Twitch have recently enabled viewers of twitch channels to unlock even more emotes, alongside the special hype train and seasonal emotes they seem to now be doing, but a viewer can also permanently unlock emotes by donating bits to their favourite streamer, and whilst this seems rather hidden and not visible on pages this can be a fun way to allow your viewers to gain access to emotes without having to dedicate themselves to a monthly subscription to your channel to retain access to emotes.
So how do they work?
Starting from 1000 bits, every bit level unlocks another emote that a viewer can use, and after having donated that many bits to your channel in their lifetime they will gain access to that emote to keep and use forever across twitch, all affiliates and partners will have access to the first 3 levels of emotes at 1k, 5k and 10k bits respectively and unlock all future levels once there is a viewer who has donated that many bits in their lifetime to your channel, so encourages further donations should they desire to unlock even further emotes.
The channel user has full customisation over these as they would any sub emote, and can create whatever emote they desire whether it be monetary related or something fun and different and maybe a little special as a reward or just taking advantage of the extra emote slots they’re something that the content creator will choose.
Once you’ve unlocked access to them, they will have the same prefix as the channel for example indela3 is my heart emote, and work in the same way as any other twitch emote and can be used across all channels after being unlocked, and you will never have to maintain a subscription to keep access as they are yours to keep forever once you have them.
So how do you set them up?
Here’s where it gets a little awkward, because they aren’t accessed from your emotes page where you might expect to find them, instead you have to head over to your bit cheer levels page and starting from the third level you can setup emotes to go alongside the levels as well as the usual badge setups, and after that it’s pretty much the same as setting up a standard emote, you simply upload the 3 sizes and choose a name for the emote and you’re sorted, obviously twitch will have to verify the emote for affiliates but in no time all users who have donated that many bits and the channel owner will have access to these emotes to use forever from this point forward.
My opinion is that they should be a little more special and something fun to use, so I might change mine from the temporary ones I’ve setup now in order to make them something more collectible and fun to use across twitch, and as viewers unlock future emotes you can involve them in the emote creation process ensure they know what’s being made get their inputs on what they’d like to be able to unlock, and carry them along for the ride, as after all they’re the ones who’d be unlocking them so ensuring that they’re something they’d like to have access to and play with across twitch is the best idea, and who knows you might even get some extra bits and donations as a result of making something that your viewers really want to play with as emotes. I do particularly think this is a great idea for smaller channels like mine because people can get permanent access to emotes without having to dedicate to a subscription so it’s a cheaper overall option for lifetime emote access, which also builds loyalty and inclusion in chat.
I of course welcome anyone to suggest any emotes they would like in my channel and I will endeavour to make them for you, and I welcome you to come visit my stream and check it out and maybe join in the fun and grab an emote for yourself over at Http://www.twitch.tv/indelacio_co_uk
Since writing twitch has moved the emotes into your general emotes section so they’re easier to find