Chat and moderation
Each stream can have a chat beside the player, below it, or anywhere on the page as a block of its own (Putting a stream on a page).
Which chat
In Live Stream → Studio → Streams, each stream chooses its chat:
- Better Messages chat room: the chat is a Better Messages chat room made for the stream. Its messages are saved on your site, with history and export, files, GIFs and stickers, and Better Messages' moderation and notifications. Visitors chat as guests on a public stream. Who writes, guests, files and moderators are the room's settings, under Better Messages → Chat Rooms. The room shows wherever the stream's chat does, and in the studio. A new stream gets one where Better Messages runs its WebSocket version with an active licence: its free version has no realtime connection, so every viewer would keep asking your site for new messages. The stream shows in its room too, the way a group video call does: beside the room's messages, wherever Better Messages shows the room. It opens by itself while the stream is live; a Live banner over the messages and a button in the room's header bring it back once closed. Viewers have the player's controls in the call's: sound, the volume and the picture's quality under Settings, reactions, picture-in-picture and full screen. A viewer who closes the stream isn't counted as watching until they open it again. Hosts go live right from the room: the button opens their preview, with the camera, microphone, screen sharing, Go live and End stream in the call's controls; while live, how the picture goes out and how many watch show where a call shows its connection, the numbers under Settings, and a summary once it ends. Streaming from OBS stays in Live Stream → Studio. This needs Better Messages 3.1 or later. Always on screen in the room, a setting of the stream's, keeps it beside the room's messages while it is live: viewers can't close it. Better Messages' room editor (Better Messages → Chat Rooms) has a Live streaming section too: Stream in this room makes a stream for a room that has none (named after it, the room its chat), and a room's stream shows Go live, Stream settings, Always on screen in the room and Stop streaming here (the stream keeps a light chat).
- Light chat: text and emoji for the moment, run by WordPlus Cloud. It isn't saved: messages are gone a day after the last one. The rest of this page is about it.
- No chat.
Reactions come with every choice.
Who writes
Logged-in users write in the chat. Visitors who aren't logged in read it and get Log in to chat, which brings them back to the stream after logging in, unless the stream lets them write too, as "Guest".
The stream's chat settings
With the light chat, each stream has these:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Visitors may write | Visitors who aren't logged in write too, as "Guest". |
| While not live | Keeps the chat open before the stream starts and after it ends. Otherwise only moderators write then: others read "The chat opens when the stream goes live" or "The chat closed when the stream ended". |
| Links | Lets everyone post links. Otherwise only moderators can, which keeps spam out. |
| Start empty | Clears the chat each time the stream goes live. Otherwise it goes on from the last time. |
| Who's here | Shown to moderators, or to everyone. |
| Moderators | Roles that moderate this stream's chat, besides its hosts and those who moderate the site's comments. |
In the chat
- Who's who: each message shows its sender's name and avatar, with Host or Guest beside it. Messages that mention you stand out.
- Times: each message's time shows on hover, or beside it where the Appearance tab says so.
- Links open safely.
- New messages: scrolled up to read, you get a "new messages" note instead of a jump.
- Length: up to 500 characters; a counter shows near the limit.
- Emoji: an emoji picker beside the field, and emoji drawn in the site's style (below).
Reactions
Under the player, viewers send Heart, Applause, Laughter, Surprise or Fire with one tap, and they rise over the picture. The Appearance tab chooses which are offered and whether they rise over the picture; they stay still for visitors whose device asks for reduced motion.
Each stream's Reactions setting turns them off, during the stream too, if viewers start to spam them: the buttons go at once for everyone watching, and nothing more rises over the picture until you turn them on again.
Emoji style
The Appearance tab's Emoji style is the device's own emoji, or Apple, Google, Twitter or Facebook images, the same on every device. Choosing a set downloads its images to your site when you save. Better Messages shares this choice, so both plugins draw emoji alike. With a set chosen, the chat's field draws emoji in it too, typed, picked or pasted.
Who's here
The people button in the chat's header shows the logged-in people watching or on the stream, with their names, avatars and roles, hosts first, and how many visitors besides. Moderators always see it; everyone does where the stream's Who's here setting says so.
Moderating
Moderators are the stream's hosts, the site's comment moderators, and the roles the stream names. Each message has a menu for them, and so does each person in Who's here:
- Pin message holds it over the chat for everyone; Unpin message takes it down. Deleting a pinned message unpins it.
- Delete message removes it for everyone.
- Mute keeps someone from writing for 1 minute, 10 minutes, an hour or a day; they read when they can write again. Unmute lets them write at once.
- Remove from the stream puts them out now. They read "A moderator removed you from this stream" and can join again.
- Ban from this stream keeps them out of the stream and its chat until a moderator lets them back. The banned are listed under Who's here for moderators, each with Let back.
Hosts can't be muted, removed or banned.
Chat settings
The sliders button in the chat's header, for moderators:
- Slow mode: off, or one message every 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds. Writers see the wait on the Send button.
- Clear the chat: every message goes, the pinned one too, for everyone. This can't be undone.
Moderators can also moderate a stream's chat after it has ended.