Choosing a bot to stream with can be daunting due to the fact there is really hundreds of bots that have different features and levels of skills required to use them and set them up. Ill be going through the few bots that I have used since I started streaming and ones I am really not a fan of to hopefully help you in making a decision in which to use in your streams!

When I first started streaming (As mentioned in so many blogs previously) I didnt have the monitors or bells and whistles so to speak. I had a TV and my playstation. I had the chat pop up on my screen for a while then switched to having my laptop open with my stream so that I could see what was happening. I started using Vivbot because while I was able to stream from playstation and unable to use overlays (I never got a capture card till way later!) I wanted to use this as it was easy for me to see who was following me so that I was able to thank them for supporting the channel. I also wanted a main bot like Nightbot to put majority of commands that viewers could check out and use when they needed as it wasnt really required to have a PC for it but a lot of streamers seemed to have their stuff and timers there as well too.

Fast forward now, I still use nightbot and the amount of commands it has grown to is INSANE! I try to add the commands that i want to be there forever as it is so versatile. There are commands that are there since my streaming from a playstation day and there are also some that i have added recently. The amount of things that you can do is incredible and whenever i see a cool command from anotehr chat I just take it and put it on my channel. Nightbot, in my opinion has to be one of the most used bots across twitch because it really is user friendly as well too. Now that I am on a PC I also use streamlabs chat bot. I use this for my timers, temporary and perminent as well, and I also use it for my hcat games like heisting and betting too. Its a bit more complicated to set up while I have had a friend do that due to the fact that it had to be connected to an account which I made TheSocietyBot to represent my community that I have. Some people connect them to their own channels and it will post certain things on their behalf, I thought this made the channel a bit better this way!

While finding a bot you should ask yourself what you would like the bot to do. Do you want it to just put out timers or also commands. Do you want it to have games or interactive things as well. Finding a bot that is for you can be challenging however if you know what you want it can narrow down the search. A good practice too is if you notice a bot in someones channel that you watch a lot then you can see the different things that have set up for it also too. I knew I wanted timers, some games for chat and also some commands. Thats why I choose nightbot and streamlabs chatbot which I still use in my streams today. one feature I had no desire to see was the one which shows you every so often the amount of viewers in your chat through the chat. No one wants to see it consinutesly update to 1 or 2 viewers. I also do giveaways quite frequantly on my channel and was looking at something that could be easy to use for giveaways and make it fair for others. I use mainly streamlabs chatbot but nightbot can also do this feature if needed too.

Popular bots that I have seen across twitch is for sure Nightbot, as well as Streamlabs Chatbot. I always still recommend Vivbot as well if someone is unable to have another monitor to have them or overlays to be abel to see alerts rigth on the screen.

As a new streamer I would suggest this: If you choose a bot MAKE SURE it does not post you are live on twitter. If you start this you will feel lay and soon your profile will be the filled with the exact same posts which will be a major turnoff from new potential followers. As mentioned above a particular one I know Wiebot has something that puts in your chat how long you have been live and viewers whether they go up or down every so often. Remove that feature. You do not need to see how your viewers flucuate whether you are new or old at the streaming game. It can be a really big moral boost watching it post you are losing viewers every half an hour. Make sure that you are also aware of what features that the bot you do choose has. If you can choose a bot with more features that you want it will save a lot of time than setting up multiple bots with one feature on each one! I only have had 2 bots going at once and I cannot imagine having more. You also will need to make the bot a mod in your chat in order for it to do certain things. Not to mention as well, If you are new and are not sure who to mod or make a mod set up an auto filter on a bot so that it can help if you only have yourself managing chat or the person or people you have modded arent around!

Regardless of which bot you decide to add to your stream, there really is endless possibilities on which you would like to use for whichever purpose. And if you get sick of one or it changes chances are there will be another that can do all the features you like and more!

-StaySeeJ08 xo