Mixer made quite a few significant announcements and changes today which will affect, and improve, Microsoft’s video game streaming platform for both viewers and streamers going forward.
Mixer Embers
The number of Embers per bundle has been increased rather significantly offering 20 to 7,000 more Embers depending on the amount of money spent. Embers is Mixer’s virtual currency which can be purchased with real-world money and then gifted to streamers for them to convert back into cash and withdrawn. One of the biggest flaws of Embers was how few users would get when buying bundles which made it sometimes impossible to gift to streamers who require at least 50 or so per use. This change should improve their usage enormously.
New Mixer Icons and Auto-Hosting
New icons for Verified and Partner Mixer accounts have also been revealed via the official Mixer Twitter account. These icons are now live on the web version of Mixer and are expected to roll out to other platforms soon. Also revealed via the Twitter account is the fact that an auto-hosting feature is currently being tested and should launch soon.
Heads up Partners and Verified Channels. ✅?
To help distinguish your channels based on feedback we are updating these badges today across our web experience. Rep those shiny new channel badges proudly! pic.twitter.com/GPCMdvLpQ3
— Mixer (@WatchMixer) February 4, 2020
Auto-hosting has been available on Twitch for a while now and is a way for channels to line up several other channels to host automatically when they’re offline.
Mixer App Updates
The iOS and Android Mixer apps updated today with a new video player on both and subscription animations, Game Pass labels, and support for more chat commands on the iOS version.
Here’s the release notes for the iOS update. The Android notes are the same but only mention the new player.
- We’re testing a new video player! Not currently rolled out to everyone, however we will be increasing the number of viewers in the coming days. Please reach out to support if you see anything that is different or if you run into issues.
- Subscription confetti: When someone subscribes to a channel, confetti will now rain from the sky, just like on desktop. Hooray!
- More chat commands! You can now use “/SetTitle”, “/SetGame” and “/SetAudience” on channel chat.
- We put Game Pass labels on Game Pass Games
Arguably the biggest Mixer-related but of news today involves the way Mixer is being used on Microsoft’s Xbox One consoles.
In recent months, the Xbox One app has been showing a small notification upon startup that informs viewers that the app will be depreciated in the near future. Today, this notification changed to say that the closure of the app is imminent and that the native Mixer experience on Xbox One consoles has been improved with some new changes that are, as of today, available only to Xbox Insiders.
The focus on a Mixer experience that’s built into the Xbox One is a rather odd one as the app remains the superior way to watch Mixer streams on the console. Not only does the app look better visually, but it also makes it easier to discover streamers and track a user’s Mixer and channel levels.
Microsoft removing the Mixer app may prove to be a bit of a gamble given how much of a step down the native console version is. While all of today’s announcements feel like a great step forward, the termination of the app sticks out as something that will frustrate quite a few and is likely why this news was hidden within the app itself and not announced on any of Mixer’s social channels today.
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