Twitch channels rarely grow popular by accident. Far more often, fame and attention are the result of long hours, innovative ideas, and tireless dedication to making quality content. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your stream looks good, and automate tedious tasks that can distract you from entertaining your audience.
For this reason, I still recommend using the Twitch bandwidth test tool. I made a video about using this tool, which I highly recommend watching. For any streamer, I’d recommend using the test tool to determine the best servers for your stream.
That said, you’ll be happy to hear that there’s a wide array of tools out there to help you run a smoother, more professional stream, and some of them are even completely free! Pick out a game that Twitch viewers are sure to loveCan't Get Viewers on Twitch? You're Playing the Wrong GamesCan't Get Viewers on Twitch? You're Playing the Wrong GamesTrying to build an audience on Twitch feels like hosting a party that you forgot to send out invitations for. If you want to boost your traffic, consider these questions when you pick a game.Read More, and manage your stream with some of the best plugins, applications, and chat bots at your command.
Chat Bots
Chat bots hang around your channel’s chat just like any other user, and can be controlled by simple commands, or even set to automate certain tasks like filtering and moderation. Check out these popular options.
Moobot
Created by Twitch Admin Moocat, Moobot is a popular browser based chat bot that you’ll see in many streams. Its basic functionality is free, but to get some of the more advanced features, you’ll need to make recurring monthly payments. If all you need are standard features like chat moderation or recurring links to your schedule or social media accounts though, you should be able to get by without paying anything.
Nightbot
There’s nothing locked behind a paywall when you use Nightdev’s Nightbot, so it’s become another very popular option. Alongside standard moderation features, it can fetch music from SoundCloud as well as YouTube, giving your stream a wider array of options than bots that only use YouTube. Poll and raffle functions provide rich opportunities for interaction with your viewers, and chat stat tracking can help you spot anomalies in your traffic and moderation patterns.
DeepBot
Twitch App For Mac
Deepbot is only available in a closed, paid beta at the moment, but one unique feature makes it stand out from other bots. DeepBot can host minigames right in your chat!
For example, one popular DeepBot minigame is the bank heist. Participants gain loyalty points for visiting your channel or participating in your chat, which they can then bet to rob a virtual bank using chat commands. Some banks are better protected than others, but also offer larger point payouts.
These minigames do tend to generate extra spam in your chat, so make it worthwhile by coming up with things your viewers can spend their points on. Maybe you’ll let them spend points to vote on which game you play next, or on song requests to play behind your stream. These little rewards can keep viewers coming back day after day.
BetterTTV
BetterTTV is a popular Chrome plugin from the makers of Nightbot that adds a bunch of viewing and streaming quality of life improvements to your Twitch experience. The moment you turn on its dark gray theme, you’ll never want to look at your chat on the standard white background again.
You can also make BetterTTV highlight chat messages with your name in them (or any other word for that matter) so that it’s easy to tell the viewers who are addressing you from the ones talking amongst themselves. Alternate emotes, chat support for Google Translate, polling, and more round out a package that provides a richer, easier Twitch experience.
Teeboard
Need deeper options to make your stream look more professional? Teeboard is a powerful Twitch toolbox hosted by the folks who made the free and easy to setup Open Broadcaster SoftwareHow To Live Stream Your Gaming Sessions Using Open Broadcaster SoftwareHow To Live Stream Your Gaming Sessions Using Open Broadcaster SoftwareLive streams have become all the rage these days in the world of gaming, and with Open Broadcaster Software you can join in with your own streaming sessions for the world to watch.Read More (OBS). Though it’s only in beta at the moment, it’s already feature packed!
For starters, it acts as a desktop substitute for the Twitch dashboard, letting you take care of all of the management you’d otherwise do from your browser. Beyond that, you can also add flourishes you’ve likely seen used on lots of popular Twitch channels7 Twitch Streamers to Watch If Esports Aren't Your Thing7 Twitch Streamers to Watch If Esports Aren't Your ThingIf you don't like eSports and you've written off Twitch as 'not for you,' it's time to reconsider. These entertaining Twitch streamers aren't associated with eSports in any way.Read More, including follower, subscriber, and donation notifications, “Now Playing” displays to share your music, and quick templated images for attractive info panel headers.
