Twitch: Live Streaming Reviews

by Aaron Rames

While Twitch has always had problems with stability no matter when you look at it, as of recently it’s been extremely unstable. The slightest wrong move and you’ll freeze the video you’re watching. But not only that, if you close your app and then try to come back to the video and resume progress, your app immediately freezes every time! Another problem exists where if you switch from landscape to portrait, and back again, you’ll cause the dimensions of the video to be out of whack (basically shrinks the picture and puts it in the top left corner and leaves the rest of the space where your video should be blank) and when you try to get the original dimensions of your video back by switching between the two modes, lo and behold, Twitch freezes! It works as it’s supposed to for pretty much everything else, although i can think of a few minor nitpicks. Like when fast forwarding and rewinding through past broadcasts clears the chat each time instead of the chat simply being synced with the video. As I’m trying to test Twitch to find these minor issues, my app is now freezing no matter what video or stream i try to watch. It’s truly never been this unstable, but currently, Twitch is unusable garbage.

by NanaQ110

Edit: Even viewing the subscribed channel has been dreadful. With audio bug, video bug, random error msgs that force quit stream, after that, loading signs that takes forever. What a performance by the biggest streaming service.

I go on this app mainly to watch live streaming service and connecting with the gaming community. The current layout makes it impossible to enjoy what this app offers. On full screen, chat taking half of the screen is okay, but the other buttons such as follow, subscribe buttons and streamer descriptions taking the other screen is just too much, especially when i have already subscribed or followed the streamer. When i open the chat the actual gameplay takes less than 20% of the full screen. As this app updates its mobile applications it makes me not want to use Twitch . It becomes more and more inconvenient to users. Also please let users decide what they want to do when the ad is playing. I’m watching the stream at 460p trying to save data and this 5min ad comes out in 1060p. No way to change it. Maybe ill try to subscribe when the ad is playing or follow the streamer but it is not available. These buttons and descriptions that are annoying when people are actually watching the stream will be useful when people are watching the ad.

by Jamalprince

Looking at Twitch from a developmental standpoint, Twitch is terrific. Outside of little things like not being able to change your profile picture, everything seems to run smoothly. However after having Twitch for a while I noticed that my email for some reason wasn’t linked to my profile. I tried to fix it from The Xbox app on the console but no luck. Then since I was already logged in on my phone,I tried it there, still no luck. I then logged out and that’s when I really started to get upset. My password and login info stopped working once I logged out then the reset emails weren’t sending and kept saying my account doesn’t exist. I thought I would email and it would be a 2 day fix...wrong! I’ve sent roughly 10 emails in almost 2 months and nothing from them at all. I received a bot reply saying I hope the problem fixed itself, when prompted to email back if it isn’t. They again just ignored my emails. The brand new game I wanted to stream is now 2 months old and I don’t even want to play it considering now no one wants to watch it. this app Customer Service officially ruined playing my games while streaming.

by Watermarksucks

The controls are atrocious to use. Can’t fast forward or backward without having to click the screen once where the busy user interface pops up, which serves absolutely no purpose. I already am following the streamer so why is this blocking half my screen as if I didn’t already who this guy I’m following was? Same thing when you pause the video in fullscreen. I pause it because there are things I want to look at but guess what? I can’t because this this thing is obstructing half my screen again. Can’t click it away like you do when it’s not in full screen. Are people who designed this stupid? Also for live, video and clip, only video does NOT have the sort filter out of the three. WHY? You have it on the web version. Why not on Twitch ? The design is all over the place and inconsistent. The only good thing is that it has been stable for me. But everything else is trash. The controls, UI. It’s a mess to navigate through and it’s unnecessarily convoluted. Please fix it or I’m deleting Twitch . The web version is much easier to use anyway.

by Jason6210001000

The previous version was better in that it would remember games I last viewed. Now, I have to scroll to find the game. Though I did hate that it always showed most recent and it was all or none when deleting them, but oh well on that. If it’s possible to creat a favorites games list I haven’t looked for it, but apparently it doesn’t stand out either, for me anyway.

