5 Useful Twitch Tools You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
I’ll be honest, I spend most of my days watching (and sometimes streaming) on Twitch.tv.
Whether it be while I’m working on a second monitor, or while I’m on the bus home from work, chances are I’m watching a stream. And when I can find free time, I’ll always squeeze in a stream on my personal channel.
Which is why I absolutely love all the different Twitch tools that have come out over the past few years. Tools like BBTV and Twitch Alerts have become an integral part of my life (without BTTV night mode, working in the dark would be impossible for me).
But what I’ve noticed when asking some of my friends which Twitch tools they like the most, the only answers I get are, well, BTTV and Twitch Alerts.
Don’t get me wrong, those are great tools. But I needed more, so I decided to scrounge a list of super useful tools that I love and that most people haven’t heard of. (At least most of these I had never heard of, and I spend 99% of my free time on Twitch!)
I hope you enjoy this list that I used my other 1% of free time to create.
1. Virtual Audio Cable
Playing music while streaming can be great if your game sound is low or you’re just trying to hang out with viewers.
But sometimes, when you’re playing a high intensity game, music can throw you off a bit if you’re trying to concentrate.
That’s where I like to use Virtual Audio Cable. With VAC (hehe), you can split up your different audio channels without having a professional piece of equipment do it for you.
Now, you’ll be able to play music for your viewers without actually having to hear it through your headphones!
The best part is, it’s not too straining to set up. Even better, there’s absolutely no quality loss when routing your audio through the “virtual cables”.
Here’s a tutorial on how you can do it yourself.
2. Twitch Mini Player
Don’t get me wrong, I love to watch Twitch while I’m working.
But sometimes, I have so many tabs open to complete my work that Twitch just isn’t viable to have open. Plus, Twitch’s own pop out player kind of sucks.
With the Twitch Mini Player, I can have a small stream in the corner of my monitor with my other tabs open. Plus, I can also have a small chat window to see the reactions of the viewers when something cool happens!
It also has an audio only mode, which I commonly play if I like to listen to a “podcasty” streamer, then I can just hit a button to pull the stream back up if something cool happens.
Cool.
3. PowerSpike
I think most of us have a dream of making Twitch streaming our job. But it’s hard as f**k to actually make money on Twitch.
Our website makes it a bit easier.
PowerSpike is a Twitch sponsorship marketplace where streamers and brands can sign up to find each other and enter sponsorship deals.
Once you connect your Twitch account, you’ll be able to see all the campaigns that brands have posted to our marketplace and send proposals right through the platform.
That way, you don’t have to waste time finding 500 brands that want to sponsor streamers and sending emails that probably won’t get responses.
4. TeeBoard
Here’s a situation you’ve probably encountered a number of times:
You’re ready. You just got home from work or had your cup of coffee, and it’s time to turn the stream on.
You don’t want any distractions or delays; that would simply slow the momentum. You’ve decided you’re going to stream a different game today, and you’re super pumped about it.
OBS is open, your mouse is hovering over the start stream button ready to click, ANNND…
You forgot to change your title and game you’re playing on the Twitch dashboard.
I am very close to this situation, because it happens to me EVERY TIME. That is, before I had TeeBoard.
TeeBoard is an alternative to the Twitch dashboard, and it allows you to quickly change your stream title and game played without having to open the browser and navigate to your channel. I usually just keep it open in the background of my computer, simply because it doesn’t use very many resources at all.
On top of that, TeeBoard allows you to download your VODs straight from the program (which is really nice if you have a YouTube channel), track your viewer statistics, calculate bit rate, and much more.
(p.s., if you’re having trouble connecting your Twitch account to TeeBoard, follow the top comment in this reddit thread)
5. Boom.tv
If you stream competitive online games, one of the most important aspects of maintaining an entertaining stream is the hype.
Nothing feels better than scoring a nice highlight or play of the game. When you score a nice play, you wish the moment would last forever.
Of course, that moment isn’t going to last more than 5–10 seconds after it happens. That is, if you don’t have Boom.tv.
With Boom.tv, you can instantly give a play by play recap of all of the amazing feats you pull in your competitive gaming matches.
That way, you’ll be able to extend that moment of greatest past the initial 5 seconds and push that wave of hype forward like never before.
https://boom.tv/w?v=rlDcp9oxI58pY
On top of being able to clip your plays instantly, Boom.tv also allows you to create an instant montage of all of the awesome moments that you’ve had during your gaming session.
What better way to end the stream than getting your viewers excited for the ownage that’s going to happen when it starts again?
That’s all for now!
I hope you enjoyed my list of tools, and hopefully you can use all of these to your advantage.
If you’d like, feel free to follow PowerSpike here on Medium, on Twitter, and Like our Facebook page!
