If there's one thing Twitch CEO Dan Clancy wants people to know about what makes Twitch special, it's that the live streaming site is all about community.

"Social media, interestingly, has become anti-social," Clancy said during a fireside chat titled, Why Live is the Future of Connection: From Passive Scrolling to Real Connection at VidCon 2026. "It started as a technology that connected us with people, but now sitting and swiping actually leaves you a little more isolated. It doesn't make you feel connected, and that's why live is coming on strong now."

So what is it about Twitch that fosters community? According to Clancy, the platform encourages people to stay with their streamer for longer than the seconds they might spend with someone on TikTok. When a streamer takes some time off, their audience notices their absence in a way they might not with a TikTok creator. And then there's the magic of reacting to the same content with the rest of the chat in real-time.

"People often think sports are about watching the world's best athletes. It's not about that at all. It's about community, right? It's about shared identity," he said during the talk. "Twitch actually is the same thing where the affinity that you're gathering around is a streamer, but then you form these bonds horizontally, so the same thing that happens in sports is exactly what happens on Twitch."

Still, creating community can come with its challenges.

Creator discoverability on Twitch is lacking, but that might change

Clancy encouraged creators to use more than one platform, noting that Twitch content often finds its way onto other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

"Use short form for discovery [and] use long form to build an emotional connection and to earn a living," Clancy said during his talk.

Still, smaller- to midsize streamers have long struggled with a lack of discoverability on the platform itself, as it doesn't push algorithmic recommendations nearly as aggressively as YouTube or TikTok. Clancy told Mashable that's by design.

"If I said, I'm going to solve the discovery problem, the only way I could fully solve it is by taking them off your page, putting more stuff on your page to distract them, more stuff to get them away from you. And that is exactly what our creators don't want," Clancy said.

Still, he acknowledged a desire for some kind of fix. He shared that Twitch is working on bringing short-form content to the platform in a way that makes sense, by investing in a feature called Recaps. Clancy described it as an evolution of Twitch's existing story feature, intended to show users clips from recent streams that the streamer selects after going live.

"I think the thing that will benefit our creators the most is if the creators are able to easily create short form and viewers are watching it more on Twitch," he said to Mashbale.

How generative AI fits into the Twitch ecosystem

During his talk on stage, Clancy responded to concerns about AI, saying that while Twitch has a plan in place if AI channels run more rampant, for the time being, it's limited to a handful that are clearly identifiable as AI, and in his opinion, not engaging enough to hold a viewer's attention for the same amount of time as a human creator can.

When speaking to Mashable, Clancy also pointed to the ways AI can be leveraged to improve the viewer experience, saying a large language model could improve upon the existing AutoMod feature, which automatically flags and holds potentially inappropriate messages in a streamer's chat.

The creators of Twitch are growing beyond gamers

At its core, Twitch is an entertainment platform. While traditionally that was rooted in gaming, over the years it's become more and more common for artists, musicians, actors, and even animal sanctuaries to find a home on the platform. Clancy said the shift in the user base over time has been like "night and day."

"Now, when I meet an actor, musician, almost 70 percent of the time when they hear I'm the CEO of Twitch, they go, 'Oh, yeah, I've been thinking I should do something.'"

Safety concerns ahead of the next TwitchCon

Community, however, doesn't work without safety. Last year, Twitch faced backlash after streamer Emiru was assaulted at last year's TwitchCon. Prior to the convention's start, major streamers like Hasan Piker, Valkyrae, and QTCinderella said they would not be attending the conference due to safety concerns. Ahead of this year's conference, Clancy assured that Twitch has measures in place to prevent any future incidents.

"We've updated how we do meet and greets so that they're more structured. We don't allow signups on the day of; you have to reserve a spot. So that restricts it a little bit, but it restricts us in a way to protect the creators," he told Mashable. "So I feel very confident about where we're at right now, in terms of our ability to make sure something like that doesn't happen again."

Mashable is reporting live from VidCon 2026 in Anaheim. Follow our coverage for creator interviews, panel highlights, and the biggest moments from the convention floor.