New Twitch safety feature lets streamers ban users from viewing their streams

Twitch is giving streamers more power over who is able to view their broadcasts in the form of a new safety feature.

Streamers have been able to block users from their chats for a long time, but a new update is letting them completely hide their streams from those who have been banned.

The long-requested feature could be a game-changer for streamers who have been dealing with harassment by making their broadcasts virtually invisible to those they don’t want watching.

The feature will be rolling out in September and will work instantly, meaning that a streamer could block users from being able to watch their broadcast immediately. That’s not all: It turns out, Twitch has some more functionality being tested, as well.

Twitch working on allowing you to prevent banned/blocked viewers from watching your stream pic.twitter.com/5ll7nHubJX

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) August 16, 2023

Twitch open to letting streamers “IP ban” viewers

Speaking during an episode of Twitch Patch Notes, Senior Product Manager Trevor Fisher indicated that IP bans could be on the table in the future update.

While Fisher indicated that IP bans are ‘complicated,’ after getting feedback from streamers, being able to prevent certain people from watching on the account they were banned on was still highly requested.

“That’s the first thing we’re able to provide here. We’ll definitely take the feedback that this is something that people want to be even more powerful,” he said.

For those asking about blocking users who are logged out, Twitch has responded saying they will consider it and are planning on expanding on this functionality. pic.twitter.com/5VxnerARR9

— Lowco 🏖️ (@LowcoTV) August 16, 2023

So far, the ban will not apply to VODs or clips, but that too could be changed in the future. Streamers will also have the option to turn off the ability to prevent banned users from viewing streams.

It will be very interesting to see how this feature evolves and which streamers choose to enable it once it goes live next month. Until then, keep it locked to Dexerto for all the latest news around the streaming world.