Introducing dynamic anchors for Extensions

Up until today, when building a Twitch extension, you’d choose a single anchor point upon creation. This meant that if you wanted to create an extension that functioned as both a panel and a video overlay, you’d need to create and maintain two separate extensions. This also complicated discovery and management for streamers, since they’d see multiple listings for the same extension with the only differentiating point being their placement on the channel page.

With your input via our first RFC (Request for Comments), we’re happy to announce the launch of dynamic anchors to solve for these issues. Now you can build and maintain a single extension that can be activated by streamers and added to any anchor point you choose to support. As we create additional anchor types for extensions (e.g., component extensions that enable multiple extensions in the video player), we’ll make it easy for you to add support for these new anchor types.

This added flexibility enables you to focus on building the experience you want to build and creates more opportunity for your extension to be activated on a streamer’s channel page. Here’s an example of what this streamlined experience will look like for streamers, who can now activate an extension with multiple anchor types and select where to place it on their channel page.

Dynamic anchors enable streamers to add your Extension to any anchor point you support.

How do I get started?

Starting today, you’ll be able to assign multiple anchor types for your extension from the Twitch developer dashboard. You’ll need to enter the following information for each anchor you select:

1. Viewer HTML path
2. Relevant metadata for that anchor

Now you can assign multiple anchor points for your extension from the Twitch developer dashboard.

Existing extensions can be upgraded by releasing a new version with the required fields. These extensions will not be changed by adding support for more anchor points, i.e., if your existing extension is a video overlay and you add support for it to be a panel, they will remain as overlays for the streamers who have them activated.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, let us know in the forums. And if you’re just getting started with Extensions, check out our documentation to learn more.