Twitch is bringing back Hosting and testing Host Trains

Twitch is bringing back Hosting, with a few updates. Later this year it will begin experimenting with a new version that lets you feature another live channel on your own channel page while you're offline, so your community has something to watch and chat about together.

Both communities share a single Chat. There are two ways to view it, a combined Chat with messages labeled by channel, or a view that only shows messages from the host channel's community.

Twitch is also experimenting with Host Trains. You set up a rotating lineup of channels to host, and a timer decides when viewers move to the next stream. You'll be able to choose channels from options like your followed channels or your Favorites list.

None of this is live yet. Twitch describes both as experiments and expects Hosting to begin rolling out later this year. The news was part of the TwitchCon San Diego 2026 announcements.