Twitch introduces a story feature so now it’s more like Instagram

In the olden days, each of the four or five major social media sites offered an experience that was unique. Snapchat had a lot of quick and easily erasable mistakes. Instagram showed cute pictures of friends instead of ads. Facebook was the first platform to offer both Minion-themed memes as well as extensive data collection. The differences seem to get smaller and smaller. This trend is being continued by Twitch with its newly-announced stories feature.

On Monday, Twitch announced the launch of “stories,” a new feature for creators to share short posts via the Twitch mobile app. The functionality is very similar to that of other apps with the same name, like Instagram. The users can share short messages on their channels, which will expire within 48 hours. The feature is limited to partners and affiliates who have streamed once in the past 30 days, and will roll out by the “end of the week and on an ongoing basis,” Twitch said in a blog post.

The stories feature, for me is the best example of how unique experiences have been channelled into a more or less same set of features. Snapchat introduced the story feature in 2013 and popularized it. Instagram then launched an obvious copy in 2016. Other companies have followed suit over the years. Facebook released its version in 2019. X, then known as Twitter, tried its hand at “Fleets” in 2020, and TikTok launched its own version of the feature to its app just last year. Twitch has joined the party (which is very boring).

Before I go on, I’d like to say that I think the addition makes sense. Twitch’s announcement of stories comes just before TwitchCon 2023. Now, the service’s popular creators will have a way to continue producing content and keep fans in the loop while away from their setups at home. In this vein, I could imagine that creators would use it to post a photo or graphic as a way to announce their stream. Twitch is still following the trend towards homogenization in social media with its new addition.

For years, it’s been this weird back and forth where one platform finds one way to capture users’ attention, and then that feature gets reproduced by another platform. Twitch also ran into the problem: Facebook wanted to introduce streaming games, and TikTok expanded livestreaming capabilities. Twitch is also competing with YouTube for talent and attention. YouTube introduced its first livestreaming feature in 2011.

I’ve written about the ways in which TikTok’s algorithm can prioritize the biggest trends, making the platform more boring, but these ideas hold true for how companies design the platforms themselves, too. It’s all very boring, and makes me miss a time when my digital life wasn’t consumed by a handful of companies. At least Tumblr is still around!