Twitch 10th anniversary will introduce animated emotes

Twitch has introduced animated emotes, follower emotes, and a library to celebrate its 10th anniversary. 

Twitch’s emoticons have become a part of internet culture in their own right and are a second official language on Twitch. Many users have extensions such as FrankerFaceZ and Better Twitch TV (BTTV), which add countless new custom emotes. Considering the users’ love for emote, Twitch has modified the classic feature into something fresh. The Amazon-owned broadcast site is now expanding on its classic feature by introducing animated emotes.

“Twitch celebrates its 10th anniversary, and we wanted to celebrate with something special for our community. We’re making it easier for all Twitch creators to use emotes to personalize and grow their communities,” Twitch said. 

While Twitch has been frequently updating its emotes by adding new features, creators and viewers have long been waiting for animated emotes. The announcement will breathe new life into micro memes by allowing viewers to spam moveable emotes in chat.

How do Twitch’s new emotes work?

Twitch’s new emotes will work like any other animation you see on the internet. The creators can activate their chosen media from the library and deactivate them whenever they want. Followers emotes will also be available. However, all of these features will be open for use after a brief beta testing. 

The animated emotes will be available for partner streamers within two weeks, and affiliates can benefit from the new feature in the latter half of 2021. When it launches, partners can add up to five animated emotes as a benefit for Tier 1 subscribers. Certain partners will get these follow-specific emotes as part of a beta, followed by a wider release after testing. Follower Emotes can only be used on the channel in which they were unlocked.

Streamers who don’t have a flair for editing will have a simpler option to animate existing emotes through Twitch’s help. Six default animations will be available for streamers to apply to their standard emotes including shake, rave, roll, spin, slide in, and slide out can be applied to older emotes that you’ve been using on your channel. 

Viewers who may find flashy emotes to be uncomfortable will also have an option to disable them. An easily accessible library will also be introduced for creators who like to stock up their emotes for later use. This storage will allow streamers to activate and disable their emotes at will without reuploading heavy files each time.  

The official celebration for the 10th anniversary will include other updates, Twitch has announced. Creators and viewers may want to stay tuned for more announcements coming “in the next few weeks.”