I hate the new continue watching feature. I understand some might like it, but the only reason I watch a rerun is because I can’t find anything live I’d like to watch. And the only way to remove the continue watching is to watch them, fast forward to the end, then go back or to watch the remaining part. Why can’t I just delete items while they’re in the continue watching area. Plus, I have something stuck in continue watching because I apparently need to subscribe to watch it, so I can’t go into it and watch it or fast forward to get rid of it. Either let me disable continue watching or give me the ability to delete from that area, not by having to go into the video.

by MistMoonTears

I have Twitch for both my phone and iPad. I have never Live Streamed from my Phone, but I attempted a few weeks ago to do a Live Stream from my iPad because of technical issues with my computer. There was no real tutorial process of how much of anything worked for someone NEW to the this app app (had the same similar issues with the PC app version) and I could not make heads or tails of if I was actually LIVE or not. It just kept giving me a screen that was my cam, but appeared that it was still loading and this went on for a while.

I also kept accidentally re-setting my stream details, only because I was trying to figure out what everything did (and that’s frustrating when you’ve told your viewers you are going live, only to have it take forever, it feels like, to get things up and going).

Twitch for mobile devices and non-mobile definitely still needs some work in my book, but thankfully since I’ve been using it for a bit on my PC I have a better handle for it now, but when I first started I did NOT feel it was very New Streamer friendly.

by JudeMan123

Let me get this out of the way: almost all the problems with this app are erased on a computer. Whether on the site or on Twitch , on a computer everything works perfectly.
However, on the phone it lacks a lot of what it needs. You can’t subscribe with this app prime for some reason, and it’s much harder to navigate on mobile than on pc. The other problems are the sub tokens they added and buying bits. Why did they add sub tokens? They’re just kind of stupid, why would I buy sub tokens before instead of just subbing to who I want? The last problem is bits. The price of bits makes no sense. Ive been told before it’s about a cent per bit, but then why is it seven dollars for 500 bits? That’s way more than the tax should be, and my only explanation is that this app gets a little bit too greedy between the viewers and the streamers and tacks on unfair prices, making it harder for viewers to support streamers. Other than that, incredible app, I love watching streamers and talking to the this app community that you can surround yourself with, it’s really incredible

by TheRealRawD

Needs improvement; this app could certainly use some new and fresh ideas in terms of viewers/viewing capabilities, native communication is basic at best yet struggles with latency throughout Twitch . When asked, the initial response given was from long time users of this app, which was great! others not so much mentioning several technical problems from namely Twitch in and of itself with a few other hiccups here and there as expected however this app in it’s entirety is a brilliant platform as well as a great way to showcase any and all of your talents if you will. Continually this app will keep providing us with UI glitches more often than not currently there is no way suggest anything aside from writing a long neutral review about said inability, currently there is no way (that I am aware of) to exit a video you’re streaming without closing Twitch one would think of this to taken care of already and maybe it is or their working on it, if not then the solution is right here, all of which could be provided at a small nominal fee 😉😏

by Braedondos

There is a recent bug that causes audio from a stream to keep playing even after it is closed, which results in multiple instances of audio playing at once, forcing a restart of Twitch .

Also, why did they remove the button to put the stream picture-in-picture mode so you can watch it outside of Twitch ? For a little while, it would automatically put you in picture-in-picture mode when you would minimize the stream. But now, the picture-in-picture stream doesn't stay open anymore when you close Twitch . For some reason, you can get the stream playing when you close Twitch , but only if you swipe up very, very precisely with some arbitrary momentum (I'm on an iphone with no home button)

And the ads... man... they are getting ridiculous. Instant 30 second ad after switching streams makes switching to another stream to see another perspective of something happening impossible. And the blocks of 5-7 ads that are all 15-30 seconds long are appearing much more frequently on streams as well. At least get some good ads if you plan on shoving them in everyone's faces. Don't you guys already make enough money from subscribers and turbo?

by MoonlitSkyPaintingBlue

I did not know Twitch defaults to auto play. Not to say there’s anything wrong with auto playing streams themselves but I was not aware of it and as a result I assumed a stream would end if I let the phone be. Halfway through a late night stream, I fell asleep without worries. However, I woke up and found my phone went from 100% to 13%. The streams stopped it from naturally falling into sleep mode after I unplugged it and set it to low power mode. This night of nonstop video playing no doubt harmed my phone battery’s maximum capacity, meaning it will be quicker to drop to 0% in the future and I did not intend for that.

