Twitch announces end of Hype Chat, tool launched in June

We always hear it: we don’t always get it right and we can learn from our mistakes. And this, apparently, also applies to large companies, as Twitch announced the end of Hype Chat, a tool that was launched on the platform in June this year.

Following in the footsteps of YouTube’s already popular Super Chat, the tool had a simple functionality: the viewer pays real money to send a message highlighted in the chat, which was also fixed for a set time.

Despite its simplicity and the popularity of a similar tool on a competing live streaming platform, Hype Chat, which was only available to Twitch Partner streamers, was not successful and will be discontinued on November 15th.

The decision to discontinue the platform tool came from community comments received by Twitch.

The end of Hype Chat and the beginning of Hype Cheer

Despite the end of Hype Chat, don’t think that Twitch has given up on the dynamic of spectators paying to have their message pinned in the platform’s chat. Now, the practice has become simpler and is called Hype Cheer.

Yes, now the viewer needs to spend Bits, Twitch’s virtual currency (purchased with real money), to keep their comment highlighted and pinned in the channel’s chat.

Another change is that Hype Cheer will now be available to Affiliates and Partners, unlike Hype Chat, which could only be used on Partner channels on Amazon’s live stream platform.

As with Hype Chat, the duration of the message in the channel’s chat will depend on how many Bits the viewer spent.

According to Twitch, the duration can range from 60 seconds to 120 minutes.

The new tool should be enabled from November 15th, when Twitch will reveal details about platform updates in the Patch Notes program, broadcast on the platform’s official channel from 12:00PM PT.