This week Twitch began beta testing some features which introduce new ways to interact across the platform. Twitch has partnered with a number of developers (such as Muxy and StreamLabs) to provide interactive integrations ranging from game specific overlays to mini-games. Broadcasters can easily manage which features they enable allowing for complete control over the experience they provide.

Several of these integrations also provide functionality that a lot of broadcasters currently use 3rd party programs for such as loyalty points, song requests, and polls. Loyalty points are of particular interest to a lot of broadcasters, especially with the recent announcement of Revlo shutting down their services as of June 16th.

Integrating these directly into the Twitch player will help to reduce chat spam, keep viewers on the site, increase viewer interaction, and provide a more streamlined experience across the board.

It should also be noted that during the beta, these features will only be accessible via the website. That means if you’re a console or mobile user you won’t be able to test the functionality at this time.

Here is the list of 12 features that are currently being tested:

1. Interactive Hearthstone Overlay — Display your Hearthstone deck directly on stream giving viewers the ability to mouse over cards to view more details.
2. Straw Poll Overlay — Create and share polls.
3. Leaderboard Panel — Display your top cheers in real time with a customizable layout to match your channel.

   

4. Now Playing Panel — A music app designed specifically for streamers. The Pretzel player will display the current song in addition to the previous 3 songs played. All music available on Pretzel is Twitch-approved so you won’t get your VODs muted.
5. Overlay — An on-screen overlay that incorporates some of the functionality of the other panels (such as “Now Playing”) and introduces some new things such as a sentiment meter, confetti, and heat-mapping of clicks.
6. MasterOverwatch Overlay — Easily display your Overwatch stats on-screen.
7. Kappa Pet Panel — A virtual emote pet that evolves over the course of your cast. It can respond to viewer interaction or even die if ignored for long enough. When you go offline the pet will sleep and progress is saved between casts.
8. Smart Click Map Overlay — Shows a real-time collection of clicks directly on the video player. This provides a way of letting viewers decide certain actions to be taken by the broadcaster, highlight areas of interest, answer questions collectively as a group, and more.
9. Summoner Info Panel — A summary of your League of Legends Summoners with current runes and masteries, most played champions, and most recent ranked games.
10. Destiny Live Tracker Panel — Display your Destiny gear and stats during your cast to show off your progress while live.
11. Rocket League Tracker Panel — Display your Rocket League progress and overall stats while live.
    
12. Loyalty, Music, Polls & Games Overlay — Loyalty points, request songs, vote in polls, enter giveaways, and play mini-games.

For a list of channels participating in the beta or for additional details you can check out the Twitch blog post.