Twitch desktop app: what happened to it and what to use now
Press reports say Twitch shut down its Windows and Mac app on 30 April 2022, so on a computer you watch at twitch.tv. A Pake app keeps that same website in a window of its own, and the two settings that matter for streams are a small always-on-top size and a separate app for chat.
What happened to the desktop app
At the end of March 2022 Twitch told users that its desktop app would end on 30 April 2022. Sportskeeda reported the announcement on 31 March and Pocket-lint on 1 April, and both quote Twitch saying the move "allows us to invest more heavily in enhancing and adding new ways to engage" with creators and communities, and recommending a twitch.tv bookmark in the browser. Pocket-lint describes the app as serving both Windows and Mac users.
That leaves the website. A Pake window does not bring the old app back, because it has no client features the site lacks. It is twitch.tv without the browser around it: its own Dock or Start menu icon, its own size and no tabs next to it. If you only watch now and then, a pinned browser tab does the same job, and pinning a website to the taskbar covers that route.
Try the browser first
Before building anything, check what the player and chat already offer in a browser: the player's settings menu and the chat's own menu. Third-party guides describe a pop-out player and a theatre mode on twitch.tv, but their labels may have changed, so look for them in the menus yourself. If a browser window sized to your corner of the screen already does what you want, you may not need an app.
A wrapper earns its place for three things a browser tab does not give you: a window that stays in front, a window that keeps one size, and a chat that lives in its own app instead of a tab you lose.
Build a mini player
With the CLI set up, this builds a small player that stays in front of other windows:
pake https://www.twitch.tv/CHANNEL --name "Twitch Mini" --width 480 --height 300 --always-on-top --no-restore-last-urlReplace CHANNEL with the channel you watch. --width and --height set the starting size, and without them a window opens at 1200 by 780. --always-on-top keeps it above other windows, and the always-on-top guide explains how that works and where it stops. On a Mac, --hide-title-bar lets the page run to the top edge.
Web apps reopen the last page you were on, which is handy for browsing but wrong for a player that should always open one channel. --no-restore-last-url opens the packaged address on every launch while keeping your cookies and sign-in. The 480 by 300 size is only a suggestion; zoom with Cmd - or Ctrl - if the page looks crowded, and Cmd 0 resets it. To start at a smaller scale on every launch instead, build with --zoom 80; the CLI accepts 50 to 200, with 100 as the default, and the zoom keys still work on top of it.
For everyday browsing, build a second, larger app with the plain address:
pake https://www.twitch.tv --name TwitchChat in its own window
Twitch's chat can open as a separate page, and in a browser that address has the form https://www.twitch.tv/popout/CHANNEL/chat; a request for one returned a normal page on 19 October 2026. Open a pop-out in your browser and copy the real address from it before you build, since Twitch controls that route and can change it:
pake https://www.twitch.tv/popout/CHANNEL/chat --name "Twitch Chat" --width 360 --height 640 --always-on-topTwo things to know. First, a Pake app does not allow a site to open new windows by default. The code denies them unless the address is about:blank, so a pop-out button inside the Pake app may open the chat in place of the player instead of in a new window until you build with --new-window, and the CLI docs say that allows pop-ups such as authentication windows and extra tabs. Second, each app name has its own storage, so "Twitch Chat" starts signed out and you sign in again inside it, as two accounts on one website describes.
Video in a system web view
A Pake app draws Twitch with the web view of your system: WKWebView on a Mac, WebView2 on Windows and WebKitGTK on Linux, as the Tauri webview reference lists them. How Pake works and Tauri vs Electron explain what that means for a wrapped site. Codec support follows the engine, and no vendor page lists what each engine plays for Twitch, so test one live stream and one past broadcast on each system you use.
On Linux, Pake's FAQ says that with WebKitGTK 2.52 or later it uses shared-memory rendering so the hardware acceleration that video needs stays on, and older versions keep compatibility flags. If video stutters on Linux, check your WebKitGTK version first.
For fullscreen, Ctrl Cmd F on a Mac and F11 on Windows and Linux toggle it, per Pake's shortcut list. Double-clicking the title bar does the same.
Notifications
Pake answers a page's notification request itself and hands the alert to the operating system. It does not handle web push, the kind that arrives while a page is closed, so a go-live alert only appears if the site raises it through the ordinary notification call while the app is running. Twitch's own settings decide what it sends. Keep --hide-on-close on so closing the window hides the app instead of quitting it. It is the default on Mac; on Windows and Linux pass --hide-on-close yourself and add --show-system-tray so the tray menu can bring the window back. Then test by waiting for an alert. Website notifications in a desktop web app has a test you can run in a --debug build.
Sign-in and when to stay in the browser
Sign in inside the app and quit and reopen it once to confirm the session stays. Pake's FAQ says passkeys and Touch ID are not available in Pake apps on macOS, so use a password and a second factor. If you sign in with a Google account, Google can refuse embedded web views, which the sign-in guide explains.
Stay in the browser when a page check fails inside the app. Pake's FAQ says that when a site sits behind a Cloudflare challenge or a sign-in the web view cannot pass, the fix is to use the site in a regular browser.
FAQ
Is there an official Twitch desktop app now?
Press reports say Twitch ended its Windows and Mac app on 30 April 2022 and sent people to twitch.tv. Check Twitch's own pages before downloading anything that claims to be a newer one.
Can I run the mini player and chat together?
Yes. They are two apps with two names, so they run side by side, and each needs its own sign-in.
Will the app change when Twitch changes its site?
Yes. The window loads twitch.tv on each launch, so the interface follows the site. Pake updates the shell, not the site.