Setting Up Twitch Alerts with StreamElements Overlays

Unlock the full potential of your streaming journey by learning how to add and customize alerts on StreamElements. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process, from adding a basic alertbox to customizing each alert and creating alert variations. Enhance viewer engagement and create a personalized streaming atmosphere that resonates with your audience. Let's delve into the step-by-step instructions for adding and customizing alerts to make your stream truly stand out!

We will focus on Twitch alerts, but the process is basically the same for other platforms.

You have two options when creating alerts, well, three if you count our new Elements editor.

1. Create an overlay from scratch
2. Use an existing theme from the Overlays gallery
3. Use the new Elements feature

For this specific article, we will focus on the first one.

1. To start, navigate to Streaming tools > Overlays
   
   
2. Click the "New Overlay" button
   
3. Rename the overlay so you can easily identify it
   
4. Click "Add widget" > Alerts > AlertBox
   

This will create a very basic alertbox, with default alerts. If your only goal is to have basic alerts you can use this as is, just click "Save" to save the changes.

Customizing alerts:

I'm sure you're looking to customize your alerts. After all, we all have our own unique communities with a bunch of inside jokes, right?

The process is simple:

1. Click the cog wheel icon next to each event to access the advanced settings page
   
2. Here you can change the alert image. It can be a static image, a gif or a video. 
   
3. If you want to upload a static image or a gif click "Set Image", upload it and click submit. You can do the same for a video, just click the "Change Video" button instead.
   
4. You'll probably want to change the alert sound as well. Just click "Upload sound", upload a sound of your choice and click "Submit"
   
5. You can also customize the layout, and choose where you want to position the text/gif (text over image, row, column). You can leave it as it is but feel free to experiment.
   
6. The alert message is also an important part of the alert. You can customize what the alert will say when someone follows. It also includes certain variables you can use. In this case, the only available variable is {name}, which is the username of the new follower. You can also modify the alert duration, this is helpful if you want to match the duration with the video/gif/sound.
   
7. And that's it! You now have a unique follower alert. 
8. There are more customization options, such as text-to-speech, text settings, and animations but we won't cover all of them in this article.

You can repeat the process for the rest of the alerts but there are a few details that you need to keep in mind.

• Subscriber alerts: 
  • You can choose to display the subscriber messages, which is the message viewers include when re-subscribing (you can enable it for specific variations, which we will explain down below)
    
  • You can create new variations, which will trigger different alerts depending on the type of subscription. By default, subscription alerts come with three variations: resubscriber, gifted sub, community gift.
    • Resubscriber: This variation will trigger when someone is renewing their subscription, excluding first time subscribers, in which case the default alert will play
      
    • Gifted sub: This variation will trigger when someone gifts a sub to a specific viewer
      
    • Community gift: This variation will trigger when someone gifts x subs to the channel, not to a specific viewer. This is useful because if we don't have it, an alert will play for every single user that received a subscription, so if someone gifts 10 subs, 10 alerts will play.
      
    • You can also create additional variations for prime subscriptions, tier 2/3 subs and more. To create these variations, simply click the "Add new variation" button, click "Start with blank" and customize to your liking.
      For instance, if you want to create a new alert for prime subscriptions, simply change the variation parameter to Subscription tier and the Requirement amount to Prime.
      
  • You will probably also want to enable TTS for subscriptions (and for tips and cheers as well). Doing this is very straightforward:
    • Scroll down to TTS settings
    • Click "Enable text-to-speech"
    • Select a TTS voice from the dropdown menu
      
    • If you're wondering what "Announce action" means, it's a setting that also triggers TTS for the action itself. For example, if someone donates $5, TTS will read "sk1ll donated $5" before the message.
      
      
• Tip alerts:
  • You can create variations for specific amounts or ranges. This is useful if you want more unique alerts for bigger tips or if you want to add a scary alert for your halloween streams.
    
  • You will also need to setup tipping. You can use PayPal or SE.Pay.
• Cheer alerts: This one also comes with extra variations so make sure you disable them if you only need one alert. Having these extra variations enabled means that if you change the default alert, the variations will override it, so you need to either disable them or customize them as well.
  
• Raid alerts: It has a setting that will allow you to limit which raids trigger the alert. Keeping it blank will trigger the alert for all raids (you can also create variations based on this)
  
• Purchase alert: This alert was used for external integrations (now deprecated).
• Charity campaign donation alert: Used for Tiltify, Extralife and Donordrive alerts

Congratulations! You've now mastered the art of adding and customizing alerts on StreamElements, taking your streaming game to the next level. Your creativity and unique style can shine through as you tailor alerts to match your brand and captivate your audience. Remember, the key to a memorable streaming experience lies in the details, and customized alerts are the perfect touch.

Experiment, have fun, and let your creativity run wild. Your community will undoubtedly appreciate the effort you put into making your stream uniquely yours.

Additional resources:

If you want to add the overlay(s) to your OBS: Adding an Overlay to OBS Studio

If your overlays are not showing up in OBS or you're having issues with them: Overlays, alerts and widgets basic troubleshooting

If you have any further questions or need assistance, our support team will be happy to help.