Twitch is now (mostly) telling everyone which experiments it’s running

Twitch is now (mostly) telling everyone which experiments it’s running

Twitch has a new “experiments” support page where it will share details on many of the experimental features it’s testing on its platform. The Twitch experiments page explains some of the ways the company tests new features and has a list of some of the tests it’s currently running, what they change, and how long the experiment will last. The company says it will update that list monthly.

Many platforms run experiments with small groups of users, but it’s not exactly common for them to have a public list that users can check to see if the button or screen they’re seeing is new or if everyone’s seeing it. Now, Twitch users will have somewhere to go if they see something that looks unfamiliar or if they just want to check in on some of the things the company is working on.

Twitch’s article currently lists several ongoing trials, including the addition of extra analytics around tags, a feature that highlights viewer milestones to streamers, and a new mobile chat mode that shows transparent bubbles over the stream. Not everyone will have access to the features being tested, but those who do may see a little flask symbol to show that the thing they’re using is experimental.

The company does say there’ll be limits to the transparency — it says that “many” but “not all” of the experiments will be listed on the page and that it might not disclose some experiments to make sure it can “gather unbiased data and insights that reflect how members of the community use a tool or feature we’re testing.” Twitch also says that “most of the time, streamers will not be informed that they are in an experiment because it may negatively affect the results.”

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