As those who use other streaming platforms, broadcasters on Twitch do that job for fun and to make money.
However, like any other job, it’s not always about the money on Twitch.
Sometimes streamers are not in the mood for streaming, sometimes they feel blue, or sometimes they are tired from everything.
In those moments, they need support and encouragement from their subscribers and supporters.
That support can be expressed in various ways and one of the most effective ways is using Twitch Bits.
Table of Contents
What Are Bits on Twitch?
A Bit is a sort of virtual currency that any Twitch user can purchase and use for numerous purposes.
Nevertheless, people mostly use Bits to support Twitch streamers and gamers they like, so we could say it’s similar to sponsorship.
That support is called Cheering.
A Cheer is a chat message that uses Bits.
The amount of Twitch Bits that you use to support your favorite streamers is expressed in different Bits emotes that appear in the chatbox.
You can use 1, 100, 1000, 5000, or 10000 bits to cheer someone and the more bits you use, the cooler and prettier animated emotes will appear in the chatbox.
By cheering with Bits you practically give your Bit donations, show your support for an Affiliate or a Partner the same way you would do that by subscribing to their channel.
Subsequently, if you Cheer some streamer, eventually you can earn a Cheer Chat Badge, which is a sort of a prize for you, for your support and loyalty.
Once you earn a Cheer Chat Badge, you cannot lose it, but it will be visible only in the chat of a channel where you earned it in the first place.
Other things Bits can be used for:
- Getting attention in the chat
- Unlocking loot during esports events
- Chatting in Sub Only chat rooms
Enabling Cheering and Cheering Settings Setup
If you are a streamer, you are probably wondering how to organize the whole Cheering action on your channel.
Let me tell you, it’s quite simple.
First of all, as for any other Twitch Affiliate or Twitch Partners, Cheering will be automatically enabled for you as well.
Nevertheless, even though it’s available, using Cheering is not mandatory.
Therefore, if you want to use it, you’ll have to activate it.
As mentioned before, the activation process is very simple and now I’ll break it down for you:
Additionally, you can also organize Cheermotes and Emote Rewards on your channel by choosing the “Emotes” option within the “Viewer Rewards” section.
Thresholds
Some other options that you can set on your channel are thresholds.
Firstly, you can set the smallest number of Twitch Bits that someone can send in the chat in your Twitch stream.
So, your viewers will be able to send you only emoticons that have an equal or higher value than the threshold that you had set.
They will also have the option to combine smaller amounts of Bits, but the sum of them will have to be at least equal to the minimum that you had previously set.
Secondly, you’ll be able to set the smallest Bit emote that can be used in your chat.
Therefore, if you set it to 10, your viewers will be able to send only Bits emotes which are worth 10 or higher.
And thirdly, you can set the minimum amount of Bits per Cheer message and in this way reduce spamming in your chat.
Cheer Badges and Top Cheerer
As said before, by using Bits emotes, users, unlock Cheer Badges.
They get certain Badge based on the number of Bits emotes used in total.
However, you can choose which Badges you want to enable in your chat and your users will be able to unlock only those Badges.
You can also create a list of your Top Cheerers (weekly, monthly, or all-time) and make it visible in the chat.
This way, your viewers will know that you appreciate their support and loyalty.
How to Buy Bits?
Bits can be bought on the Twitch website, but keep in mind that you have to be logged in to your Twitch account to make a purchase.
There are two ways of buying Bits: the first one is by using the “Get Bits” button and the other one by using the Bits icon which can be found in the chat.
If you opt for the first way, you’ll see the “Get Bits” button in the upper right corner.
After clicking that button, just select the number of Bits that you would like to obtain and then just follow the further instructions.
On the other hand, if you decide to purchase Bits by using the Bits icon in the chat the process is slightly different.
Firstly, the Bits icon can be found in chats only on channels that have enabled Cheering.
After clicking the Bits icon, click buy and, again, choose how many Bits you would like to buy.
Of course, next to the number of Bits you’ll see the price, so you’ll always know how much each bundle of Bits costs.
After that, you will be asked to choose the payment method.
At the moment, there are two available payment methods: Amazon and PayPal.
The currency for payment is USD.
After choosing the payment method, you’ll need to log in and authorize the payment.
Then just click “Continue” and afterward “Pay Now” and you’ve successfully completed the purchase.
Finally, it is important to mention that there are limitations in terms of the amount of Bits that you can possess at any time and in terms of the amount of Bits that you can buy per day.
Namely, at any time you can have up to 250000 Bits and daily you can buy a maximum of 50000 Bits.
Bits Auto-Refill
Twitch offers an interesting option to their users and that option is Bits Auto-refill.
If you activate this option, you’ll get an automatic refill of Bits the moment the amount of Bits that you have dropped below a certain threshold that you had previously specified.
Importantly, to activate this option you have to have 2FA enabled on your account.
Without 2FA you won’t be able to use Auto-refill.
Now, I will break down the process of activating Auto-refill on your account.
1. Setup Auto-Refill
First of all, you have to click the “Setup Auto-refill” button, which you can find on the screen that appears after you’ve made a purchase of Bits.
