Twitch is the go-to platform for streaming, with over 26 million daily users, according to backlinko and an ever-increasing user base. The Covid-19 pandemic aided the growth of this streaming giant, as people were stuck with nothing to do. Millions logged in to Twitch and watched their favorite streamers play.
Twitch also provides a fantastic ground for gamers to share what they do with the world and create their passion into a job. It allowed everyday people to create exciting and engaging content for the world to see.
Twitch gradually developed more tools to allow streamers to interact with their viewers more. Twitch chat is one such function. Twitch chat will let viewers send their reactions to the stream in real-time and communicate with the streamer.
As we all know, the internet can get toxic sometimes, and things can get a bit out of hand. Therefore, to help prevent improper or abusive remarks, curse words, or hate speech from polluting your chat, you must manage your chat logs.
What Are Chat Logs?
As discussed earlier, Twitch chat is a mode of communication between a streamer and his viewers. With the introduction of twitch chat, Twitch also felt the need to let streamers monitor their chat and see the kind of people hopping on to their streams. Thus, Twitch chat logs were born.
Chatlogs are simply the entire chat history of a stream that contains a list of all the interactions that took place in the chat. It allows streamers to monitor their conversation and keep things smooth because it helps them remove toxic comments and suspend those violating the community guidelines.
Why Check Your Twitch Chat Logs?
Checking your Twitch logs as a streamer is very crucial. Here are a few reasons why you should regularly check your Twitch logs:
- To Find Which Content Captivates More Users
One primary reason you should view your chat log and keep in touch with what your chat is saying is that all this helps you gain insight into what your viewers want and the type of content they are interested in.
The interest of your viewers is constantly changing, and the only way to be a successful streamer is to keep in touch with their changing behavior and produce content that regularly grasps their attention.
Chat log helps you accomplish this by giving you insights about your audience. You can determine which viewers are your loyal fans and prioritize them over the rest, which will help you make relevant content.
You can also ask your viewers specific questions about the broadcast, bounce ideas off them, and track their responses to help you in creating content.
Finally, to keep your loyal fans supporting you in the future, it’s vital that you maintain a good bond with them. You can keep track of your most loyal viewers and award them by giving them a shoutout or mentioning them in your streams.
- To Determine Audience Reactions
This is another great benefit of regularly checking your chat log. Because of the anonymity twitch provides the viewers, they freely engage with your stream and share their honest reactions.
Their reactions can significantly help you understand their likes and dislikes. Thus, you will be able to create more engaging content and continue to entertain your viewers. The priceless reactions of your viewers will surely help you elevate your content and create more relevant stuff that attracts more viewers.
- Moderate The Actions and Reactions Of The Viewers
As said earlier, the internet can sometimes get toxic, as negative people are everywhere. These people, better known as “trolls” on the internet, can ruin your stream for other viewers by passing toxic and racist comments, being mean to others, or picking fights with other users.
Streamers can’t take immediate action because of how fast the stream moves. This is where the twitch chat log works like a charm. It allows streamers to view their old chats and remove inappropriate messages.
If a user repeatedly breaches community guidelines and passes offensive comments, the streamer can permanently ban them from their stream to create a safe and friendly environment.
- Review Moderator Actions
Sometimes chat moderators make mistakes, suspend the wrong person, or delete inappropriate comments. Through chat logs, you can review all their actions and assess whether the steps they took were justified or not.
How To Check Twitch Chat Logs
Now that we have established the importance and benefits of checking your Twitch chat log, let’s look at how you can do this as a streamer or a moderator.
Streamers and moderators can search Twitch chat history by the user. There are several options available, including:
- User Search Command
The user search command on Twitch allows you to search for a specific viewer via their username and look up detailed information about them. This is an effortless command to execute.
All you have to do is type “/user” followed by their username, and twitch will show you all the comments posted by them. Note that this command won’t allow you to look at remarks deleted by mods.
Here’s a list of other information you can get using this command:
- The date they made their account
- How many messages they left on your channel, and what they contained
- How many times has the server timed them out
- How many times were they banned
- Comments left by Mods (moderators) about them
- Third-Party Chatbots
Another handy way of checking your Twitch chat logs is using third-party apps like Chatty. It is a free, open-source Java-based software with a wide selection of tools and a variety of features that outdo the ones on Twitch, such as the ability to automate chat moderation and download chat history.
Chatty allows you to search and save chat logs, so retrieving chat history will be a breeze in the future. It’s also an excellent method for backing up data, so you don’t lose anything important in an application error.
Using chatty is very simple. Download and install Chatty on your device and then activate it. The bot will link to your Twitch account and start monitoring your chat.
- Video on Demand (VOD)
You can record all your live sessions on Twitch through the VOD feature. To activate the VOD feature, follow these steps:
- Go to Twitch’s “Creator Dashboard.”
- Look for “Stream Settings” and click.
- Under “VOD Settings,” toggle the slider next to the option that says “Save past broadcasts.”
What this will do is once a live stream ends on your channel, Twitch will save it on their server and upload it to your channel. You can then watch your entire stream on repeat and read the live chat minute by minute.
This is a highly effective method because you can see comments as they are being typed, so you can better understand the context of what happened that triggered the viewers to respond in such a way.
The moderators and steamers can gain more context on comments and make better and more informed decisions.
- Assign A Moderator
Hiring a moderator is a much easier way for streamers to check their chat logs, as it can save them time. Moderators can also view the chat in real-time to take responsive action.
Secondly, streamers can focus on important stuff like their stream’s quality and content.
To enter the chat as a moderator and access mod view, follow these steps:
- Click on the sword icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. And click on a viewer’s username to see their entire chat history on your channel.
Conclusion
The Twitch chat log is a handy feature that has many benefits. It can help improve your streams by making them safer and more comfortable for the viewers.
You should take the time to explore this feature and familiarise yourself with it so you can use it to the full extent and take advantage of its benefits.
Learning how to view your Twitch chat log is extremely helpful and plays a significant part in succeeding as a streamer.
