Ultra.
Have you ever wanted to spice up your Twitch channel? Are you lost on how to even begin? If you answered yes, it’s time to discover Twitch’s cool new emotes!
You’ve probably heard a popular Twitch streamer or two mention emotes in a past broadcast, and you’ve been curious ever since.
Don’t worry, we’ll tell you.
Twitch emotes are a powerful part of Twitch culture that’s been available for years. But follower emotes are new. And using them effectively can help boost your channel’s popularity and make your channel feel community-focused.
This guide will teach you (in a beginner-friendly way) what follower emotes are, how to add follower emotes on Twitch, and much more!
What Are Follower Emotes?
Twitch follower emotes are images and videos that streamers make available to their community. You can use these fun and exciting pieces of content in a streamer’s chat room at any time.
If you’re familiar with Twitch, follower emotes sound very similar to subscriber emotes. That’s because they are, but with one key difference, viewers do not have to be paid subscribers to use follower emotes.
In fact, follower emotes become available as soon as you follow a new streamer. But, of course, that’s if they offer follower emotes at all.
How Do Twitch Follower Emotes Work?
Streamers can set up to five free emotes that their followers can use by:
- Using one of Twitch’s default emotes
- Uploading a custom-made emote
- Converting subscriber emotes to follower emotes
It’s that simple.
But there is one caveat: streamers must be eligible for instant emote uploads to offer follower emotes.
Streamers that can offer free emotes include:
- Twitch Partners of 60 days or more.
- Twitch Partners who have not received an infraction for 60 days.
- Twitch Affiliates who have streamed for a total of 60 days in two years. The days do not have to be consecutive.
How To Upload a Twitch Follower Emote
If your channel is eligible to create emotes, here’s how you do it:
- Head to the Creator Dashboard.
- Select the Emotes tab.
- Upload an image or animation as an emote.
- Pick Follower as their Slot assignment.
And that’s all the work you have to do. Twitch handles the rest by notifying your followers when you add a new emote.
How To Make a Custom Twitch Follower Emote
You can make your Twitch follower emotes using any design platform. Popular tools like Canva and Adobe Photoshop are options for designing your emotes. If designing your own emotes isn't your strong suit, you can also try calling on a professional on Fiverr to design for you within your budget.
There are some standards that your images and videos must follow before being made into an emote. Let's check them out below.
Static Follower Emotes Guidelines
Twitch makes note that all follower emote images must meet the following standards:
- PNG format
- Transparent background
- Between 112 x 112px and 4096 x 4096px
- Must be square-shaped
- Below 1MB in file size
Animated Follower Emotes Guidelines
Like static emotes, animated follower emotes have their own share of guidelines:
- GIF format
- No more than 60 frames
- Must be square-shaped
- Between 112x112px and 4096x4096px
- 1MB max file size. This applies to users who are using auto-resize.
- 512KB max file size if using manual mode
Follower Emotes Twitch Restrictions
Outside of the standard guidelines, it is also mandatory that your follower emotes meet Twitch’s community guidelines. In short, your emotes cannot contain:
- Offensive imagery
- Illegal drugs/drug use
- Targeted insults
- Sexual content
- Violence
- Nudity
- Vulgarity
- Politics
- Twitch branding
- Single letters and characters. Partners may be exempt from this restriction, provided that the characters are an integral part of their established brands.
You should know that Twitch will reject all follower emotes that violate their Terms and Conditions.
And here’s a tip: never re-upload rejected or removed emote content. Twitch will notice and may take action by:
- Removing your content
- Placing a strike on your account
- Suspending your Twitch account
Who Can’t Use Follower Emotes?
Streamers who have violated Twitch’s Community Guidelines cannot create new follower emotes. And if Twitch suspends an account, they are also disqualified from making follower emotes.
But disqualified streamers are still able to rearrange and delete existing emotes. Plus, their community can still use the emotes in Chat during their streams.
Conclusion
If you’re looking to make your channel more enjoyable for less work, Twitch follower emotes are an easy way of doing just that. So it’s worth it to take some time to browse around Twitch and add a few emotes to your account.
There are tons of great free emotes for streaming, or you can make your own in just a few minutes with Streamlabs Emote Maker. So what are you waiting for? Give it a try!