2. Bits Auto-Refill Settings
After you’ve clicked the “Setup Auto-refill” button, the “Bits Auto-refill settings” page will open on your screen.
There you have to select the threshold at which the Auto-refill will activate and the amount of Bits that you want to get with each Auto-refill.
Keep in mind that the number of Bits that you want to get with each Auto-refill must be equal to or higher than the Auto-refill threshold that you have specified before.
3. Payment Method
Payment methods are, of course, the same as when obtaining Cheer Bits: Amazon and PayPal.
After picking the payment method you just have to authorize the payment and the Auto-refill option will be successfully activated.
If you used let’s say Amazon payments and want to switch to PayPal, you can do that too, again very easily.
You should begin your purchase as usual and when you get to the confirmation screen, just click “Change payment service” and there you’ll get an option to choose another payment method.
Finally, you should be aware that Twitch doesn’t support the Auto-refill option on mobile devices, that you’ll get an email to confirm your Auto-refill settings, and that Bits include protection from chargebacks for the streamer.
4. Editing and Disabling Auto-Refill
If you want to edit your Auto-refill settings, the process is very quick and easy.
Just go to your “Bits Auto-refill settings” page and there choose the “Edit Auto-refill” option.
After you have made the changes just click the “Save changes” button.
Again, you’ll get an email to confirm your changes.
As for disabling the process, it is as quick and easy as the editing process.
Once more, you have to open the “Bits Auto-refill settings” page on your account and simply click the “Disable Auto-refill” button.
Twitch will, again, inform you via email that Auto-refill has been canceled for your account.
In case there are some problems with payment, Twitch will automatically disable Auto-refill and notify you about that via email.
Free Bits
You can get free Bits if you fill out a survey on TwitchRPG or by watching ads.
The amount of Bits that you will get depends on the length of the survey, but you can earn more or less 100-500 Cheer Bits for a survey that takes 5-10 minutes to fill out.
You can also obtain free Bits if you watch ads whether on Twitch desktop or Twitch mobile.
How to Use Bits and How to Cheer?
This is one of the most common FAQs when it comes to Bits.
After you’ve bought Bits, you are ready to Cheer and give support to your favorite channel.
There are two ways in which you can launch Cheering.
The first way is to click the Bits icon in the chat and then choose the emote you would like to send as well as the number of Bits you want to use.
The other way is even simpler.
Just type “cheer” in the chat and the number of Bits that you want to use.
A very nice thing about this way is that if you make a mistake, you can correct it very quickly.
Namely, after you type “cheer” and the number (for example cheer100), and hit enter, the message is sent only after 5 seconds.
So, if you type the wrong number of Bits (for example 1000 instead of 100), you have 5 seconds to click the “Cancel” button that will appear on the screen and your mistake will be corrected.
Remember that the word “cheer” and the number should be written without spaces.
After that, you can type some message to add or you can only send your Cheer.
The message will look very cool since each amount of Bits is expressed with an interesting animated emote.
Last but not least, this action also has its limitations.
Namely, you can send up to 10000 Bits per emote and 100000 Bits per message.
Anonymous and Mobile Cheering
A very intriguing option offered by Twitch to its users is so-called “anonymous Cheering”.
If you want to Cheer anonymously you only have to choose the “Cheer Anonymously” option in the Cheer card.
There is a special Anonymous Cheer Cheermote that appears in the chatbox if somebody Cheers anonymously and next to the Cheer a ghost badge will appear.
This ghost badge cannot be earned and is reserved only for Anonymous Cheerers.
Additionally, Anonymous Cheers can’t contain any messages and also don’t affect Bits Badges or Top Cheerer Leaderboards.
When it comes to Cheering on mobile devices, the way it works is pretty similar to regular web Cheering.
After you’ve entered the chat, just click the Bits icon, choose the amount of Bits and type the message you want to send.
For purchasing Bits via mobile phone click the Bits icon and then “Get Bits”.
After that, the process is very simple and basic.
What you need to know before buying Bits via your mobile phone is that the payment is processed by either Apple App Store or Google Play Store, which means that some additional fees may be applied.
Therefore, keep in mind that if you buy Bits via Twitch mobile app, you’ll pay them more.
Nevertheless, there is an option of buying Bits on your mobile device, but at regular prices.
For that, open your mobile web browser and go to bits.twitch.tv.
Additional Information
All users should be aware that their comments and Cheers can be deleted and Cheerers can be banned or timed by the channel moderator.
In case overlays are used, the overlay provider may find a way for the broadcaster to delete Cheer messages.
Those Cheerers won’t be able to Cheer or to use Bits on that channel again.
Most importantly, Bits that are spent on some comment that’s deleted won’t be returned to the user.
So, I would advise you to be polite and not to write anything inappropriate since your comment won’t be visible, you won’t be able to post comments on that channel again and you will lose your Bits.
Conclusion
From our perspective, Bits and Cheering are fascinating things and definitely make using Twitch even more interesting.
If you had some doubts or dilemmas concerning this issue, we hope that we managed to eliminate them.
And for those who have just heard about this option, hopefully, we have shown you another way to support streamers you like.
Finally, we hope that you will find this text useful and that we helped you enjoy Twitch even more.