My suggestion is that you please make a pop up for mobile that stops the stream, live or otherwise, and asks the viewer “Are you still there?” after one or two auto plays have already occurred without outside input. If there’s no further response, the phone can fall into sleep mode. If there is someone still watching, they’ll tap ‘Yes’ and keep watching.

Anyway, I’ve turned off auto play in settings, so this problem won’t happen for me again. But I still I wouldn’t want any people starting out with Twitch to make the same mistake I did.

by Shane247

I used to never have problems with this app, it was one of the apps I used to always get on and just watch a stream for fun. After a while I left because had life things to handle. But recently I decided it was a good time to get back on this app. Was I wrong, yes and no. While the audio is fine without video, I’ve had troubles watching a stream and have audio at the same time. While the video plays just fine, it’s the audio that don’t work well on the stream. While I’ve been thinking maybe it could be my end, but when it’s been constant, I just don’t see the point in watching anything. Another thing, you removed the option to switch from 720 to something like 480, how can you test something to make sure it’s not your end if you actually take away a feature that was fine to begin with. I get the times are changing and technology is getting more and more advanced, trust me, I was born in the age of technology’s very beginnings of taking over. Just fix the stability of Twitch please, is that so much to ask. And please just add back a 480p button just for the users who can’t watch in 720.

by Crazykid0416

A bug still exists that has for a long time where when in dark mode, certain movements or actions can cause Twitch to switch to light mode, which takes a long time and 4 menu pages to flip through to turn it back on which is inconvenient and slightly annoying.

Another issue exists that when you are watching a stream in full screen mode and you double tap to open chat, and you click on a chatter’s name, a menu will pop up that allows you to gift them a sub, or look at their info etc. The problem is that when this menu pops up when in fullscreen (phone sideways), there’s no way to close the menu; you can’t click anywhere to get rid of the menu as it takes up the entire screen, and the only way to close it is to flip your device and go back to non-fullscreen, tap anywhere outside of the menu, and it’ll close. Again, this is an issue that has a solution but requires a lot of time spent to undo which can be annoying for users. A simple fix would be to add a close button for this menu, both in fullscreen and non-fullscreen.

Similar to the last issue, when you tap on emotes in chat, the only way to close the menu is to click outside the menu which can be difficult/inconvenient. The same solution exists where all that is needed for this problem is to add exit buttons to menus.

by SuprCoolGuy69

I’m on this app almost every night and it’s not a huge issue but the new update is slightly annoying/ inconvenient. First world problem but when I go onto this app I like being able to see who of all the creators I follow are online so I can choose which channel to watch at that time. Now it’s just the top 2 view counts that take up my first view and the scrolling is not as streamlined as picking from a more compact list. Experience of Twitch itself is worse with the new design. Just my opinion tho so it doesn’t really matter. I mean who’s really reading these things anyway. I could prolly talk about anything on here like hey did you watch the new bachelorette last night. Me neither I was too busy scrolling 5 miles down my screen to see the creator I wanted to watch. Anyways, I digress, is that the right place for “digress”? Is digress to a side thought what digest is to food. Very similar sounding. Anyways, digress, have a good night everybody

by MACDERMATRON

I think this app is cool and different than other platforms. I have a couple channels that I follow and browse some others that peak my interest occasionally. There are some issues that I have with it tho. When you open Twitch , the first thing you see are other channels that are being promoted or match who you are currently following. The channels you follow are at the bottom and you have to scroll all the way down just to get to them. Put the ones I’m following at the top for quick access, please. Also, I understand that Twitch is for ages 17+ but when you open Twitch and the channels that are being promoted show up, I’d rather not have a bunch of pages of girls with every part of their anatomy hanging out as the first thing you see. A good 2/3 of the channels are like this. I don’t even follow channels like them; just some gaming channels and a couple where the women actually wear all their clothes and talk about everyday life. Yet they are spread all over my front page in string bikinis in hot tubs. I’d rather not open Twitch and look like some creep who views those kinds of adult channels when I don’t. It’s like you have to open Twitch with your phone or tablet covered in case there’s someone else looking by mistake. Maybe I’ll look through Twitch and see if I can fix things myself or hopefully Twitch is updated in the future.

