Why Can’t I See Emotes on Twitch Chat?
Having trouble understanding why you can’t see emotes in Twitch chat? Here’s the most likely cause and how to fix it.
It goes without saying that Twitch chat plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between streamers and viewers.
Using it as a way to connect to viewers has become a necessity.
And fans like it when their idol shows appreciation by greeting them in chat on top of adding relevant overlays to the stream.
While browsing through channels, you may have stumbled upon words you can’t decipher because they’re comprised of unreadable characters.
It’s likely what you saw was emotes. It needs a bit of workaround to unveil the graphics behind them.
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Why you can’t see emotes on Twitch chat
Did you access the chat on mobile?
There are some specific requirements that should be met for emotes to appear.
One of the basic needs is to view the chat on a desktop PC or a laptop.
So if you opened the chat using a Smartphone or a tablet, we could see why it didn’t work in the first place.
There are some other causes that we’ll outline below.
Related: What Do Twitch Emotes Mean?
Reasons you can’t see Twitch emotes
1. You don’t subscribe to a channel
Being a subscriber allows you to unlock emotes available for use on a Twitch channel. And even so, the emotes are specific to the tier they’re tied to.
For example, if you are a tier 1 sub, then that’s the group of emotes you can send in the chat. Higher tier emotes won’t be accessible, yet.
2. You haven’t sent enough bits
With the introduction of bit emotes, streamers can return the favor for the support they got from fans in the form of special emotes.
But the problem is only eligible viewers can get their hands on them. To qualify, one has to donate enough bits.
Now in retrospect, have you done it quite enough? If not, then don’t be surprised that these emotes aren’t there for the taking.
3. You haven’t installed BetterTTV or FFZ
As we’ve said numerous times, the underlying cause of emotes not showing in the chat is that one doesn’t use a third-party extension like BTTV or FFZ.
These are specifically designed to convert characters into emotes.
Skipping them will make emotes display as awkward characters which look more like passwords than actual words.
To fix it, simply install either program on your browser. Look it up on the extension library or web store.
4. You use a handheld device
Tech companies have been making great strides in accelerating the advancement of Smartphone technology.
But despite that, they’re still different from desktop computers.
Cost, power consumption, portability, there are many factors that set them apart.
They’re also designed to run different types of programs due to the different architectures.
With regards to BTTV and FFZ, since they’re not made for mobile viewing, you can’t use them on mobile devices.
Twitch emotes extension for viewing emotes
1. BetterTTV
BetterTTV or BTTV is by far the most popular emotes extension for Twitch.
It has amassed over 4 million users on Chrome alone, and we know that it’s available for other browsers as well.
Streamers use this extension to grow their communities since emotes have transformed into a native language for Twitch users.
Installing BTTV is easy. You just need to visit the website, choose the browser version, and then install it.
This addition will bring new settings to your Twitch chat.
Related: Install BetterTTV Emotes
2. FrankerFaceZ
This goes by the name of FFZ, could be a substitute for BTTV if you want to try another extension to display emotes.
It has a large library, but usage is limited to 25 per user.
In other words, that’s the maximum number of emotes you can use at a time.
And if you want to add more, some slots need to be cleared up first.
Related: Install FrankerFacez Emotes
Why Twitch emotes showing as text?
More often than not this is caused by not installing BTTV or FFZ. They are paramount for translating commands into graphics.
Without either extension, you’ll keep seeing text until it beefs up your browser.
How to see emotes on Twitch mobile?
There isn’t a way to do it because none of the aforementioned extensions are compatible with mobile devices.
Wrap up
So, why are emotes not visible in Twitch chat?
We’ve gathered a few solutions that may assist you in overcoming the problem. The Twitch chat is a signature element of the platform.
Chats are used on a wide variety of websites. They’ve become the norm because they help connect content creators and viewers.
Each chat is unique, just like the Twitch chat, which frequently has a slew of emotes hogging the window.
They can sometimes appear as strange characters. If this occurs to you, please use the methods listed above.
