Live chat is turned on by default and shows up to the right of your live stream’s video player. After your live stream ends, it’ll be archived and viewers can replay the video along with the live chat. Live chat only shows up on YouTube watch pages -- not on embedded players.
Note: Live chat is not available if your channel or live stream’s audience is set as made for kids.
Live chat views
Viewers can choose between two views of Live chat at any time.
- Top chat: This view filters messages such as potential spam to help make chat easier to read and more useful.
- Live chat: This view is not filtered. It shows all chat messages as they come in.
Note: Live streams that are trimmed in the video editor will not have Chat replay.
Live chat badges
Live chat badges identify the Streamer and Moderator
. If your channel is eligible for memberships, you can create custom membership badges that show up in live chat too.
Send a message
To post in live chat, click into where it says “Say Something” and begin typing. Then, click the send icon .
Respond to someone in the chat feed
You can respond to someone in the chat feed by mentioning their username.
- Type “@”.
- Begin typing their username.
- Select the username.
Both you and the mentioned user will see their username highlighted in the live chat. This makes it easier for them to see your response in the chat feed.
Message limitations
Viewers are limited to 200 characters and a maximum of 11 submissions every 30 seconds. Event owners are not subject to the frequency threshold. Viewers cannot post special characters, URLs, or HTML tags.
Subscribers-only and members-only chat
A channel can make their live chat members-only or subscribers-only.
If the chat is subscribers-only, the channel can specify how long viewers need to be subscribed. To see how long you need to be subscribed and how long you’ve been subscribed, tap Info from the live chat message box.
Pin a message
You can pin your own message or a viewer’s message in Live Chat.
Only you, not your moderators or viewers, can pin messages. Pinned messages show below Super Chat.
- Go to the chat window during a live stream or a Premiere.
- Find a message from Live Chat, even your own, and tap or click More
.
- To pin the message, tap or click Pin
.
Note: You can only pin one message at a time. To replace a pinned message, simply pin another message. To unpin a message, click More on a pinned message and tap Unpin.
Create a live poll
Channel owners can create and manage live polls on their streams and Premieres. Once someone votes, they cannot change it.
- Schedule or start a live stream or a Premiere.
- From the bottom of the chat window, tap Create a poll
.
- Create your poll, and then select Ask your community.
To end a poll and see the results in the chat: Tap End poll from the banner at the top of the chat.
Limitations
Live polls can:
- only be created from YouTube on your computer.
- have between 2 - 4 options.
- only be seen live. They do not show up in live chat replays.
- only last up to 24 hours.
Embed live chat
During a live stream, you can embed live chat on your own site by using an iframe.
Note: embedding live chat isn't available on mobile web.
- Get the video ID for the live stream. You can get the video ID from the watch page URL (youtube.com/watch?v=12345). In this case, the video ID is ‘12345’.
- Get the domain URL for the site you want to embed chat on. If you're embedding chat on www.example.com/youtube_chat, your embedding domain is "www.example.com."
- Combine the embedded URL in the following way: https://www.youtube.com/live_chat?v=12345&embed_domain=www.example.com.
- This is the URL for your iframe. Note the embed_domain must match the the URL of the page you’re embedding the chat on. If they are different, the embedded chat will not load.