Every Twitch content creator and Twitch viewer knows it: the legendary Twitch chat on the right side of every stream. Big streamers have to wrestle with an avalanche of emotes and text messages, while smaller content creators can use it to directly engage with their community. But did you know that you can also use Twitch chat outside of the stream window, putting it on any monitor you want – or that you close a Twitch stream, and still continue to chat? Read through this article if you’d like to learn how!
What benefits you get with Twitch popout chat
If you're looking for reasons why you should use Twitch's popout chat, you can get some ideas here.
Save bandwidth by only using the popout
Adjust the chat size to your needs
Use Twitch chat in a separate window
Keep track of Twitch chat logs and viewers
Save your bandwidth
Content creators often leave their Twitch stream open on another monitor to quickly and easily keep an eye on their chat and livestream. If you want to use the Twitch chat directly on twitch.tv, it is necessary to open the stream in your browser.
For content creators with poor internet connections, running their own stream in the background can lead to massive framedrops, which in turn degrades the quality of the broadcasts. The stream itself can be paused, but updates on Twitch continue to run in the background, such as live notifications about followed streamers or changes to the channels (followed and suggested) on the left side of the browser window.Therefore, if you would like to use the Twitch chat without keeping twitch.tv open, the popout chat is the best way to do so.
Enlarge your chat
You can easily zoom in and out within the Twitch chat popout by using "Ctrl & +" or "Ctrl & -", the browser commands for zooming in and out. This is also possible if you don't use the popout, but then everything else on twitch.tv enlarges as well – meaning not only the chat, but also the menu, the description below the livestream or the display of the channels you follow. This is rather annoying and unnecessary. After a certain point, the chat will suddenly disappear and the livestream window moves into the foreground.
Twitch.tv, OBS Studio and Twitch Studio all have an option to make the Twitch chat larger, but they are limited. You can adjust the popout chat any way you want with the aforementioned keyboard shortcuts.
Using fullscreen mode while using Twitch chat popout
If you set fullscreen mode on Twitch, the chat disappears and you can no longer communicate with the chat and the content creator. By popping out Twitch chat, you can enable fullscreen mode and still view the chat on another monitor!
Use all features with Twitch chat popout
All chat features remain available when you pop out the chat: you can see the leaderboards, access all emotes (including Twitch Extensions), view your channel points and access the settings.
You can also access the chat logs as a mod or streamer, or see who is in your chat. Would you like to know more about Twitch chat logs? Check out our article on it!
Of course, all this only matters if you have active viewers who are posting stuff in the chat. If you want to learn more about how to interact with Twitch chat in different ways, read more about it in our tutorial.
How to pop out Twitch chat
There are a few ways you can use the chat outside of Twitch! We'll explain each one in detail here.
Access the Twitch popout chat directly via link
A quick way is by using this link: https://www.twitch.tv/popout/StreamerName/chat?popout=
Just replace the "StreamerName" here with the streamer name of your choice and paste it into your browser. The Twitch chat will open! However, you need to know the exact name. You will also not see immediately if the streamer is online if there is no activity in the chat at the moment.
Use the popout function directly on Twitch
Twitch offers the option to use the chat outside of the stream in the settings. We'll show you step-by-step instructions for your Twitch popout chat below.
Step 1
Sign in to Twitch. If you are not logged in, you can also use the popout chat, but you cannot chat with it.
Step 2
Navigate to your own channel or your favorite content creator who is currently live and whose chat you want to pull from Twitch.
Step 3
Below the input box for your chat messages, you'll find the settings. Click on the gear icon.
Step 4
Here, you will find the menu item "Popout chat". Click on it and the chat of your selected streamer will open in a new browser window!
Step 5
That's it. Now you can use the chat in the same way as you use it next to the livestream.
Step 6
If you want to have the chat next to the stream on twitch.tv again, just close the pop-out or click "Show Chat" next to the stream.
Undocking Twitch chat in OBS Studio
As a content creator, you can undock your own Twitch chat in OBS Studio, Streamlabs, and similar broadcasting tools to expand the dock window. We'll show you a quick guide to OBS Studio here.
- In OBS Studio, go to "Settings" > "Stream" and log in to Twitch to get access to your Twitch chat and dock.
- Once you have logged in and clicked "Okay", two docks will automatically open, including the Twitch chat. This is outside of OBS Studio right from the start. You can either leave it as it is and enlarge it yourself as much as you like, or integrate it into OBS Studio.
- To insert the chat dock into OBS Studio, simply drag it with the mouse to the desired location.
- If you want to drag the dock out of OBS again, click on the two small windows to the left of the "x" in the top right corner of the chat dock. Now you have created the OBS popout chat.
Note: You can't minimize OBS Studio without minimizing Twitch chat as well. This means you need to have OBS Studio open all the time to see the chat. If you want to minimize OBS Studio, it is better to use the Twitch popout chat.
Pop out chat in Twitch Studio
Similar to twitch.tv, you can also display the chat in an extra window as a content creator in Twitch Studio. Unlike OBS Studio, Twitch Studio's chat remains visible even when you minimize the broadcasting software.
- Once you have logged into Twitch Studio, you will see all the various docks, including the "My Chat" dock.
- Click on the gear next to the purple "Chat" button in "My Chat".
- Just like on the website, you will find a “Popout chat” menu item there. By clicking on it, the chat immediately pops out of the streaming tool.
- That’s it!
Note: Twitch Extensions, like BetterTTV or FrankerFaceZ, are not integrated into Twitch Studio at the time of this writing. If you want to use the Twitch Extensions, you should use the Twitch pop-out chat directly.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use Twitch's popout chat even if a channel is not live?
You can use popout chat from channels that are not livestreaming. However, there probably won't be much happening in the chat.
Do I need to sign up or log in to pop out Twitch chat?
You don't need to log in to pop out Twitch chat as a separate browser window: however, you will not be able to send messages this way.
Do I have to keep the stream window open to use the Twitch popout chat?
Since the Twitch popout chat is an external browser window, you can close the livestream without any problems. You won't see what's happening in the stream, but you can still chat with the community.
