Twitch is becoming much more than just a game streaming site. The latest addition to its service, called Pulse, will see the Amazon-owned company move closer to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Pulse is described as "a place where streamers can post and engage with all of their followers and the greater Twitch community right from the Twitch front page. It's an always-on way to share clips, stream highlights, schedules, photos, and more so followers are more informed, engaged, and connected," writes Sheila Raju in a blog post.
Pulse is an extension of the Channel Feed that arrived in beta last March. The feature is essentially a page that contains only content posted by specific broadcasters. With Pulse, everything is collected in one place - not just from broadcasters you follow, but also from your friends on Twitch.
Pulse is rolling out over the next few weeks. Once it arrives, you'll see a mix of text, GIFs, images, and videos on Twitch's front page. Supported services include Vimeo, YouTube, Imgur and Gfycat.
If you're a streamer, updates can be posted using the Broadcaster Dashboard or Channel Feed, while everyone else can use the Pulse feature in the same way as Facebook - but you'll need to be following at least one post creator to access it.
Thanks to Pulse's familiar, social network-like interface, the feature could help attract new gaming fans to the site. And with Twitch's video game market set to arrive this spring, the company is continuing to expand its appeal.