One task you need to do before you go live on Twitch is setting up a chat bot. Streamlabs’ Cloudbot is simple and effective in moderating your chat, providing mini-games, and other stream management. Head over to streamlabs.com to create a new account if you haven’t already. We will give you a general overview of each of Cloudbot’s features.
Turning On Cloudbot
After you have logged in to your Streamlab’s account, under Stream Essentials, click on Cloudbot. If not already “active;” activate it now. Cloudbot is active, but you still need to give moderation permissions. Go to your Twitch chat and type: “/mod Streamlabs” (without the quotes). Streamlabs is now a moderator but does not know how you want it to interact with your chat. Let’s walk through each option.
Mod Tools
Mod Tools are the bread and butter to keep your chat under control. I suggest turning them all on and sticking with the default preferences until you need to make a change on how you want your chat to run. Here is a quick overview of each type of protection Streamlabs’ Cloudbot provides for your Twitch Chat.
Caps Protection
Having a viewer spam all caps can quickly ruin the tone of your chat. You can set the number of caps allowed, who can spam caps, and what the punishment for breaking the rules will be.
Symbol Protection
Most viewers do not spam symbols, but just in case that “one” does…
Link Protection
Viewers will post links in chat and in most cases you will want Cloudbot to remove them. You can whitelist and blacklist websites. If you want to permit a viewer to post any link, you or a moderator can type: !permit <name>
Word Protection
Word protection will keep your chat as clean as you want it. It will keep racial, homophobic, etc words out of your chat. You can add additional words to the black list. I suggest to have “Use Default Blacklist” turned on.
Paragraph Protection
The length of a chat message is another setting that will just take time to learn what is preferred. I have not updated this protection after streaming over 3 years.
Emote Protection
This is one preference you will want to play with. You have emotes for a reason. You made a great play. Viewers will want to spam your emotes.
Bot Name
By default, the bot name will be streamlabs. If you have Streamlabs Prime, you can set another twitch account to be the bot. Streamlabs Prime is a paid service that offers a lot of benefits to streamers.
Modules
Modules are your minigames, notifications, and other chat enhancements. Warning: Turning on any of these could cause your chat to be flooded by these modules.
Commands
Commands is where you will spend most of your time. You can create custom commands and enable the default ones. But for now, just take a look and browse around. Commands is essential for communicating “general information” quickly and effectively. (I will give another tutorial on this later). Here is an article on how to setup a Shoutout Command for Streamlabs and Twitch.
Timers
Timers will show the response in the chat after a certain amount of time / chat minimum has passed. Timers are great to remind people of your other social accounts or to promote an event or video.
Quotes
I have never used this nor have I ever been on a Twitch stream and seen this feature used. You can add quotes that you have said and then use the !quote, it will randomly pick a quote. You or mods can add quotes with !addqoute <text> in Twitch chat.
Queue
Queue allows viewers to join the queue and for you to easily manage it. If you want viewers to play with you in your Fortnite games, Queue will save you a ton of headache.
Loyalty
Loyalty gives you a way to track your most loyal viewers. They can earn points through watching, subscribing, donating, etc. They can then use those points in mini-games and in your store. If you are just starting out streaming, I would suggest you leave this /OFF/ until you have a full plan on how to use this feature.
Store
Store allows you to set up rewards for your viewers to claim with their loyalty points. If you set up a store, you will need to also set up your Loyalty. Again, if you are just starting out streaming, I would advise to not have a store until you learn about yourself as a streamer and your viewers.
Polls
This will allow you have a poll. However, since Twitch has built this into their chat system, this is pretty much obsolete.
Betting
Betting allows viewers to bet their loyalty points. It is like Twitch’s Prediction System but uses the viewer’s Streamlabs’ Loyalty points and not their Twitch Channel Points.
Giveaway
Giveaway allows you an easy way to run raffles in your stream. You can set up custom and merch giveaways. On the merch giveaways, you will purchase the item. The winner will get a URL to fill out the shipping address.
Users Management
User Management allows you to let Streamlab Cloudbot know who you set as a Regular user. In some Cloudbot settings, you can allow Regular users to have extra permissions.
Importer
Importer allows you to import settings from other Twitch Chat Bots.
Final Thoughts
As you navigate Streamlabs’ Cloudbot, start off with the defaults and gradually fine tune the settings to match your personal preferences. As you gain more experience streaming on Twitch, you will figure out what works for you and your viewers. Stay tuned for more detailed post on some of Cloudbot’s features.