by Gqerez

I have been viewing this app more and more and honestly the best this app experience on mobile is Twitch. But there are a few things that if implemented, would greatly enhance Twitch . There have been a few times where I wanted to link my this app and prime accounts but there is no option to do so on this mobile app. It would be great to be able to support my favorite creators with out worrying about missing a chunk of their stream. Overall there are a variety of features lacking on Twitch that really make me feel like I’m missing out while being a primarily mobile user. The only benefit to getting this app prime on mobile is the crown symbol next to my name in chat. Besides lack of subscription options there is virtually no customization available except my profile picture. I know it’s not easy giving the pc experience on an app but the iOS app should be equal in features to computer. If they do so I believe many of the user base would prefer viewing from mobile.

by A Consistent Twitch Viewer

I have been a bit frustrated with the new update for the this app mobile app. I have an iPhone 10, so the corners of my screen are rounded off and when I go to full screen the top and bottom of the video get cut off, along with things being blocked by where the camera is placed. This used to not be a problem because they left a blank space on each side of the screen so that it all fit in frame, but now especially while watching games like Minecraft where the bottom of the video is very important(the players inventory and the chat box) is impossible to see. This can be frustrating to watch and take away from my overall experience as a viewer. Another bug I have encountered is that often when I start to type in chat it will make the stream lag, causing the video and audio to get out of sync. Reloading/refreshing the page always fixes it, but leaves me waiting through an ad. This makes me less inclined to interact in chat, which is one of the best features of this app. Besides these two bugs I absolutely love Twitch and the community that this app has created!

by NinjaMaster21

One of the things that I like about this app is being able to clip moments from my favorite streamers, being able to edit and trimming the clips was always fun to do and letting you see how the clip turned out during and in the end of the trimming process was always satisfying. However after I recently updated Twitch the clips that I, well clipped, weren’t showing during the trimming process making it hard for me to know what unnecessary fluff I need to take out. So I pretty much gotta leave the clip unedited and hope that I timed it right which isn’t fun for me if I don’t know how it turns out after trimming it. I don’t know if I’m the only one with this problem but if I’m not and others have this problem and they can fix that issue that’ll be great and I might give it a 5 star because I actually like Twitch .

Update: a recent update fixed it, so now I’m happy and will give it 5 stars.

by TooManyNicknamesAreTaken8

UPDATE: the below problem was fixed! Thank you for making hype train stop taking up all the screen on mobile! Keeping the original review below to show that there was a problem but it was resolved. Obviously still not a perfect app, with problems such as implementation of DMCA rules, but at least the UI designers are trying, thanks :)

Please fix this design problem. When I am watching a stream on mobile (iPhone XR) in horizontal mode with chat, if a Hype Train appears, it extends the chat to over half of the screen space. This makes watching the stream harder, as it becomes very small in comparison to the chat.

Please don't force the Hype Train to make chat bigger, or give an option to remove seeing it entirely please! When I am watching my favorite streamers sometimes the Hype Train lasts several minutes and I have to decide whether to not see chat or not see the stream well. Other than that, great app/service.

by Nbasic101

What can you really say about this app? There are so many good things that I could say but my main two are community and content. While I do not think this app should ever allow porn or soft core, I do think they have done a good job balancing things that they ban for. I feel as if most streamers are able to say what they really feel (XQC for one example lol) and obviously there’s an extent to that ( XQC example again… (: ) I really do feel as if a streamer on this app can have a great conversation even when they have differing opinions than those in their chat. Don’t get me wrong 80% of the time it turns into a chat shut up fest (most time we deserve it) but really. this app is so great and has changed/saved so many lives. I can’t tell you how many people’s streams I’ve been on where someone in chat has reached out for help and the community supports that person (even sometimes when it’s OmegaCringe. Even when you’re not struggling they give you so much encouragement it makes you want to help even more. Anyways that’s all I have for today. And yes I do realize that I gave my main two points and then gave a whole paragraph. Forget about it.

