If you've ever seen a Twitch livestream, you'd know how fast-paced the chat experience is. That's especially true the more viewers a Twitch streamer has. The live streaming platform is introducing a way for you to keep your comment up a bit longer, for a price, of course.
Hype Chat
You can now pin your chat message at the top of the chat for your favorite streamers to see through Hype Chat. How long it stays there depends on the amount you're willing to pay. The price range is between $1 to $500, but the streamers can set the minimum up to $100.
Your payment will also determine how many characters you'll get for your chat, as well as the design of the message to make it pop out more. For instance, $5 will get you two minutes and 30 seconds of pin time with 100 characters to use.
The new Hype Chat feature is limited to Partners right now as Twitch says that it would "work best in channels that feature fast-moving chat." However, the company intends to roll out the feature more broadly so other streamers can profit from it as well.
The feature's profits will be split between the streamer and the platform, with the former getting 70% of the earnings and the latter getting 30%. Users will be able to pay using their local currency, so there's no need for Bits.
Twitch already has safety measures at the ready for potentially harmful chats. If a user uses banned words or phrases, they won't be able to send the chat. If a user is banned or in time out, their Hype Chat message will immediately be removed from the queue.
Other than moderators and AutoMod scanning the message before users pay for the Hype Chat feature, streamers can also unpin the chat if they find it harmful or offensive. Although, it's not clear if the payment would be refunded once the pin is taken down.
It's good news for partners since a huge percentage of the profits will go to them, which is yet another way to earn from the live-streaming platform. It's a good turn for Twitch, especially after the backlash it received for its now-canceled Branded Content Guidelines.
Twitch Takes Back Advertisement Guidelines
Just a day after Twitch announced its new Branded Content Guidelines, streamers immediately reacted negatively toward the change due to its restriction concerning advertising. A lot of content creators rely on sponsorships to earn on the platform.
If it was implemented, streamers would have to abide by rules like allowing in-stream logos to only take up 3% of the screen size. They can't burn in video ads, as well as display ads and audio ads. This could cause advertisers to back out of deals due to the lack of exposure.
Twitch acknowledged that it was a mistake to create the new guidelines, saying that it was bad for both streamers and the company, as mentioned in Tech Crunch. Kudos to Twitch for taking in user feedback and removing the change immediately.
