Official Twitch App for Apple TV Now in Public Beta

[MacRumors]

An official Twitch app for Apple TV is on the way. The live game-streaming service has offered iOS and Mac apps for some time, but a version for Apple's set-top box has been conspicuous by its absence (making third-party apps like Twitchy all the more popular). That's soon set to change though, with a beta Twitch app for tvOS now available on TestFlight.

The Twitch app for Apple TV offers the same features found on the iOS and Mac apps, so users will be able to watch live streams, clips, and video on demand, as well as get involved in on-screen chat. Twitch also hosts a slew of additional broadcasts, including live Thursday Night NFL Games, so this news isn't necessarily just for videogame fans.

If you want to gain access to the beta, you'll need to install Apple's TestFlight app on an iOS device and an Apple TV logged in using the same Apple ID. On your iOS device, tap the public link, then tap Accept for the Twitch: Live Game Streaming beta. Next, launch TestFlight on Apple TV, install the beta app there, and you should be good to go.

"We don't want to be too prescriptive so explore the app, watch streams, and try out different features," Twitch says on its site. "If you find a bug, the app crashes on you, or you encounter other issues send us your feedback."

There's no word on when Twitch will be ready for official release on the tvOS App Store, but presumably the more users that get involved in the beta, the sooner any bugs will be ironed out and it'll be ready for launch. Twitch is also available on Windows PCs, Amazon Fire TV, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, NVIDIA Shield, and Chromecast.

(Via AppleInsider)

Article Link: Official Twitch App for Apple TV Now in Public Beta

 

[dannys1]

To be fair Twitchy does a pretty excellent job, to the point I forget it's not the "official" app.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

About time. I use Twitchy too (like @dannys1 ) but they've really deserved a first party client for a long time.

 

[Remy149]

To be fair Twitchy does a pretty excellent job, to the point I forget it's not the "official" app.

It freezes every time an advertisement posts for me often forcing me to rewatch it several times

 

[dtrj787]

Feeds are choppy and currently unable to use Airplay for sound. (for Homepods)

 

[RobNYC]

It freezes every time an advertisement posts for me often forcing me to rewatch it several times

Also entering text through twitchy is terrible. If you enter through your phone and it auto-corrects anything, both the original word and the auto correct word will show up when you hit enter. Plus when entering text it grays out the show screen rather than just a text box at the bottom.

 

[GeneralChang]

To be fair Twitchy does a pretty excellent job, to the point I forget it's not the "official" app.

Exactly this. I'm not going to bother switching apps, probably. I'd actually worry that an official Twitch app will try to force the chat on me where Twitchy doesn't, really.

Though if OWL ever releases an official ATV app, I might switch to that.

 

[cloudyo]

Twitchy hardly ever shows an ad for me. I am sure that is a point, that the official app will „improve“ on.

 

[DaveOP]

Exactly this. I'm not going to bother switching apps, probably. I'd actually worry that an official Twitch app will try to force the chat on me where Twitchy doesn't, really.

Though if OWL ever releases an official ATV app, I might switch to that.

At least for now, I toggled that chat off on the first stream I watched, and it seems to have stuck.

 

[thogin]

Twitchy hardly ever shows an ad for me.

Something changed in the past couple of months, I see way too many ads now. Maybe it's a regional thing.

 

[sonamo]

It's interesting that they removed the Twitch app for Roku app 2 years ago, and now they are making an Apple TV one. I thought they were trying to make everyone use Amazon Fire streaming, except for people on video game consoles. Did they strike up a deal behind the scenes to get Twitch on the Apple TV platform?

 

[xinam]

Think I’ll stick to Twitchy for now. The official Twitch app really needs high speed scrubbing, the RW and FF doesn’t really cut it for me.

And I don’t like that it defaults to having the chat showing when watching VODs.

 

[michaelant]

On the Mac, is there any advantage to using an app (either official or third party) rather than a browser? I'm on Twitch a lot, and I think I tried the official app a while ago, but it didn't stick. There are a couple quirks with using Twitch on Safari, but nothing too troublesome.

 

[Mike_Trivisonno]

Oh no. Twitch can't develop a decent user interface if their lives depended on it. I predict yet another hot mess from this Amazon company.

 

[iSunrise]

IMHO the official app is disappointing, the user interface alone is just a mess.

Twitchy is one of the best tvOS apps and working really well.