After years of waiting, Apple TV owners look to finally be receiving an official Twitch app. Users will now be able to do away with the various unofficial apps that have been used in place of an official release. Most of those are fairly buggy, but the best option one has had until now.
The announcement has been relatively small in scale to this point, as the app is still in the early stages of testing. Right now, the app is the first for Twitch on tvOS, and it should appear and function exactly as the iOS app. The process is simple, and takes only a few quick steps to complete. Early adopters who want access right now can follow the instructions set forth by Twitch, which can be viewed by clicking here.
The release of the app is another step for Twitch to expand beyond only the streaming of video games. Many users may associate Twitch streamers with certain games and names, such as DrLupo and Fortnite, or Ninja before he moved over to Mixer, a streaming service operated by Microsoft, but there is a broad range of topics to stream that have nothing to do with games.
The category “Just Chatting” is one of the largest on Twitch, often with a high number of viewers and around four million followers. Here, viewers can watch channels that present traditional cooking from specific countries, fitness streamers, professional wrestling, and replays of Bob Ross and his painting shows. There are myriad odd channels as well, which can be quite entertaining. Kitboga was well known in the past for calling IRS, Tax, Virus, or other Tech scammers with the explicit purpose of wasting their time.
For cord cutters who wish to get away from cable, but enjoy the music channels that are used to fill a home with ambiance, Twitch offers the Music & Performing Arts category. This offers music of every type, one needs simply find a few to fit their tastes.
Beyond these unique channels, Twitch has also experimented with using its platform for awareness as well. Currently the platform is promoting National Hispanic Heritage Month. Each day a Hispanic or Latino streamer is being promoted on the front page, and it is fantastic to see how this relatively new process of in-home streaming can be used for such awareness campaigns.
While Twitch predominately seems to feature news stories about its most popular game streamers, there is clearly a significant amount of content to explore, and the official Apple TV app is a perfect addition to those looking to further reduce any dependency on cable companies.
Source: blog.twitch.tv, vg247.com