Multitwitch
Looking for a simple way to show off fun multiplayer gamesEscape The Dungeon Crawl: 4 Co-Op Campaigns Without Loot GrindingEscape The Dungeon Crawl: 4 Co-Op Campaigns Without Loot GrindingIf you're tired of playing Backpack Organizer 2014, there are plenty of great co-op campaigns that won't have you comparing and swapping gear every 10 minutes.Read More from each player’s perspective? Provided they’re all willing to stream on their respective channels, you can make a Multitwitch link that lets viewers enjoy everything from a single browser tab.
To setup your link, just type “multitwitch.tv/” followed by each streamer’s Twitch handle, separated by a forward slash. Then copy and paste that link into your chat, or make it a recurring message from your bot, to invite your viewers to see everyone at once with easy access to each player’s chat.
Since having several streams playing audio at once is likely to produce an unlistenable mess, you’ll want to run a voice chat client3 Must-Have Free Voice Chat Clients for Gamers3 Must-Have Free Voice Chat Clients for GamersNeed a gaming voice chat client to communicate with your game buddies? Here are the top three options that make it easy to talk over voice, video, and more.Read More so your audience can hear every player regardless of whose stream they leave unmuted.
Multitwitch is also great for just keeping up with several streamers at once. In the example pictured, I wanted to recap the latest episode of The Technophilia Podcast, but also have my eye on RiptidePow‘s Dark Souls 2 boss fights. That’s no problem at all with the convenience of Multitwitch.
Better Tools, Better Broadcasts
Do you think this article is missing any bots or tools that are clearly way better than these? We’re all ears! Add your recommended bots and tools down in the comments, and tell our community what sets your options apart from the competition.
Looking for a Twitch alternative? Broadcast in Steam insteadSteam Broadcasting is Here! What Can You Actually Do With It?Steam Broadcasting is Here! What Can You Actually Do With It?If you've been afraid to start streaming gameplay, Broadcasting might be the useful Steam feature you've been waiting for.Read More!
I'm using a tool called Audio Repeater Pro. It helps me to normalize the audio stream with professional quality VST plugins.
Screw Twitch.
YouTube is better.Sub notifications with Stream Warrior work well and so does Nightbot.
You really should checkout StreamTalker.com
I use it on my stream so I don't have to Read the Chat it Speaks the Chat
It uses your Windows TTS voices and has a whole bunch of useful features that make streaming and playing at the same time a lot more pleasurable and less stressfulNot free but worth every penny
new twitch streaming here, some of these tools i have used and can see quite an improvement. If you want to check them out follow me at twitch.tv/mrkingknoxy
I'm a streamer and have made a chat bot, you can check it out here: bendemarsbot.com
I will add features in the next months and years if enough people use it.Take a look at my channel, and tell me how you feel, THX
AnkhBot. AnkhBot is amazing. Jam-packed with features, it's by far the best bot I have ever used (Also, incidentally the only bot I have ever used). But in all seriousness, it's amazing. It's 100% free, and offers such things as quotes, a death counter, a currency system, songrequest, and so much more, as well as all the standard bot things.
Hello everyone, please take a look at my twitch channel, feel free to let me know where to improve,
http://www.twitch.tv/pilotjaimysincerely yours, Pilot Jaimy
What do you think about ModBot? I think it's a good alternative to deepbot! I don't know how good deepbot is cause I never used it (but it sounds very interesting), but ModBot is free and offers many good features!
i would recommend ankh bot it has nearly all features of deep bot (and some other unique) and is totaly free.
Alternative to twitch still pretty new and still in beta but might be worth a shot is streamup.com
Another alternative to Steam browsing is Hitbox, a new alternative. http://hitbox.tv I believe.
Hey all! Some of you may remember me as the guy who made the Twitch Analyzer tool. I've just released a new tool called TwitchTest that will test your bandwidth to the various Twitch ingest servers.
Twitch Bandwidth Test Tool Mac
This is much more accurate than using a speedtest since it uses a single RTMP connection just like streaming, which takes into account the route and latency to Twitch. Speedtest sites use multiple connections with very little latency so the result is unrealistic for finding the optimal stream bitrate.
You can download it at https://r-1.ch/TwitchTest.zip
If you'd like to know more about the settings and results, you can check out the thread I made over at TL: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/tech-support/478845-twitchtest-twitch-bandwidth-tester
Twitch Speed Test
Hope you find it useful!