The Twitch administration plans to introduce a new feature to increase the safety and comfort of streamers. Content creators will now be able to not only ban an undesirable viewer in chats, but also prevent them from viewing their streams. The innovation is planned to be added in September.
According to platform representatives, the new feature will allow streamers to avoid attention from unwanted viewers. Female streamers, in particular, often suffer from harassment and will benefit greatly from this.
The new blocking functionality is currently being tested, but some details are already known about it. Firstly, streamers will be able to "instantly" turn on and off the blocking of broadcasts for banned users. In other words, this process will not require any review or approval from Twitch administration, and it will take effect instantly. Secondly, in the future, streamers will also have the ability to block persistent viewers by their IP address. Developers acknowledge that this is a much more complex blocking mechanism, but its implementation is already being discussed. Finally, another restriction for blocked viewers may include restricting access to the streamer's VODs and clips.
The exact release date for the new blocking feature is unknown. It is expected that it will be available to use this autumn. Moreover, the Twitch administration plans to allow all streamers access to the feature at once. This means that the new functionality will not be limited only to popular streamers and will not have any restrictions based on countries or categories.