Twitch to Let Creators Upload Outside Short-Form Videos Starting Early Next Year
Twitch will let creators upload short videos made outside the platform starting early next year, announced at TwitchCon 2026 in San Diego. Executives say the aim is discovery and ad inventory, not a rival to TikTok. Streamers and industry figures are split on whether it will work.
Twitch will let creators upload short-form videos made outside the platform starting early next year, the livestreaming service announced during its keynote at TwitchCon 2026 in San Diego. The move is aimed at improving on-platform discovery and creating more ad inventory.
Executives say the goal is not a TikTok-style destination. Twitch wants short videos to help viewers find creators and then tune into their livestreams, where creators make most of their money.
"We're not trying to be TwitchTok," said Mike Minton, Twitch's chief product officer.
What is changing
The uploads build on Twitch's Clips tools, which have let creators and viewers clip livestreams and share them on the platform for more than a decade. Clips made or shared elsewhere are now a central part of creator culture.
Minton said Twitch had "missed an opportunity" to make clips happen on its own platform. Twitch creators' short-form content has historically gone viral on TikTok, X, YouTube Shorts and Instagram, racking up millions of views.
Twitch already has a Clips tab on mobile and desktop. It will add a "Category Recap" shelf to category pages, filled with clips and recaps.
Feeds will also become more personalized over time. According to Minton, each user's viewing habits will decide whether they see more short-form content or more streams.
New editing tools will make it easier to find exciting moments and turn them into clips. That could help smaller creators who cannot pay an editor or spend hours editing in an outside app after a long stream. Streamers Vio and Marshall wondered whether AI would power those features.
Mixed reaction
Industry figures were largely positive. "It's a smart thing for them to do," said Eric Bogard, CEO of UnderCurrent Talent. He noted that fans who miss a live show often turn to TikTok or old YouTube uploads.
Tim McArdle, co-founder and chief content officer at creative studio Wildcatter, said Twitch is a bit behind but the features could fundamentally change the platform. He also warned that cross-platform follower conversion is difficult. "Every data point will always show you that getting people to click over different platforms doesn't work really at all," he said.
Several streamers were less convinced. "People don't go to Twitch to find clips or videos. They go to YouTube or TikTok," said Vio.
Streamer Frogan was blunter. "No one is going to watch clips on Twitch natively," Frogan said.
Dan "Onepeg" Marshall, who has over 72,000 followers on the platform, said the move is good for Twitch's overall ethos. He found the Category Recap shelf the most interesting feature, and said it could help creators in specific categories catch eyeballs.
"Of all of the things Twitch has tried to pull in the last several years, this is probably one of the better ideas for discoverability if it does more than just show clips of the largest creators in each category," Marshall said.
McArdle said Twitch should not expect TikTok-level viewing of clips. "Will people consume as much of the clips on Twitch as TikTok? Probably not," he said, adding that the purpose and use of the feature are different.
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