If you stream on Twitch, then no doubt you will have heard of Video on Demand, or VOD. Any article about promoting yourself on Twitch will tell you that you need to set up VOD as it is a great way to draw in viewers. So, what are VODs on Twitch? How do you set one up? Let’s take a look.
What is VOD?
Let’s start with the VOD meaning on Twitch. Although, the definition will pretty much cover any live streaming website.
As you know, a Twitch stream is live. It is something that happens in the moment. Normally, if somebody isn’t there to watch your Twitch stream, then they will never see it. It is going to be lost to the abyss.
A Twitch VOD is just a recording of the Twitch stream. It is saved to your Twitch profile. This means that anybody that has missed your Twitch stream, or perhaps wants to check out what your stream brings to the table, will be able to check you out.
Are Twitch highlights the same as a Twitch VOD?
No.
A Twitch highlight is a short segment of your stream. Most highlights are not going to be over a minute long. A Twitch VOD is going to be a recording of your entire stream. We are only going to be focusing on how to save past streams on Twitch on this page. We are not going to be talking about the creation of highlights.
Why save VODs on Twitch?
The main reason why you will want to activate VODs on Twitch is so that people that have missed your past content streams will be able to watch them. This can be great for people in time zones other than yours to enjoy the content. Sure, they are not going to be able to interact with you. However, you will be surprised at how many people will watch you without that. It may even gain a few subs here and there.
Twitch VODs can also work to attract new people to your channel. They do not work as well as highlights. However, if you have put together a particularly decent VOD of a game that they like, then they may want to stick around and follow or subscribe to you.
Remember, nowadays, Twitch VODs will actually appear in the Twitch search engine when people search for games and the like. This means that if you can produce your own Twitch VODs, then you will find that your discoverability on the Twitch platform will go up. This is the exact thing you want to have happen when you are boosting your popularity on the platform. Trust us, there is not going to be a successful person on Twitch that is not saving VODs. They are just so incredibly useful for a multitude of things.
Of course, the final benefit is that you can download the VODs yourself. This means that you can also move them on over to YouTube and try and gain a bit of cash that way too. We will talk more about that in a short while.
How to enable VOD on Twitch
We are going to assume that you have already made yourself a Twitch account. If you have a Twitch account, it is automatically a streamer account. You do not have to tinker about with any settings on that front.
Follow this process to turn on your Twitch VOD:
Access the creator dashboard
Start by signing into your Twitch account.
In the top right-hand corner of the Twitch main page, or any page on Twitch for that matter, you will see the profile picture for your account. If you do not have a profile picture for your account, then it will just be a colored circle with a cartoon image of a person in it.
Click “Creator Dashboard”
Find ‘Settings’
From the Creators Dashboard, look for the ‘Settings’ link and click it.
From the settings click ‘Stream’.
How to enable VODs on Twitch
From this page, you will want to scroll down and look for ‘VOD settings’. Under this, you will see text that says:
“Automatically save broadcasts for up to 14 days (60 days for Partners, Turbo and Prime users)”
Hit the check box next to this. Your VODs will now be active from your next stream. You do not have to save any settings.
Since you are on this page, you may also want to take the time to set up saving of Twitch clips. It is just an extra bit of promotion for your channel. You will be able to see the options for turning on Twitch clips just below the VODs settings. You can tinker about with these so you can control who is allowed to clip your Twitch streams. We always recommend that you turn this on because it is a nice bit of extra promotion, and you don’t really need to do anything for it. It is just going to be all on your Twitch followers and viewers.
How to manage your VODs on Twitch
As we said, once you switch on your VODs, every Twitch stream will be automatically saved. There isn’t anything else that you need to do. Although, this doesn’t mean that you won’t have some ability to manage the uploads.
Every so often, you may have a Twitch stream that you don’t really want to have as a VOD. Thankfully, removing them from your profile page should be dead simple. Although, you will want to make sure that you do not want the VOD before you follow this process. It is irreversible.
Open the Creator Dashboard
When signed into your Twitch account, click the profile image in the top right-hand corner. From the menu that opens up select ‘Creator Dashboard’
Select Video Producer
From the Creator Dashboard, look for the link that says ‘Content’.
A new menu will open up below this. From here, you are going to want to select ‘Video Producer’.
Delete the Video
Once you have clicked that link, all of your past available VODs (i.e. the undeleted ones) will now be shown on this page.
Find the video that you want to delete. Click the stack of three dots. You will now have two choices:
- Unpublish: you can remove the VOD from your Twitch profile, but it won’t be deleted. You can republish whenever you wish.
- Delete: this will delete your Twitch VOD. You cannot get it back.
Once you have gone through this process, the video will be instantly removed from your profile.
How long do VODs on Twitch remain?
It depends. If you fall into one of these groups, then your VODs are going to be saved for 60-days:
- Twitch Partner
- Twitch Turbo subscriber
- Amazon Prime subscriber
For everybody else, it is going to be just 14-days.
If you are serious about making Twitch work for you, then we recommend that you subscribe to an Amazon Prime account, at least until you make Twitch Partner. This way you can be sure that all of your Twitch VODs are going to be saved for as long as possible, which means that you will be able to pull in new subscribers and views from them for as long as possible. Make sure that your Twitch account is tied to your Amazon Prime account, though! The site will walk you through the process. Don’t worry too much about that.
How to save VODs from Twitch?
One of the main benefits of producing VODs on Twitch is that you can use them elsewhere. Here are a couple of ways that you can save that video however you wish.
Both options will be accessible via this method:
- Open your creator dashboard
- Select ‘content’
- Select ‘Video Producer’
- Click the three stacked dots next to the video to open a new menu.l
Publish directly to YouTube
If you want to publish the video directly to YouTube, then you will need to select the ‘Share’ button. You will then be asked to sign into your YouTube account. The process will take just a couple of minutes.
Save your VOD to your computer
While uploading your VOD directly to YouTube can be convenient, you may want to do a bit of editing beforehand. In order to do this, you will need to click the ‘Save’ link instead.
When you have saved the video, you can do whatever you want to it.
Remember, you will have to do both of these before the Twitch VOD has been deleted. Depending on the account you have, this can be between 14 and 60-days.
Conclusion
Twitch VODs are a great way to promote yourself on the streaming platform. The best part is that learning how to enable VOD on Twitch is simple. You can activate a VOD from the very first day that you start streaming. It will all be accessible through your Creator Dashboard. Just make sure that you save any VODs that you really like before Twitch deletes them.
