Hosting was introduced back in 2014. Now Twitch has decided it doesn’t live up to expectations.
Channel hosting had been present on Twitch for many years. It was never a big problem, people were unlikely to complain about it. Now that the possibility of raids has arisen, hosting has gone down the drain.
Twitch knows this, which is why in October the hosting option will be completely disabled. It will not be possible to use it. Is this a big change? For streamers rather not, maybe only for those who use viewbots and explain it by being hosted by someone.
The end of hosting on Twitch
Twitch in its announcement explains it as follows:
We made the decision to withdraw this feature because the experience it provides viewers does not meet their expectations when they visit Twitch. Viewers want to interact with the streamer when he or she is broadcasting live, and host mode prevents this. Preventing viewers from interacting with the streamer they are watching also limits the streamer’s potential for growth, as they are then unable to build deeper connections with new viewers.
The feature will disappear on October 3. As of that date, the “/host” command and channel sharing in the broadcast manager will become unavailable. Autohosting is to be changed to “Suggested channels” in the settings.
What will remain, in fact, is the ability to raid channels. It’s hard to say whether Twitch is doing this because of viewbots or something else. It’s possible that the developers made this decision without looking at anything in particular other than the fact that raiding is simply a better option for the platform.