Mixer, Microsoft’s new game streaming platform, has landed on iOS.
Formerly known as Beam, Mixer is taking on the likes of Twitch with live-streaming “that’s actually live” — not delayed. The iOS app lets you enjoy broadcasts in real-time, connect with your favorite streamers, and more.
Game streaming has blown up in recent years, with a growing number streamers opting to go live on platforms like Twitch rather than upload pre-recorded videos to YouTube. Amazon foresaw this back in 2014 when it acquired Twitch Interactive for $970 million.
Now others are desperately trying to bag themselves a piece of the game-streaming pie. Microsoft revamped its own platform this week, renaming it Mixer and introducing new features alongside a shiny new app for iOS.
Mixer prides itself on real-time streaming — without the 10-20 second (sometimes longer) latency you see on other platforms. It’s also more interactive than Twitch, giving viewers the ability to participate in what’s happening on screen, rather than just watch.
“With Mixer, you can influence everything from quest selection to tools to movement, mixing it up with your favorite streamers to create a new kind of gaming experience,” Microsoft says.
“The Minecraft team is experimenting with the interactivity that Mixer offers as a possibility for official game integration. And, some Minecraft community members have already created interactive experiences using this technology that allow viewers to do things like spawn in zombies or change the weather.”
If you like the idea of that and you want to get involved, you can download the Mixer app from the App Store now. It lets you tune in to live streams, follow channels for alerts when they begin broadcasting, chat with streamers and other viewers, and earn Spark points for watching.