by Fingersteam

I search for correct spelling and defenitions using the text chat feature while participating in a stream. When selecting text a popup > look up > my internet browser appears. When then going back to the this app app the stream is in a small window. I select to maximize the stream (trying to not fat finger) and it closes the window. Now, my text I was working on is gone and I have to open the stream again. I have found my text to still be in the same stream like cache or something, but not always. Copying my text has been one measure to prevent losing my comment and minimizing Twitch > opening a browser and searching for the word that way is a workaround. USING LOOK UP TO SEARCH FOR A WORD DEFINITION SEEMS TO CAUSE INSTABILITY WITH this app APP AND CRASHES THE STREAM (not every time, but enough to be bothersome). Hopefully this is making sense - cheers :]

by Barbblerelf

I love how I can sync accounts like this app to my discord. That’s how you get into sub only discord’s and Twitch makes it so easy! Oh wait no it doesn’t. You can log into your this app but it won’t show you ANY DISCORD CHANNELS. ok fine. I’ll log in online. Sorry no login screen on the home page of discord while on mobile. Fine I’ll dig in even more and find the most hard to find link online to log in. Now I need to spend 30 minutes clicking buses on a “I’m not a bot” window more times than it takes to log into a major bank account or credit report monitor. Awesome, now I should be logged in right? Nope. An error saying you’re on the wrong type of discord. Why do I need to log into a computer to check or join “connections” discord’s. Has no one in the company ever been a human. It’s insane. Use Twitch . More than just once. Try things normal people want to do. Fix the website. Realize mobile browsers aren’t flip phones anymore and give actual full features on the site instead of less than Twitch even gives. If discord didn’t have a monopoly I’d wonder how the hell theyre still in business

by Geowa

Using Twitch for years now and there’s been very little improvement over those years. Twitch allows you to do basic functions such as watch a stream, or tip bits. However if you want to do other things such as tip and subscribe you won’t be able to do that in Twitch . You will have to go to a PC or request desktop mode from the safari browser. When you request desktop mode it tends to cause problems for your fighting with Twitch opening and then trying to get the desktop mode painful process. Missing subscribe function is the biggest issue I’d say. Could this be true to be missing for so many years it’s just incredible to me. It’s a basic function on this app it’s been around for a long time and that’s how you can show support for your favorite stream, same with tipping that should be in there too for some reason it’s not.
Immobile multitask with us at the concert want to minimize itself and not going to wind up mode don’t have to force a question time 20 many bugs should’ve never been fixed. Other than that the most annoying bug is the crashing of Twitch .

by Krahnin

So, no issue with streaming performance, but either A) there is a LOT missing from Twitch , or B) it’s super un-intuitive and these things are impossible to find. Missing features include:

- The ability to subscribe to a channel via mobile.
- The ability to see existing subscriptions and when they expire.
- The ability to change your profile picture.
- The ability to easily get to a channel’s home page if they are live. (I am forced to go into the live video, often causing blaring audio even when my phone is silenced, and then have to poke around to find a way to get to the channel’s home screen and THEN I have to terminate the still playing video).
- A means to set subscriptions to auto-renew. (Unable to find this on the web version either - maybe just a missing feature?).

