Twitch, without a doubt, remains the most popular channel for streamers across the world and in a nutshell, hosting on Twitch means broadcasting another streamer’s channel on your own, which of course, benefits both you, the other channel owners, as well as the hungry audience looking for some great content. This article takes you through how to host on Twitch.
At the onset, I would like to remind you that as of October 3, 2022, Twitch removed the option to host and the commands to perform this action including /host as well as undo it /host.
What is Host on Twitch?
As mentioned above, it simply refers to hosting another streamer’s live video on your channel when you yourself are offline. To explain things further, as your viewers go to your channel, they see another streamer’s live stream on your channel rather than seeing you offline.
This is an option that was available to any streamer irrespective of the fact whether he was a partner or regardless of the number of views that he had.
How To Host On Twitch?
Hosting on Twitch used to be a fairly simple process that did not take much of an effort. You could actually do it with a couple of basic commands and mouse clicks.
However, some of the things that had to be kept in mind included the fact that you could host only one channel at a time and the maximum number of channel hosts was supposed to be 3 within a span of 30 minutes.
Let’s check out some of the methods that were used to host someone on Twitch:
Hosting on Twitch from Your Desktop
Listed below are some of the steps used to host in Twitch from your desktop:
- First of all, you had to enter your channel’s chat and type the command “/host”/Alongside this command you were also required to enter the name of the channel that you wanted to host.
- This simple command was more than enough to do the job since your viewers and subscribers could see the content chosen by them. The best part is that you could also stay with them and comment live on the streaming.
- To end hosting, all you had to do was type the command “/unhost” in the chat and it brought about an end to hosting.
Hosting on Twitch from Your Mobile
One of the most interesting parts was that Twitch also allowed hosting literally from anywhere through your mobile or cell phone. Here are the steps that helped you do that:
- You were first required to enter the streaming that you wanted to host.
- The next step was to tap the icon with an arrow that you could find at the top of the live streaming.
- Then you were required to choose the option – Host Channel
- This was just about enough to start hosting.
- To end hosting, all that you needed to do was just tap the option – unhost, and it brought about an end to hosting.
Auto Hosting
This option used to be highly useful when you were disconnected with Twitch and they helped automatically host channels that you had already selected before.
Steps to enable auto hosting:
- You could either go to your channel’s settings by clicking on the profile icon or enter directly using this link.
- Once you were in the settings all you had to do was enable the Auto Hosting section.
- After that, you were required to select your preferences and you had two options
- Choose “Host Team Channels” so that you can include team channels in your host list.
- Or you could choose “Host pre-recorded videos” – This allowed you to add specific channels that you wished to host. Not just this, you could also choose the order in which they would be hosted.
Suggested Channels
Just the way it appears from the title itself, Suggested channels are a complete list of channel recommendations from other streamers that you can add to your profile. This is an option that exists even today.
With the help of this option what you can actally do is recommend your audience other streamers. This not only helps your audience enjoy streaming but also helps other streamers gain more visibility on Twitch.
Furthermore, you can also customize your list of suggested channels as per your wish.
Add a Channel
In order to add a channel in the list of suggested channels, all that you need to do is:
- Enter Control Panel
- Go To Channel Settings
- Select Featured Content
- Select Suggested Channels
- Use the search box to find channels that you wish to add and when you get the complete list of channels that you want to add, you can do so in the order of your preference.
Delete a Channel
This is a very simple process and you can use it remove a channel that you do not want to appear in your list of Suggested Channels.
All that you need to delete a channel is click on the trashcan icon next to the channel name and you are done removing it.
Besides this, you can also deactivate a channel in the list of suggested channels by checking the option ‘Deactivate”.
Why host other channels?
This collaboration with other channels not helps them grow but also brings about a lot of benefits for you as well. Some of these benefits are listed below:
Better Community Connect
As you host various channels and streamers you are most likely to recommend or add channels that are of interest to you. In other words, your subscribers are able to get a better insight into what your interest and hobbies resulting in a better connect with. This would not be wrong to say that this helps improve your connection with this amazing community.
Improves Your Brand Image
Twitch community is highly responsive to little gestures that you make by suggesting small streamers. It certainly adds to your reputation and also helps you yourself grow. I would also like to point out that some of these small streamers will most positively get bigger in the coming days and your gestures would then pay off in a massive way.
Increases Your Visibility
You not only appear in the live section of Twitch but are also able to appear in the “live hosting” section. This adds a lot to your visibility on Twitch. In other words, you are likely to get new viewers to your channel and this would certainly add up the numbers when it comes to your channel visits.
Other Channels Will Host You
Its all about give and take?
Twitch has a highly responsive community and if you treat rest of the community well, you too get treated well in return. In other words, it also increases your chances of being hosted by other streamers resulting in a massive boost to your channel visits and views.
Conclusion
Even though it is not possible to host other streamers on your channel, you can still go about adding suggested channels and this could help you in a big way in getting more channel visits yourself.
