Twitch has announced that streamers will soon be able to block banned users from watching their broadcasts in real time. Starting in September, the feature will be available to all streamers.
How does the feature work
As per screenshots posted by Twitch streamer Lowco, the toggle will be part of the platform’s blocking tools. If Twitch streamers ban users in the middle of their streams, they will be cut off right away — not just in chats but also from the broadcasts. Additionally, the toggle is optional, so you can turn it on and off whenever. Banned users can still watch clips and VODS.
A good step, but not perfect
All though this feature will help a lot of streamers prevent harassment, the feature still needs improvement. It doesn’t prevent a user from watching the stream again by logging into another account. Twitch streamers have pointed out that it’s better to block users IPs, so when they are blocked, they won’t be able to view the broadcasts from their IP address.
According to Twitch Senior Product Manager Trevor Fisher, “This is something where we’ve kind of had to make a lot of incremental progress…We’ll continue to gather feedback and make improvements where needed.”
This is still a good first step. Twitch streamers have been requesting such a feature for a long time to deal with harassment and bullying.