Chat Feature

The chat feature provides viewers with an opportunity to engage with streamers directly. They can ask questions, comment on ongoing gameplay, share their thoughts, or simply participate in the chat discussions occurring parallel to the broadcast. This engagement doesn’t just enhance viewer participation but also offers streamers valuable feedback, allowing them to adjust their content in response to real-time audience reactions.

The interface highlights the streamer’s messages differently from the viewer’s messages to make them more prominent. Viewers can use emoticons, known as ’emotes’ on Twitch, to express their emotions and reactions during the live stream, making their interactions more fun and personal.

Twitch chat logs cater to streamers and viewers interested in reviewing past chats. Streamers often use these logs to understand better their audience, gather feedback, and maybe pick out some interesting ideas or suggestions put forth by the viewers.

Inherent to the chat feature are certain controls that help maintain a positive and well-moderated environment. Streamers have some power over their chat settings and can choose to limit chat access to only followers or subscribers, curb spam, prevent links, or even apply slow mode, which limits how often a viewer can send messages.

PHP 7.4’s enhanced performance facilitates a seamless flow of information between the streamers and viewers. It supports fast, efficient relaying of messages, sustaining the vital ‘live’ quality of the interactions, which is the cornerstone of Twitch’s messaging feature.

 

Moderation Tools

These designated users oversee chat activities, ensuring a healthy atmosphere where abiding by the community guidelines is paramount. They can remove inappropriate messages, timeout or wholly ban certain users if necessary, thereby providing a safe space for genuine interactions.

The platform equips broadcasters with a set of self-moderation tools to monitor conversations that occur during live streams. Broadcasters can use the word filter tool where they can specify certain words or phrases to be screened out from the chat. This automated moderation strategy allows the streamer to prevent any offensive language, spam, or advertisements from appearing in the chat, thus maintaining decorum throughout live sessions.

Twitch’s AutoMod feature uses machine learning to identify and filter out potentially harmful content. This advanced tool offers multiple levels of moderation, ranging from no filtering to maximum filtering. When a message is flagged by AutoMod, it will not appear in the chat until a moderator or the broadcaster approves it, thereby reducing the probability of harmful content slipping through into the live feed.

“Stream Delay” allows broadcasters to introduce a time delay to their streams, thus providing the moderator sufficient time to review the chats and take necessary actions, if needed.

Broadcasters can also prevent hyperlinks from being shared in chats, reducing the risk of spam or phishing attempts. They can go a step further by limiting chats to followers, subscribers, or certain chat badges only—the purpose being to keep the environment controlled, safe, and free from unwanted interruptions.

 

Custom Emotes

Custom emotes often become a symbol of a streamer’s brand or channel’s identity, as they represent specific themes, patterns, or even inside jokes that are exclusive to that community. When a viewer subscribes to a channel, they are granted the ability to use that channel’s custom emotes across Twitch, thus showcasing a bit of their favorite streamers’ identity wherever they communicate on the platform. The PHP 7.4 version allows loading these emotes faster, providing a smoother and more interactive experience.

Twitch provides streamers with a Partner Program, a feature that allows for greater customization of emoticons. Streamers who are part of this program have the liberty to create their distinct emotes, which aid in channel promotion.

Through the utilization of BTTV (Better Twitch TV) or FrankerFaceZ, users can integrate GIF emotes, further enhancing the chat experience and allowing for a wider range of expression.

Even though emotes can be used collectively within the community, they are governed by a certain set of guidelines provided by Twitch. Users are obliged to maintain the platform’s policies and refrain from designing emotes that might involve offensive or copyright-protected content.

 

Raids

Just as a streamer is ready to end their show, they can type “/raid” followed by the username of the channel they want their viewers to visit. Following this, Twitch generates a pinned chat message with a ‘Raid Now’ button for the streamer to activate when they are ready, and a ‘Join’ button for viewers who wish to be part of the raid. Once the raid command is triggered, it redirects the streamer and their viewers to the targeted channel.

Raids are a wonderful way for streamers to support each other – promoting each other’s channels, helping smaller streams grow, and even bringing larger communities to watch a lesser-known broadcast.

For viewers, raids open up avenues to explore new content, interact with different users, and potentially find more channels they might enjoy. It’s a win-win situation for both streamers who pass on their audience and for those who receive them.

Twitch also recognizes the potential misuse of this feature and, therefore, has guidelines and controls in place. It allows users to choose who can raid their channel, offering options that range from no one to everyone. Streamers also have the option to exit or even block any incoming raids — a feature aimed at ensuring streamer comfort and channel compliance with Twitch’s community guidelines.

 

Channel Points

By watching a stream, participating in a raid, following a channel, or subscribing, viewers can accumulate points. The more active a viewer is, the more points they earn.

Channel Points be redeemed for special perks which differ depending on the channel. These can range from highlighting a message to make it more noticeable in the chat, to unlocking random sub emotes which can be used across Twitch. Other rewards could be particular to a streamer’s channel or content, offering benefits that can significantly enhance the viewer’s Twitch experience.

With the introduction of “Manage Rewards and Challenges,” Twitch has allowed broadcasters to create custom rewards for their audience. Streamers can be creative in thinking of unique and exciting ways for their viewers to redeem Channel Points, fostering an engaging environment while also allowing the streamer to tailor the viewing experience to his or her unique community.

Twitch has systems in place to manage and adjust the earning and redemption rates of Channel Points on their dashboard. This allows a streamer to balance the economy of Channel Points to make it neither too simple nor too challenging to earn rewards, ensuring fair progression and participation in the channel.