Twitch will let streamers ban users from watching their streams

Twitch will let streamers ban users from watching their streams

Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge

Twitch is rolling out an update next month that will finally allow streamers to block banned users from viewing their streams. Currently, Twitch allows you to ban users from the chat section of a stream, but they can still view streams.

Twitch revealed earlier this week, during its Patch Notes stream, that a new setting will be available for streamers in September that will boot people out of chat and live streams in real time. Banned users will automatically be blocked from viewing streams, a long-requested feature that streamers have been waiting years for.

Image: Twitch

The new Twitch ban feature.

“At the time being it won’t stop them from viewing VODs or clips, but that is something we also want to include as part of this functionality... in a future update,” said Twitch senior product manager Trevor Fisher during the Patch Notes stream earlier this week.

While this is a welcome feature, particularly for tackling harassment, Twitch still allows anyone to watch streams without an account. So if someone is banned they can simply log out of the service or use a browser incognito window to continue watching a stream. Still, at least the ban feature will soon work how you’d expect it to.