Last Updated on February 23, 2022
Twitch is a platform that depends heavily on viewer interaction.
A streamer is nothing without their Twitch chat being as active as possible, and there are hundreds of ways that Twitch chat can remain active. Whether it is through credits that you receive for watching a streamer, or through talking to them in chat. But the easiest and most attractive way to express yourself on Twitch is through emotes.
Emotes are the most popular aspect of Twitch, and the prime reason why Twitch as a platform has beaten out other streaming platforms such as Facebook and Mixer.
So let’s take an in-depth look at how you can make custom Twitch emotes in 2021!
What is A Twitch Emote?
Before you begin understanding how to create an emote, you must first learn what a Twitch emote really is.
The easiest way to describe a Twitch emote is that it’s a way of expressing how you feel through a specific image or emoticon within a Twitch chat. An emote is just Twitch’s rebranding of the term emoji or emoticon. However, unlike all the other emojis or emoticons on messenger applications or social media websites, Twitch has completely unique and exclusive emotes which cannot be found anywhere else.
There are thousands of emotes on Twitch that represent thousands of different expressions and feelings, so naturally making Twitch emotes is something many people are interested in.
These emotes can be anything, from a still from a video game, a funny moment in a streamers stream highlights or even a completely irrelevant character that just looks funny or expressive! These images or ‘emotes’ are sent to a Twitch chat by using combinations of letters and symbols on your keyboard, just like in texting, or through selecting one from the emotes section that is available in every chat.
Some channels can use outside plugins that are affiliated with Twitch. What these plugins do is that they showcase the emotes on the stream if they’re using within the chat. Most streamers use these plugins to make their chats look flashier and more appealing. People can use outside plugins as well to gain access to a bunch of different emotes that are exclusive to these plugins; such as BetterTwitchTV and FrankerFacez.
How To Get Custom Emotes On Twitch?
Many streamers choose to create and use their own custom emotes, to better acquaint their chat with themselves.
Custom Emotes are emotes that usually relate heavily to the streamer they belong to, these can be stills from their streams or games they have played.
To get custom emotes though, the streamers’ channels need to be affiliated or partnered up with Twitch. Verified accounts are also another way to get access to creating custom emotes, but all Twitch Partners already have their accounts verified just for good measure.
Twitch partners can upload up to six emotes right after they become Partner, whereas Affiliates only start with one emote after their upgrade. The rest of it depends upon the streamers’ subscriber count, and how many channels points they manage to accumulate.
This number is determined by a thorough calculation of the total subscriber count, and their subscriber tier (tier 1, tier 2 or tier 3). At a maximum though, Affiliates can get up to a total of 5 emote slots, whereas Twitch Partners can eventually increase their number at a maximum of 50 custom emotes.
Once a streamer has unlocked an emote slot, it will always remain unlocked even if their subscriber count becomes lower than the total required amount.
What Kind Of Images To Use As Your Custom Emote?
As for what kind of emotes you should be using on your Twitch, you should already be aware of how the Twitch ecosystem completely revolves around these emotes, and figure out what you want to use.
If you’re unsure, then take your time to scope out and see what kind of emotes other popular and small streamers use on their channels.
Make sure to take a thorough look at what kind of emotes are the most popular. However, if you do want a recommendation from us then definitely get a cartoon version of yourself with expressive reactions and faces.
Photos of yourself that you think are quite humorous or represent certain reactions from you should be quite popular among your chat as well.
You can also use phrases, words or sentences that you use often during specific situations and get those created to be emotes as well.
But we for sure recommend commissioning artists or other third party sources to draw cartoony versions of yourself, as these are definitely the most popular emotes on the platform.
How Do I Make Twitch Emotes?
Now this is the most important part of the article. Twitch emotes are quite easy to create, they are essentially just tiny images that you can create in any photo editing software based on your preference.
Most people choose to opt for Adobe Photoshop when they are creating their emotes or anything of the sort.
While creating a Twitch emote however you must remember a few rulesets and requirements that these emotes need to have:
- The images must support transparency.
- All emote images must be in the PNG file format.
- Three sizes of each emote image are required: 28px x 28px, 56px x 56px, and 112px x 112px.
- Each emote file can be no larger than 25kb in size.
- Emotes cannot contain hateful, violent, or sexual imagery. Images that promote harassment of a group or individual are also not allowed. Click here for a full list of parameters surrounding emotes.
If you emote abides these laws then its pretty much suitable for usage on any of Twitch’s extensions or the main platform itself. However, aside from the last one, these requirements are quite tricky to follow.
Creating images that support transparency while being in PGN file format, as well as being extremely tiny in size can be a very difficult task to take on.
So the best possible way to create a Twitch emote based on our recommendations is to get it made through third party sources.
How To Get Custom Twitch Emotes From An Artist?
There are always people willing and ready to create Custom Emotes for a Twitch channel. Twitter is filled to the brim with posts regarding these, and so are a lot of other platforms.
However, we’ve determined that Fiverr is the best place to look for if you want a great Custom Emote.
There are hundreds of artists and photo-editors to choose from on that platform for your required services. The best person for the job will always the one with a very high rating score overall. If their rating is a solid 4.9 or above, then they will create a great custom emote for you.
On a side note, you can also always look for Artists on Fiverr. These artists will create beautifully designed cartoon versions of you that you can use as emotes.
Artists are always a better pick when it comes to creating custom emotes. These artists can create not just a cartoony version of you, but also give you text and other symbols on the side to represent certain emotions in a much more comedic way.
How To Upload Emotes On Twitch?
Once you’re done with getting your preferred custom emote created from Fiverr, Then comes the easy part, which is just uploading it!
Once you upload your custom emote, you will give your Twitch chat complete access to use it when they like. You can upload the emote in these few steps:
- Open the web browser of your preference. Go to Twitch.TV and log into your account. Once logged in, click on your display picture in the top-right corner and select the “Creator Dashboard”.
- After clicking on Creator Dashboard, the Stream Manager dropdown menu will open up. There you click on the “Preferences” tag, inside of which you click your “Affiliate/Partner” tag and then finally click on “Emotes”. Don’t forget that you need to be either a Twitch Partner or a Twitch Affiliate to actually get the ability to use custom emotes.
- In the next screen you get into, you will see a proper list of how many emotes you already have on your Twitch channel currently if you already have any emotes pre-loaded in. It will also show you how many slots you have available for further uploading more emotes. You will see the “Upload Emotes” tag at the bottom when you scroll down, there you will upload three different sizes of your chosen emote.
- Once uploaded, the emote you have uploaded is completely available to use for your Twitch chat.
Simple as that. Once you upload your own Custom Twitch Emotes, you will see an insane increase in popularity for your streams.
Audiences tend to watch streamers that feel much more personal to themselves, and on Twitch, there is no better way to express yourself than to get emotes that represent the best possible version of you!