YouTube Introduces Emotes for Livestreams, Following in Twitch’s Footsteps
YouTube is embracing emotes, a popular feature on Twitch, to enhance the livestream viewing experience. The move comes as YouTube continues to rival Twitch by partnering with influential content creators like Ludwig.
Truffle.TV: The Solution to YouTube’s Lack of Emotes
Ludwig took matters into his own hands by creating Truffle.TV, an extension that adds emotes and other additional features to YouTube. However, with YouTube’s recent launch of its own emotes, this will no longer be a problem.
Now introducing YouTube Emotes!
A great new way for YouTube Creators to react and express themselves via live chat
Current emotes are YouTube Gaming themed – stay tuned as more emotes are coming for different communities
More info: https://.com/streaming/news/following-streamer-demands-youtube-finally-ships-platform-wide-update-for-emotes
The decision to introduce emotes on YouTube was shared in a blog post by the YouTube team. They stated, “Sometimes words just don’t do the moment justice. When words run out, you now have YouTube Emotes, a new way for you to express yourself with fun images across streams and comments!”
“Emotes are fun sets of static images you can use across the platform to help build a sense of community, exclusively on YouTube. We’re starting with emotes created for Gaming but are working on bringing even more themes of emotes in the future, so stay tuned for emotes for even more communities!”
How to Use YouTube Emotes
It’s easy to use YouTube Emotes. In live chat or comments, simply click on the smiley-face icon to see the available emotes, as well as custom emojis for channel members. Similar to Twitch, each emote has its own specific name that can be typed in chat to display it. For example, typing “:cat-orange-whistling:” will show that specific emote in chat.
While it may take time for YouTube Emotes to become as iconic as Twitch’s emotes, it’s a step in the right direction that allows viewers and fans to express themselves during livestreams.