Interactive streaming: what viewers can actually do on Twitch, Kick and IMPAKT

Every platform says its streams are interactive. What viewers can actually change differs a lot.

Interactive streaming: what viewers can actually do on Twitch, Kick and IMPAKT

Every platform says its streams are interactive. What viewers can actually change differs a lot.

Twitch

Chat, channel points, polls and predictions run by the streamer, and extensions built by third parties. Predictions settle on the streamer's word. An extension can show overlays and take inputs, but the game itself does not read them unless the streamer wires it.

Kick

Chat, subscriptions and the usual tipping. Kick has no extension platform, so interaction beyond chat has to live on a second screen.

IMPAKT

The game is connected. A round opens with a deadline, the audience votes, predicts, bets or bids, and the game applies the result. Predictions and tables settle from the game's own state, not from a sentence typed by the streamer. The countdown is drawn into the video, and the window keeps a grace for the delay of the stream.

Playing along without leaving your platform

A creator on Twitch or Kick can keep streaming there and run the interaction on IMPAKT through the companion: the audience watches where it always has and plays on a second screen. The audience on IMPAKT itself plays beside the video.

What this means for a creator

Interaction that changes the game keeps people watching longer than interaction that changes a chat badge. It also gives a creator things to sell that are not subscriptions: actions, looks, challenges.

Read what crowdplay is or start a channel.

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