Twitch announced that it will expand its Cheering beta to all partnered channels in the U.S. and U.K. Aug. 4. The cheering system allows viewers to support their favorite streamers by posting special messages containing premium Bits in the streamers’ chat windows.
Users must purchase Bits before they can share them. Bits are available in multiple packages, starting at 100 Bits for $1.40. To Cheer during streams, users can type “cheer” followed by the number of Bits they’d like to use. The more Bits a user spends in a single Cheer, the more “vibrant” the resulting emote will be.
Viewers can earn special chat badges by Cheering, and Cheer chat badges can be toggled on and off.
As users share Bits, the associated streamers receive one cent per Bit used to Cheer for them. In addition to allowing users to purchase Bits, in a blog post, Twitch said it wants to introduce ways for viewers to earn Bits by completing activities on the platform. Twitch said it expects to expand the Cheering beta to more European partners by the end of August. The company said additional countries will be added to the beta “based on demand from partners,” and as it adds local language support. Partnered channels must opt in to the Cheering beta via their dashboards.
In a statement, Bobby Scarnewman, product manager at Twitch, commented:
Since the launch of the initial Cheering and Bits beta, we?ve been focusing on bringing more value to t...