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Content index
This article about Alternatives to Twitch it is the first (hopefully of a long series) that we were asked through the platform Codeberg. On Codeberg we have in fact decided to open an account where anyone can report things to us: errors within articles, site bugs, new alternatives and even suggestions for new articles.
In our opinion, the use of Codeberg is an important innovation because it allows us to leave a tangible sign of the collaboration that took place for the creation and modification of articles. Suggestions and reports have always arrived but over the years they have been lost between emails or buried by thousands of Telegram messages. To give an example: up @LeAlternativeChat we are at almost 20 thousand messages and it is a real shame that some suggestions or discussions are literally lost.
We are therefore using Codeberg a bit as if it were a forum but more precise and more focused on individual issues and this article was born thanks to your suggestion. Furthermore we are also using codeberg.org for our new project Open source 1 The Alternatives | A la carte!
What is Twitch?
After this premise we come to us, or rather we come to Twitch.
Twitch is a livestreaming platform owned by Amazon 2. It is by far one of the most used platforms 3 for streaming especially with regards to live on video games. In reality, you can find everything on Twitch: there are those who use it for interesting live broadcasts dedicated to programming and IT (like her) and those who do live marathons (even at the cost of your health).
If you are not a fan of streaming, Twitch you may also have heard it recently because of the giant data leak and his source code 4 5. In early October in fact someone posted the entire thing source code of Twitch and a series of important data such as passwords and the earnings of individual authors, including Italian ones 6.
Alternatives to Twitch
So let's go in search of alternatives to Twitch. As with all our other alternatives, we are looking for something simple to use, where no particular technical knowledge is necessary.
PeerTube
🔓 Open source
We talked a lot and for a long time about PeerTube, Also dedicating an article to him. It is the alternative that we support and that we like best for many reasons: because it was created by Framasoft 7, because it is part of the fediverse (it is therefore compatible and interoperable with Mastodon, Funkwhale and Pixelfed) and why it is decentralized (therefore there is not just one PeerTube but many PeerTube servers, each with its own rules). PeerTube is constantly evolving, however to date it is not yet comparable to Twitch because for example it does not allow live chats (even if it can be integrated with Peerchat). It is integrated with OBS 8 and you can decide which server to go to, among the Italian ones we find: peertube.uno or video.linux.it.
An application was also recently released Open source 9 to go live with your smartphone: PeerTube Live also available on F-Droid.
Telegram
🔓 Open source (applications only)
Like parsley, we put it everywhere. It's not our fault though! Telegram really an incredibly versatile application and constantly evolving. In fact, it has recently been possible to create calls on your channel and host unlimited viewers 10. Live viewers can to raise the hand and join the broadcast if you allow them.
Furthermore from March 2022 it is It is also possible to have real Live Chats even with external programs such as the very famous OBS. A real alternative to Twitch, so!
Glimesh
🔓 Open source
Unfortunately Glimesh has closed 11.
It is probably, for now, the only real alternative to Twitch that is simple to use and beautiful to look at. AND Open source 12, works with OBS 13 and has live chats to allow interaction between users. Their payment idea is very interesting: you can earn immediately and it is not necessary to have a minimum of viewers. The project is still in progress alpha, however, is very interesting and in our opinion absolutely worth following closely. As you can imagine, unfortunately, the number of users is not comparable to that of Twitch. If you already have a good following, however, you can try doing some live broadcasts here by asking someone to follow you: you have to start somewhere!
Less user-friendly applications
If you are already used to using slightly more complex software you can think about using these tools:
- Owncast, an excellent and complete alternative application to Twitch. Even for the less experienced, it is possible to install the software independently on a server. In fact, they are present really simple guides and which require minimal technical knowledge: for DigitalOcean, Linode And Vultr in fact, there are tools one-click-install.
Alternatives to Twitch: Alternative front ends
As we often do, in addition to the alternatives we also propose alternative methods to view sites and applications more privately. We always hope to convince as many people as possible to use alternative tools, however we know that the transition may not be immediate and unfortunately often there are channels that we want to follow that are only present on these platforms.
- Twire, to pursue Twitch channels without using their official application. AND Open source 14 and available exclusively on F-Droid (things F-Droid?) and will also allow you to log in to your account. It's a Fork Of Pocket Plays for Twitch, available on Play Store.
- Xtras, another client Open source 15 for Twitch available exclusively on F-Droid. Thank you for your suggestion 16.
If you use instead Twitch via web then try using a Browsers different from Chrome For example Brave or Firefox.
More experienced users can take a look at Streamlink Twitch GUI to stream on VLC.
- source code of À la carte[↩]
- Twitch is a platform livestreaming owned by Amazon.com[↩]
- Amazon.com's Twitch Is Dominating the Game Streaming Market[↩]
- Twitch, the mega leak on the company and users: what to do[↩]
- Twitch leak: Company confirms hack and says it's 'working to understand'[↩]
- The Twitch leak reveals earnings of a thousand streamers. Even the Italians[↩]
- PeerTube on FramaGit[↩]
- Italian guide to PeerTube[↩]
- source code by PeerTube Live[↩]
- Live Streaming, Flexible Forwarding, Skip to Next Channel and Featured Sticker[↩]
- Goodnight Glimesh[↩]
- Glimesh on GitHub[↩]
- General OBS Troubleshooting[↩]
- source code by Twire[↩]
- https://github.com/crackededed/Xtra/[↩]
- Xtra Tip on Codeberg[↩]
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