What mixer Twitch does not have (except Ninja)

Microsoft recently handed over its Mixer broadcast service in the spotlight by getting exclusive rights to Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, who had been one of the major broadcasters on Twitch. Aside from the exclusive streamers, there are several compelling reasons to stream and watch feeds on the Microsoft platform instead of Twitch owned by Amazon.

Mixer started with Beam, an independent streaming service launched in January 2016. Microsoft bought Beam in August 2016 and announced the integration to Windows 10 in October. In spring 2017, the Beam service was integrated with the Windows operating system and Xbox One. In May 2017, the service was renamed Mixer due to the fact that the Beam name was not available for international use.

The basic functionality of the mixer is identical to that of Twitch. Players use this service to broadcast their gameplay on the Internet, either directly from a PC or Xbox One console, or from another console using capture hardware connected to a PC. Streamers on Mixer earns money by soliciting donations or subscriptions from viewers.

So, what makes Mixer different?

Community interaction

One of the defining features of Mixer is its interest in interacting with the community. The service boasts an extremely low latency between broadcasters and viewers, allowing for timely interactive features. Instead of a delay of 10 to 20 seconds between broadcast and visualization, Beam's low latency protocol reduces the delay to less than one second, making interaction between viewers and readers more immediate.

These interactions usually manifest as buttons activated by the viewer. There may be voting buttons on the side of the stream, interactive controls overlapping the stream, and easy-to-access donation buttons. So many buttons.

In the image above, Streamer Ship has created a mini-game in which viewers can predict the events that occur during Fortnite. At the beginning of each round, the spectators receive 100 stars to bet, winners or losers, according to the precision of their predictions. It's a fun little activity that allows viewers to feel more connected to what they watch.

I particularly like the silly interplay between the beach ball, a ball that falls on the screen and that tracks the number of users who click on the hands at the bottom of the screen to bounce it. This is what Mixer calls a "rally," a special skill that viewers can activate and which other viewers can participate in. Which brings us to …

Experience points and sparks

When users watch the feeds of the mixer, they gain experience points. Everyone loves to gain experience points. When enough experience points are earned, a user increases his level of experience. This gives them access to more emoticons and skills, used to express themselves when they watch play their favorite streamers. Mixer lets you watch other players play a game.

I am currently at level 15, just after sporadically tuning random flows since early 2018. I automatically earn experience points when I watch. A small box at the top right of my screen shows the level of experience accumulated and the amount needed to reach the next level. I have a long way to go to level 40, when I unlocked the "Piece of Me" effect.

Users also earn an in-app currency called Sparks when they watch or stream on Mixer. Sparks are what viewers use to activate their skills, activate interactive features, and use community-created apps. The use of Sparks over the streams of badociated streamers mixers contributes to the financial benefits that they receive from the service. Otherwise, sparks are just a convenient way to make noise and express yourself while watching others play.

Co-Streaming

In March, Twitch launched a star called Squad Streaming for Partners. Mixer's has been doing this since 2017, allowing groups of up to four players to merge their feeds into one. Watching cooperative games online is much more satisfying when you can see the action from the point of view of each player.

This is not Twitch

Twitch has dominated streaming for so long now, it's nice to see someone playing a game surrounded by an interface that's not the same old white and purple, watching the same horrible emojis and comments scroll down to right of the screen. Although it has been around for years, Mixer feels fresh compared to Amazon's heavyweight.

The mixer is also colder. Even when I watched the superstar recently acquired on the platform alongside 35,000 other viewers, the conversation spun at a reasonable pace. This is the most relaxed moment I have ever seen watching Ninja streaming.

It's not perfect either

Even with Ninja, Mixer still has a long way to go before seriously compromising Twitch's dominance of streaming. It must be able to broadcast natively from platforms other than PC and Xbox One. He needs a lot more viewers.

At the moment I am writing to you, the most watched stream after the 30,000+ Ninja is Monstercat Radio with a measly 4,200. It's not going to be the most popular streaming service any time soon, but it's already a sacred good.