Twitch, the world’s leading social video platform and community for gamers, today announced the closed beta of its HTML5 Video Player. Starting today, users with Turbo subscriptions will be able to join the beta and begin viewing broadcasts in HTML5. Twitch will be expanding access to the closed beta to more users in Summer 2016 and the current Flash Player will eventually be sunsetted.
With HTML5, viewers are expected to enjoy a smoother streaming experience with faster load times and more consistent delivery of high frame rate broadcasts than the current Flash Player. HTML5 is also known for allowing longer viewing sessions by taking up less CPU and battery life. Viewers in the closed beta can toggle HTML5 on and off via Player Settings on the channel user interface.
“Among the Twitch community’s wish list has been a full migration to HTML5 which is why it has been a major focus for our engineers,” said Noreen McInnis, Product Marketing Manager, Twitch. “Compared to our current Flash Player, load times are expected to be faster with better frame rates, while taxing our viewers’ devices less. The end result is a better viewing experience for our community.”
Read more about the HTML5 closed beta and full launch schedule in the Twitch blog post.
