BTTV emotes now on YouTube: Popular Twitch extension follows big streamer moves
The massively popular browser extension Better Twitch TV (BTTV) is now expanding to YouTube as well. This follows a stream of Twitch content creators making the switch to the rival platform.
BTTV is a Chrome extension that is primarily used by Twitch streamers and viewers to gain access to a much larger library of Twitch emotes.
Streamers can upload their own custom emotes to the platform and then enable the extension so that viewers can use them. There’s also a variety of popular BTTV emotes, such as KEKW and POGGERS which are very commonly used on the site.
These emotes are loved by Twitch users, but as some of their favorite streamers like DrLupo and TimTheTatman move to YouTube, they’re missing some of the classic chat engagement that the extension provides.
BTTV coming to YouTube
Currently, the YouTube version is still in a sort of beta period, and only select streamers, such as those mentioned before, are able to create and upload their own custom BTTV emotes. Hopefully, though, this will be extended to all users.
On September 12, users of the Chrome extension have begun being notified to allow permissions so that BTTV can enable emotes in live YouTube chat.
BTTV then properly announced the new update later on September 12: “7.4.0 brings emotes to YouTube live chat.
“For streamers: you’ll also soon be able to connect your YouTube channel to your BetterTTV account.”
BetterTTV v7.4.0 brings emotes to YouTube live chat! This update is still rolling out to all browsers and users, but if you see a popup asking for new permissions that is from us! For streamers: you'll also soon be able to connect your YouTube channel to your BetterTTV account.
— BetterTTV (@BetterTTV) September 12, 2021
This update hasn’t rolled out to all BTTV users yet though, so if you have it installed on your browser, keep an eye out for an update notification soon.
Although it’s not an official YouTube feature, the addition of BTTV to the platform is a big step forward – and one that YouTube Gaming boss Ryan ‘Fwiz’ Wyatt is clearly happy about.
https://twitter.com/Fwiz/status/1437065545178750981
Chat emotes and general chat engagement is one of the aspects that we think YouTube needs to improve upon if it is to truly compete with Twitch, as opposed to just snapping up the big streamers.