An important part of any social network is the relationship between creators and the community. Twitch has been around for over a decade, and in that time, it has evolved its service, whether it's giving streamers new tools or giving the audience more ways to engage.

Today, the company announced "Shield Mode," a new way streamers can protect their audience and broadcast with just the click of a button, making it easy to weed out bad players that could be disruptive or, worst yet, destructive.

The gist of Shield Mode is that it allows streamers and content creators to set up a one-click option that can be activated whenever there is a need for enhanced protection. There is access to plenty of tools that are both new and old, all of which can be fine-tuned prior to the setting being actived.

Once a stream begins, and you sense the need to heighten the protection around your channel, you can click Shield Mode, and it will instantly activate the new settings. Moderators will also have access to Shield Mode, that way, you don't always have to be on your toes and can let someone on your team handle the situation.

One of the new features meant to protect streamers better is the bulk ban option. When Shield Mode is activated, streamers will be able to quickly identify words in chat that are not appropriate and swiftly ban any users in chat that have used that word. There is also a ban list that will help you weed out any bans that weren't appropriate, making sure that you can still have a good relationship with your community.

There is also an option that will automatically prevent new users from entering the chat for the first time and commenting. While this might seem a bit overkill for some scenarios, it could be a good deterrent from raiders, which typically swarm a channel and are in chat for the first time. Of course, all of these options can be customized by the streamer, and Shield Mode is just a quick one-click solution when more protection is necessary.

As before, chat and channel settings can be customized for normal circumstances, but this is a great tool that should be a huge benefit to creators and their audiences.

Source: Twitch