Twitch has announced it’s launching dual-format streaming next month, a new system that lets creators stream in both horizontal and vertical formats at the same time.
Announced at TwitchCon Europe 2026, this new feature will optimise viewing experiences for both desktop and mobile viewers.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback during the beta and made noticeable performance improvements, too,” Twitch said. “Dual Format leverages Enhanced Broadcasting technology, which uses the client to encode multiple variants of your stream to viewers. When we roll this out next month, we’ll be adding server-side transcoding support for Partners and many Affiliates, to offset the strain this can put on some systems.”
The company also confirmed it would be expanding 2K (1440p) streaming to all partners and affiliates next month, coupled with increased bitrate support, better notifications, and Stream Summaries, a “new feature that generates a brief synopsis of what has happened during a broadcast so far”. It does not mention AI in the update.
Twitch is also “continuing to invest in Clips” with the introduction of Auto Clips, which “automatically generates captioned clips from moments in a stream”. It is also introducing automatic clip captions and updates to Stories, including stream recap features and additional clip surfacing across Twitch.
We’re also getting .gifs in chat for tier 2 and tier 3 subscribers – I can’t decide if that’s a good or a bad thing – and “several updates designed to help creators earn more, including Creator Badge Drops, Mythic Trains, Creator Sponsorships and the expansion of Bounty Board campaigns to Affiliates through Open Invite campaigns”. Drops will also be “easier for viewers to discover, earn, and track”.
Perhaps the biggest news for Eurozone streamers, however, is confirmation the SEPA payments now remove currency exchange fees, making for “lower transfer costs”. There’s no news on when, exactly, this’ll be rolled out, thought, only a pledge to “notify you once the update is live”.
Twitch will be in Berlin for TwitchCon Europe on 22–23rd May, 2027.
