Can I Watch Twitch Anonymously?

What is Twitch? It’s the leading livestreaming platform nowadays that allows people to watch and stream live or pre-recorded content themselves, usually gameplay or conversational videos. In addition to gaming streams, Twitch also provides a wide range of non-gaming options, including talk shows in the “Just Chatting” category, event broadcasts, music streams, traveling, and various other IRL content. It’s also the major arena for e-sports matches and tournaments, which are covered by professional commentators. So, searching for an answer to “What is Twitch?”, we can already say that it’s more than a gaming platform.

A regular gameplay broadcast of WoW, Minecraft, Call of Duty, any old-school or indie game on Twitch includes the player’s voice commentary, and you can often see the streamer him- or herself in the video. There is also a chat for viewers, and the streamer usually takes part in the discussion. Thus, playing the game during livestream turns into a shared experience of the broadcaster and viewers.

However, not all viewers are ready or willing to communicate in the chat, and the forums are full of questions “does the streamer see who’s watching?” and “can I watch Twitch anonymously?”. We’ll answer these questions in the article. But, before we dive in, let’s examine how Twitch has managed to maintain its leadership in the world of online broadcasting for so long. Additionally, let’s explore the various opportunities that the platform provides to streamers.

Main Features & Benefits of Twitch

What is Twitch in terms of the basic functionality? The main features of the livestreaming service include:

• Watching your favorite streamers live or their archived streams — and get notified when they go live.
• Learning about new games and gaming life hacks.
• Asking questions in the chat to the broadcaster, as well as exchanging smiles and hilarious stickers and chatting with other viewers.
• Broadcasting streams yourself including gaming, talking at home or “taking” viewers with you to an event or on a trip.
• Saving broadcasts, collaborating with other streamers, and many more.

Twitch supports the web version, a PC client as well as apps downloadable in Google Play and AppStore.

Moreover, you don’t need to sign up for Twitch if you’re going to be a viewer only — through the web version, you can watch any Twitch broadcast without anyone knowing about it. However, in order to stream yourself as well as watch broadcasts in the app, you’ll have to create an account.

These platform’s features don’t seem to be unique, right? Nevertheless, Twitch still remains the number one compared to YouTube and other streaming services. Even though today streamers are increasingly using multi-streaming software to simultaneously stream on different platforms.

How does the platform handle it? And what does a streamer get when they decide to sign up for Twitch?

Benefits of Twitch

The gaming community on Twitch is beyond competition. All the top streamers started and continue to run channels on this platform. Besides, the community is well-respected, and many well-known brands are willing to advertise their services through Twitch’s streamers.

Live content is primary. Twitch stores archived broadcasts for 7 to 60 days — depending on the subscription plan of those who sign up for Twitch, but the main content of the platform is live streams. YouTube Gaming, in contrast, contains many pre-recorded videos.

It’s likely that a combination of several factors is at play here:

• Wide content monetization opportunities and truly complimentary affiliate program.
• Profit from potential advertising and paid subscriptions (up to 50% for top streamers).
• Choosing where to put advertising so that the broadcast does not interrupt at the right time.
• Optimization of the broadcast quality for a device from which a viewer is watching.
• The ability to ban people and appoint moderators.
• All these points are just some of the perks of Twitch account holders participating in the affiliate program.

Another clear advantage of Twitch is that it allows partners to edit their uploaded streams and upload the “best moments” directly to YouTube Shorts. As a result, they can effectively promote their content to a larger audience. Moreover, Twitch recently revealed their plan to introduce a new feature for internal advertising on their platform this coming fall. It’s Discover Feed, an analogue to Shorts and Reels. For Twitch account owners with smaller channels, this update is a game-changer. It enables them to gain more visibility within the community and effectively promote their content on the platform.

So now that we’ve shed some light on what sets Twitch apart from other streaming services, let’s talk about account verification and platform security.

Why Do I Need a Phone Number to Sign up for Twitch?

If you care about the safety of your personal data and are wondering the questions from the category “Is Twitch safe to use?” and “Why does it require a cell phone number?”, here is an answer.

Twitch phone number verification is, first of all, a measure that the platform has introduced to enable channel authors to protect themselves and their audience. Thus, channel owners can add only users with a verified phone number to enter specific chats avoiding incitement to hatred and other prohibited behavior.

Moreover, alternatively or additionally, a user can also verify a Twitch account via e-mail address and attach up to 5 accounts to one phone number. In this case, if one of the accounts is blocked from accessing any chat, the other profiles associated with this phone number are also blocked.

At the same time, to get accepted to a certain chat, you need to verify just once — unlike two-factor authentication, which serves as an extra positive answer to the question “Is Twitch safe for users?”. When activated, Twitch sends a confirmation code to your phone number or email every time you log in. This feature, as with many modern platforms, provides additional protection to your account from intruders and potential data breaches.

Well, if the phone number is needed, how to verify Twitch account without phone number, other than using an email address? You can use SMS-Man’s disposable virtual phone numbers for getting SMS messages for less than $1 and create as many Twitch profiles with unique phone numbers as you need.

How to Verify Twitch Account without Phone Number?

Virtual phone numbers for receiving SMS messages serve as an alternative method to complete registration and verification in various online platforms and services — without any possibility to be traced by the platform.. They do not need any extra equipment such as a SIM card or a special device, and technically work similar to cellular phone numbers. The only difference is, probably, some delay — though, no worries, you get charged only after you get your code.

This is a working way to access services that are not supported in your country, create multiple marketing accounts on social media or just enhance your anonymity on the Internet if you want to keep private.

Being on the market for over 2 years, SMS-Man is one of the major providers of SMS activation services offering the best prices on sale. We support 1000+ global platforms and 180+ countries.

Here are the detailed guidelines on how to verify Twitch account without phone number with SMS-Man:

1. Create a profile on sms-man.com using an e-mail or social media account.
2. Deposit money to your account balance via VISA, crypto or other methods — “Top Up” is in the upper right corner. The minimum deposit amount is $10.
3. Select the country of a mobile operator. 
4. Select “Twitch” among the services and click “Buy SMS”.
5. Scroll down to “History” and copy the received virtual phone number to sign up for Twitch.
6. Apply it to the streaming platform and request a code.
7. Get back to SMS-Man and click “Receive SMS” next to the phone number.
8. Use the code to complete Twitch verification.