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Twitch's New Desktop App Allows You To Create Chat Servers

Is the streaming platform taking aim at the community building of Discord?

Charles Singletary Jr

August 10, 2017 4:10 PM

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Once again, we must declare: Streamers are having a fantastic week. Elgato announced a couple new tools to enhance streamer content, TwitchCon rolled out its first set of announcements, and anyone using a PS4 Pro to stream got a welcome addition to their feature set. Now, Twitch rolled out another surprised when it announced and launched the new Twitch desktop application.

Twitch took to Twitter to make the announcement with an attached video and a few interesting words:

[x] Streams, VODs, Clips, Chat
[x] Video & Voice Calls
[x] A whole lot more
[  ] Bamboozles

Get the new Twitch Desktop app! https://t.co/SS1Yyor68A pic.twitter.com/z3UGOZL8Qq

— Twitch (@Twitch) August 10, 2017

Note the unchecked “bamboozled” portion? We’ll likely never have a direct confirmation of who that little jab was pointed at, but we can draw one potential conclusion. The desktop app has the option to create a server so streamers can engage with a community much like popular application Discord. Discord has caught a little bit of fire for their partnership with recently launched Lawbreakers where the game automatically gives access to player’s Discord info (there is an option to turn this off).

Despite the slight jab, this new application is pretty solid. You get the usual capabilities you have on the web page, but the app also has voice and video calls. There’s also the option to allow the app to manage add-ons for the certain games installed on your computer.You can’t access the dashboard from the app at this moment and there’s no guarantee you will be able to in the future, but it is still quite a robust app at launch. If you’re interested in a Twitch desktop app, you can download it here.

Charles Singletary Jr

News Editor

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.