A streamer’s stream chat is directly proportional to the number of viewers. The more the viewers on a particular stream, the higher the possibility of having a consistent flow of messages in the ‘Stream Chat’ section.

Apart from indulging in a healthy to-and-fro about the stream and related topics, some viewers can also text spammy, send negative/hate messages, and spread unwelcomed content. These viewers negate the need for accountability as they may skip the tag of being the streamer’s followers or subscribers.

To make things a little more liable and safe, streamers can restrict their stream chats to just their followers or subscribers. This not only builds viewer trust and comfort for the streamer, but it also enables viewer responsibility and not to mention, loyalty.

Chat settings can be changed only on the Twitch desktop app.

Enabling Follow-Only Mode on Twitch Desktop App

Launch Twitch on your computer and click the user profile button to the top right corner of the screen.

Select ‘Creator Dashboard’ from the upcoming menu.

You will now redirect to your creator dashboard on your browser. Click the ‘Settings’ drop-down box from the left list of options.

Choose ‘Moderation’ from the ‘Settings’ options.

Scroll through the ‘Moderation’ settings page on the right to find the ‘Followers-only mode’ option. Click the ‘Off’ drop-down box. Now, click to apply the duration of your choice in the drop-down menu. This is the duration a viewer must follow you in order to gain permission to send messages in your stream chat.

Viewers will now need to follow you for a specified time before they can begin chatting on your channel. Restricting your stream chat just to your followers can bring about some security, but not entirely.

To maximize chat safety, you can make sure viewers verify their email address and/or phone number before messaging in your stream chat — alongside following you or not.

Enable Email Verification for Improved Safety on Your Channel’s Stream Chat

To enable these settings, stay on the same ‘Moderation’ settings page. Locate ‘Chat Verification’ under ‘Chat Privileges’. The chosen option under ‘Email Verification’ is OFF by default. There are two options you can enable here – ‘All chatters’ and ‘Some chatters’.

Email verification for all chatters

If you want all chatters to verify their email addresses before they can text on your stream chat, click the radio button in front of the ‘All chatters’ option.

Email verification for some chatters

The ‘Some chatters’ option has three criteria – All first-time chatters, chatters based on how old their accounts are, and chatters based on how long they’ve been your followers.

To enable any of these criteria, first, click the radio button in front of the ‘Some chatters’ option. You’ll notice that all three criteria under this option are selected by default. This is ideal to improve chat safety. However, you can deselect any two and select any of the options individually.

First-time chatters only: If you want only first-time chatters to verify their email before chatting on your stream, then click the radio button in front of the option that says ‘First-time chatters in my channel must have a verified email’.

Chatters with older accounts only: These chatters needn’t verify their email but must have accounts older than the chosen period. Click the radio button in front of ‘Chatters without a verified email must have accounts older than:’ to select this option.

Now, click the ‘1 Week’ drop-down box at the end of the option to select the duration. Chatters will need to have accounts older than your chosen duration in order to chat in your stream.

Only chatters who are followers: This criterion negates the requirement for chatters to either verify their email address or have a reliably older Twitch account. They simply need to follow you for a specified time to gain access to chatting on your stream.

Click the radio button in front of ‘Chatters without a verified email must have followed for more than:’ under ‘Some chatters’ to select this option. Then, click the ‘1 Day’ drop-down box to select the minimum duration a viewer needs to follow you to become a chatter. Click to select the duration in this drop-down box.

Although it is possible to enable individual criteria for ‘Some Chatters’ to chat on your stream, it is suggested to enable all options under this section. You can change the time and duration for the respective options and enable all the said criteria for better safety.

You cannot enable both ‘All chatters’ and ‘Some chatters’ under ‘Email Verification’.

Enable Phone Verification For Added Safety

Phone verification is an additional measure of chat safety. With this security measure in place, users with a verified email ID will still be unable to chat on your stream unless their phone number is verified. This improves both user and viewer credibility and almost completely avoids an unaccountable situation.

The necessity for a user to verify their email address and phone number to chat can be mutually exclusive or not. It depends on how secure you want your stream’s chat to be. In other words, you can enable both email and phone number verification.

The options for phone verification are the same as for email verification.

For all chatters

If you want all your chatters to verify their phone numbers before they can text on your stream, click the radio button in front of the ‘All chatters must have a verified phone number’ option under ‘Phone Verification’ in the ‘Chat Verification’ box.

Phone verification for some chatters

If you want only certain chatters to verify their phone number (or not), click the radio button in front of the ‘Some chatters must have a verified phone number’ option. All the criteria below this option are selected. But, you can deselect the options that don’t apply (any two) or keep all of them enabled.

For first-time chatters only: If you want only users chatting for the first time on your channel to verify their phone numbers before proceeding, click the radio button in front of the ‘First-time chatters in my channel must have a verified phone number’ option. This will exclude long-term chatters from the verification process.

For chatters with older accounts only: If you don’t mind chatters not verifying their phone numbers but require them to have accounts older than a select duration, then click the radio button in front of the ‘Chatters without a verified phone number must have accounts older than:’ option.

You can change this duration by clicking the ‘1 Week’ drop-down box next to the option. Click to choose your desired duration in the drop-down menu. This is the period a user must hold a Twitch account in order to message on your channel.

Chatters who are followers: If you want chatters to follow you for a period of time without needing to verify their phone number or have an older account on Twitch, then click the ‘Chatters without a verified phone number must have followed for more than:’ option to enable it.

Click the ‘1 Day’ drop-down box next to this option to choose the duration for which the user must have followed you to be permitted to message on your channel.

Though you can choose individual criteria for ‘some chatters’ to verify their phone numbers, it is advisable to enable all three options.

How to Know Your Chat Security Measure Are Good Enough?

Twitch interprets your chat security on an ‘Overall Safety Rating’ (OSR) system. The toggle on this system increases and decreases along with a change of color, depicting how strong your stream chat security is — all based on your ‘Chat Verification’ option(s).

  • Green is the ideal color you must see in this rating. The toggle is filled when it is green. This suggests your chat safety is good and strong. Enabling both phone and email verification boosts your chat safety and the rating to green as well.
  • Brown suggests your chat safety is moderate. There is scope for better security by improving your ‘Chat Verification’ options.
  • Red is a bad sign. This shows a lack of security on your stream chat. A red rating is generally the consequence when both phone and email verification is turned off.

Phone number verification weighs heavier than email verification when it comes to stream chat safety. Enabling ‘All first-time chatters’ to verify their phone number or ‘Some chatters’ inclusive of all criteria will give you a strong green safety rating. This applies even if you were to disable email verification and maintain only phone number verification.

Verification Exemptions

You can have some exceptions to verification on your stream chat. The exceptions are – Subscribers, Mods (Moderators), and VIPs. These users needn’t verify either of the credentials in order to message on your stream.

However, there is one condition to enable these ‘verification exemptions’. Either the phone number or email address verification must be enabled to any extent. They can be generalized to all chatters or limited to some. When you enable any verification system (phone/email), the mentioned users are exempted from the need to verify their details.

Once either of the verification methods is enabled (to all users or some), you can choose your verification exemptions (if any). Click the radio button in front of the option under ‘Verification Exemptions’ to select your choice of exempted users.

As you grow as a Twitch streamer, it is important to secure your channel against unsolicited or even malicious content. Stream chats are a big thing on popular streams and with these measures you can surely make your channel’s chat space more accountable and safe. We hope you found our guide useful!