Live chat lets you have real-time interactions with your viewers during live streams and Premieres. When your live stream ends, it will be archived so that viewers can watch the live stream along with the live chat. Learn how to use or moderate your live chat.
About live chat
Live chat is turned on by default unless your channel's live stream audience is set as Made for Kids. 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.
Live streams that are edited in the video editor will not have chat replay. This applies to all types of edit functions applied.
What is top chat?
Top chat shows what viewers are likely to value and interact with. What appears in top chat is based on various signals, including the chat text, handle text, channel name text, avatar and video.
Top chat may not show content that YouTube detects viewers are not likely to value or interact with. This can include comments that are detected as potentially inappropriate, spam or impersonation. These comments may not show in top chat. Detection is based on a variety of signals, such as the chat text, commenter channel name text or handle text, the avatar and the channel moderation settings.
How do live polls work?
Channel owners can create and manage live polls on their streams and Premieres. Once someone votes, they cannot change it. Live polls can only:
- Be created from YouTube on your computer. If you are streaming through the YouTube Mobile app, you can manage your mobile live stream through Live Control Room to access live chat features.
- Have between two to four options.
- Be seen live. They do not show up in live chat replays.
- Last up to 24 hours.
- Schedule or start a live stream or a Premiere.
What other features exist in the live chat?
- AI-generated summaries: New viewers joining a live stream may see an AI-generated summary of the chat. Chat summaries are created using public conversations within the current live chat; they are not a summary of the live stream content.
- 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.
- Emoji: Let your users express themselves in the chat. Anyone can use a large number of emoji and creators can make custom emoji that are available as a channel membership perk.
- Live Q&A: Find and select questions within your live chat to answer for your viewers. Live Q&A details are not available in YouTube Analytics.
- Reactions: Allow viewers to respond to what's happening during a live stream while the chat is open. Reactions in the chat are anonymised.