Twitch takes on YouTube, allows uploads of pre-recorded content

Twitch has taken another step towards direct competition with YouTube.

Twitch's plans to overtake YouTube in video traffic is no secret. The Amazon-company has been adding more and more services, traditionally available only on YouTube, to the list of things streamers can do on the site.

Twitch streamers previously archived their shows to YouTube, but many of them use the Twitch VOD format now, since it takes less time and is mostly done automatically. Now, users will be able to upload previously-recorded videos that didn't originate on the site.

The new system is simply called Twitch upload and is still in beta. It basically allows anyone to upload edited videos of whatever, similar to YouTube, whatever the format. These uploads don't have expiration dates, unlike stream archives.

For streamers, this also means they can download past broadcasts to edit and re-upload as new videos. You can see the file extensions allowed on upload at the link, along with the file sizes, bitrate cap, and more.

Twitch is already planning to add more features to the service, such as user chat and other similar options. You can opt into open beta now.