Animated Twitch Alerts & YouTube Stream Notifications

How to use Twitch Alerts

Alerts and notifications are an important element for a good stream. These alerts are triggered whenever a viewer performs a particular action (for example, a follow, a donation, or a host) and inform both the streamer and his/her viewers about the event. In this article we will take a closer look at Twitch Alerts & Notifications.

Let’s first try to define what exactly a Twitch Alert is and what triggers it. An alert indicates when one of the following events occurs: someone is following, donating or cheering, hosting or raiding, or subscribing to the channel with the subscription feature provided by Twitch. Should any of these events occur, an alert or notification will be displayed (if previously configured in a software such as Streamlabs or StreamElements).

Adding Twitch Alerts to OBS

If you want to add Twitch Follower Alerts, Twitch Donation Alerts, Subscriber / Sub Alerts or other notifications like Host Alerts, Raid Alerts or Bit Donation Alerts to your stream, you will need an external tool like Streamlabs, StreamElements and/or OBS (soon we will provide a Twitch Alert Extension, then you won’t need it anymore). Here’s a Twitch Alert OBS Tutorial where you can learn how to add a stream alert: https://www.own3d.tv/obs-tutorial-for-twitch-youtube/

Elements of a Twitch Alerts

A Twitch Alert or a Twitch Notification (These terms can be used synonymously) consists of different elements. On the one hand there is the optical component, which is usually represented by a graphic, but sometimes also by an animation. This optical part of the alarm usually defines what kind of event it is.

A text is usually displayed above or next to the graphic or animation, which specifies the current event in more detail. The text part contains the name of the viewer who executed the action as well as a text describing the action. This can be freely chosen by the streamer and can contain anything from pure information (own3d followed the channel) to very creative word structures. With the help of variables it is also possible, for example, to retrieve the amount of the donation or the duration of the subscription in months and display it in the text part.

The last component of a twitch alert is the sound. Very few streamers rely purely on the visual display of an event, they also accompany such events with special sounds or short pieces of music. In this way the notification is better perceived by both the streamer and the viewers. In addition, the right sound can also reflect an emotion, which can then develop into a little hype in the chat and trigger further events.

What in keep in mind when it comes to Alerts on Twitch

The most important thing is that your alerts should never stand for themselves. Therefore, make sure that both graphics and sounds fit into the concept of your stream. For example, if you mainly play fantasy games while sitting in front of the camera in a medieval armour, laser sounds and robots as graphical components would probably be inappropriate. The same applies for you as a streamer: You are the calm and professional type? Then funny sounds and animations may not be the best choice for you.

Conclusion

A professional stream needs Twitch Alerts, but these should be well thought out. It’s not enough to just set up any animation and a cool sound. The alarm has to be adjusted exactly to the target audience and your own stream. But if you as a streamer deal with it a bit, a beautifully elaborated alert can not only inform the viewers on Twitch, but also animate them.