Amazon.com Inc.-owned Twitch has announced a new social media tool called Pulse. The new feature will allow streamers to interact with their followers and the community as a whole when they aren’t doing a livestream, directly from the Twitch front page.

The social stream in Twitch will support a mix of text, links, images, GIFs and videos with supported services including Vimeo, YouTube, Twitch, Imgur and Gfycat. In Pulse, streamers will be able to share video posts, weekly schedules and updates and posts that will drive engagement from their followers, like polls, memes, GIFs, contests, etc. While viewers will be able to use Pulse to see a stream of content from all the channels they follow.

Pulse builds off Twitch’s Channel Feed, which the company released in beta in March last year. Twitch’s latest update follows the announcement last month that users of the popular live streaming service will soon be able to purchase games directly through the platform.

Here’s a look at how to get started with Pulse, which has started rolling out to users today:

How to get started with Pulse

As a Twitch user, you will need to be following at least one post creator to have access to Pulse. The rollout of Pulse started today and will take place over the next few weeks on the web and mobile app.

Logged in Twitch users can post to Pulse with posts appearing on their friends and followers Front Page. If you are  channel editor and moderator you will be able to delete posts and comments for your relevant channels. While streamers will have control over who is able to comment on their posts. All users will be able to react to posts using emoticons and comments.

Channel Feed vs. Pulse

The Channel Feed will show content that a specific broadcaster has posted while Pulse is an aggregation of all posts created by friends or people you follow and will appear on your homepage.

The Channel Feed beta is available till mid-March, after which the feature will be enabled by default.  

How to post on Pulse

On the web: If you are a streamer, you can post via the Broadcaster Dashboard or the Channel Feed below your channel’s video player. If you are a viewer, you can post via the designated box beneath the carousel on the Front Page. Create your post and add links, videos (from Vimeo, YouTube and Twitch), images and GIFs (from Imgur and Gfycat) > click Post.

Click “Connect to Twitter” to simultaneously share your post via your Channel Feed with Twitter.

On mobile: To view or create Posts with Pulse > select “Pulse Beta” in the left navigation menu and you will see a list of posts from friends or users you follow. Tap in the “Post a status update…” bar > in the new screen create your post together with links, videos, images and GIFs > tap Post.

On mobile, you can sync your post with Twitter or tap the share icon to share your post to any app that supports sharing on iOS or Android.  

How to delete a post

On the web: To delete your post, click the cog icon in the top right of the post > click Delete.

On mobile: To delete your post > tap on the relevant post > tap the trash bin icon in the top right > tap “Yes” to delete the post.

Limit who can comment on your feed

On the web, you will be able to select who is able to comment on your feed. In the Settings page, go to the Channel & Videos tab.

In Activity Feed, you are able to select “Disable all comments on Channel Feed posts.” This will hide all current comments and prevent new comments. In the Activity Feed, you can also select who can comment on your Channel Feed posts. Comments can be limited to friends, subscribers or you can select both options.

Report inappropriate content

On the web: To report a post for inappropriate content, hover over the post > select the gear icon that appears in the top right > click “report” > select the corresponding reason > click Report.

On mobile: Tap the inappropriate post > tap the triangle alert symbol in the top right > select the corresponding reason > tap “Report Post.”

Posts on Pulse

To begin with, posts will appear in chronological order, but Twitch is working on alternative ways to surface posts.

At launch, it won’t be possible to embed or view live streams in a Pulse feed, but the company is planning it for a future release. Other social network features like hashtags and @mentions will also not be supported at launch.

Source: Twitch Pulse

Images: Twitch