters, tiled highlight thumbnails across the entire space of the player. For non-partners with few highlights and few broadcasts, we featured popular highlights from the directory.

We heard back from broadcasters that you put a lot of time into your offline images, and you love them. So, we’ve come up with a way to feature your video highlights and your offline image at the same time.

Today we’re happy to announce that we’re rolling out a new offline player update to 100% of users. The new offline player only features the most recent highlights from the current channel, and only shows highlights on the bottom third of the video player. If you don’t have any highlights to show off, create some with the highlight tool. The update is rolling out across the site today. If you don’t see it now, you will soon.

We hope you love this as much as we do. As always, we’re listening. Let us know what you think!