Channel bots

Nearly every channel has a resident bot. The most common job that bots do is to respond with preprogrammed information when people type commands, such as !twitter giving a response such as “Check out my Twitter at https://twitter.com/MY_USER_NAME”. Once you’ve set up the bot command, it’ll remember it and save you the trouble of saying or typing it every time.

There are many bots available to use on Twitch. Some of them you install and run, others are available under their own names; some are free, others cost money; some have many features and others are more minimal. Check a few out, and don’t be afraid to use more than one bot - they don’t fight (usually)!

Installable bots

These bots can be downloaded and run on your own computer, and they’ll use the name of whatever account you authenticate them with. You’ll see various channels give their bots appropriate names, such as CandiCat (DeviCat), INS4NEBOT (MaayaInsane), mirrors_reflection (Person_in_the_MIRROR), etc.

• StreamLabs Chatbot (formerly Ankhbot)
• DeepBot (non-free)
• StilleBot
• Many many others

Activatable bots

These bots already exist, and you can ask them to serve in your channel.

• StreamElements
• Nightbot
• WizeBot
• Rosuav’s StilleBot (yes, the same software you can install)
• And many others

Once activated, they will do their work without hassle. They can generally be configured through chat commands and/or a web interface.

Common bot features

Not every bot does everything here, but here are some things you can look for:

• Info commands - type “!discord” and the bot responds with preconfigured text giving your Discord link.
• Automated/timed commands - the bot will give some information periodically without being asked.
• Channel loyalty points (distinct from Twitch’s on-platform currency) and the ability to see who your most regular viewers are.
• Quotes. Add them when funny things happen, and pull up random out-of-context quotes from people. It can be hilarious!
• Viewer engagement - interactive games, greeting new arrivals, celebrating donations or subscriptions, etc, etc.
• Moderation - timing out or banning users, eg for links (and they can have a way for human mods to override this eg “!permit username”).
• Music management and optionally song requests
• Giveaways