All in all, forcing me to log into the site severely inhibits Twitch ’s on the fly functionality. I’d think these item would be a priority as the easier it is to manage things, the more likely people are to download/open Twitch . While not a huge amount of competition in this market, it just takes one competitor doing it better to start stealing people away. If these features are missing, I’d recommend adding them. If they are just hard to find, I’d recommend either re-thinking the layout or adding an overlay tutorial that walks through functionality for users. Something that launches initially for brand new users and can be launched at will for people needing a refresher.

by Mortal_Man

While Twitch wasn’t the best for mobile streaming, or watching older videos (had plenty of times where the video would reset entirely after watching an ad, or just randomly flicker and then reset back to the start of the video), it did work well enough, though I still don’t understand why the method of getting bits by watching ads was removed from mobile, despite already giving barely any bits by comparison to what you would get for watching an ad on your computer. The recent change of adding “recommended channels” to the home screen is buggy for me and doesn’t actually load correctly (being stuck with the initial error message as well as the “recommended channels”), but reloading the page works as a workaround for now.
I personally find most of the recommendations, despite being a push to make me watch more content... distasteful, as most of them are people I followed and didn’t want to see again as the community was either to exclusive, or I didn’t really connect with the streamer. So honestly, it shouldn’t go on the home page where I have my listing of what I started watching, and the streamers I do want to watch and am following.
(More to follow

by Sarastartree

While it often works and is still a very valid, not at all half-baked alternative to the website, it has been fairly unstable for me since day one. I’m nowhere near a frequenter of this app, just occasionally watch the streams of people like Vinesauce and Vargskelethor, but it’s become harder to handle since the new iOS update that changed the layout of the menu you get when you double-click the home button. Whenever I decide to play the stream in the corner of my screen, it pauses, and sometimes simply disappears. Today has been one of the worst days I’ve used it, as I can only spend, say, a minute on Twitch before it freezes up and forces me out. This isn’t the first time this has happened, either. Maybe the solid third time, and I’m fully unable to access the streams for more than maybe 20 seconds before it quits out. I’ve tried resetting my iPad and redownloading Twitch , but to no avail. I’m certain it’s an issue with the servers at this point, and a very pesky one. Please fix this as soon as possible, so I can actually use your app. Thank you.

by McCaseyFresh

It’s not a bad app but it would be nice to be able to subscribe and donate to people straight from Twitch . Besides all that the this app app seems to have been working just fine for me for quite some time now.
I really enjoy being able to watch my friends and favorite streamers while on the go. It’s also a great time passer when sitting at my psychiatrists office and having a 3-4 hour wait just to see my doctor for 5 to 10 minutes.
I don’t know anything about the live streaming part because I just use the mobile app to watch. But as far as that it seems to work pretty good. It would be PERFECT if they’d implement the “subscribe” and “donate” buttons somewhere in Twitch though. Maybe put it on the screen next to the “follow/heart” button on the actual stream video.
Ive looked everywhere on Twitch and hadn’t been able to find the sub or donate anywhere on Twitch and will feel pretty stupid if it’s been there the whole time but none of my friends or viewers have been able to find it either. Please update Twitch and add those 2 things and people would probably use Twitch a lot more!

by Amazon Visa

If your into finds my quality content creators especially gaming this app is the place to be. The only thing that’s always driven me crazy to the point I almost gave only 4 stars is all the QUALITY broadcasters that are buried in such a saturated market. You must sift through hundreds to find a few hidden gems. “Partner” streams or “Featured” channels have put in the grind and deserve it but some of these other upstarts have no prayer to cut through the noise. With that said the majority of people sitting through directories do not take the time to sift to the streams at the bottom with little to no views. I find that to be the Consoles (XBOX & PS4) fault for making it so ez for any toxic 12 year old with a console can connect and upload toxic trash. So considering at the end of the day it’s not all on this app? I went ahead with 5 stars for Twitch . good for tips, & tricks for any gamer and other IRL streams as Well.

by Tomatitto291

I absolutely love live streams, and this app in general. I’ve been on the this app bandwagon for longer than most, but can’t help to notice these extremely common, frustrating bugs. I will play live streams or VODs, and the audio will just go out. I used to be able to close out stream, change video quality, or close out app to fix it, but that is no longer the case. The only fix I have been able to find as of late is to completely uninstall and reinstall Twitch . I am now doing this 10+ times per day, and that’s unacceptable. If this issue isn’t solved by the end of this week, I’m just going to go watch someone else re upload one of your creator’s livestreams. Which mean that’s neither you, or the streamer you pretend to help will be making any money off of me, and I will cancel my multiple subscriptions.