Sam McCraw
Are you looking to add some awesome-looking Twitch emotes for your subscribers but not sure what the right sizes are for your Twitch emotes?
Worry not, we’re here to help.
In this article, we’re going to tell you what sizes your Twitch emotes should be and also answer a few other common questions around Twitch emotes.
Let’s get into it.
Jump to a specific section:
- Twitch Emote Sizes
- What are Twitch Emotes?
- Why have them on your channel?
- Who can get Twitch emotes?
- What makes a good Twitch emote?
- Where and how to get Twitch emotes?
- How to add them to your channel
- Examples of awesome Twitch emotes
Twitch Emote Sizes
The ideal Twitch emote sizes are the following:
- 28 x 28 pixels for web
- 56 x 56 pixels for retina display
- 112 x 112 for larger screens
- Or between 112 x 112 px – 4096 x 4096 px if you have auto resisze on)
Twitch requires you to upload your Twitch emotes in all three size variations, this ensures they can deliver the right emote regardless of what device a viewer is on.
Also, when you’re creating your Twitch emotes, keep the following in mind:
- The aspect ratio for each emote design must be 1:1 (perfect square)
- You must upload the emotes as PNGs or GIFs if you’re using animated emotes.
- They must have a transparent background
- The maximum file size per emote is 1 MB
- Keep the image and content of your emotes within Twitch’s guidelines to ensure they’re accepted when you upload them
Remember to be able to add custom emotes to your channel you need to be either a Twitch affiliate or Twitch partner!
Alternatively, you can use BTTV to get free custom emotes on your channel (More on this further down).
And that’s it! If you follow those size and formatting guidelines you should be able to upload your Twitch emotes with no problems.
What are Twitch emotes?
We’re going to assume since you’re looking into Twitch emote sizes and guidelines that you already know what a Twitch emote is.
However, if you don’t know here’s a quick explanation for you…
Twitch emotes (emoticons) are graphics that viewers on your Twitch streams can post in the stream chat to interact with you and other viewers or to make a joke or react to something happening in the stream.
According to StreamElements here’s are some of the most popular Twitch emotes at the time of writing:
Custom Twitch emotes
There are publicly available Twitch emotes that anyone can use in a stream’s chat (e.g. BTTV emotes) but there are also custom Twitch emotes.
These are emotes that are only available to subscribers of a particular channel, and as subscribers, they get access to that streamer’s exclusive collection of custom subscriber emotes.
Here’s an example of custom Twitch emotes from streamer Eagle Garrett:
Why should you add Twitch emotes to your channel?
Why should you bother adding custom Twitch emotes for your subscribers? That’s a good question, with a few answers.
- It’s a good incentive to get regular viewers of your channel to subscribe and support the work you’re doing
- You’re able to reward loyal subscribers who have been with you for a long period of time! So this can help build a great relationship with you and your subscribers
- It helps your subscribers feel like they’re part of an exclusive community as they have special access due to them being a subscriber
- You get to be creative and create emotes that actually have significance for you and your subscribers – which helps build engagement and fun on your channel
Who can get Twitch emotes?
If you’re a Twitch partner or affiliate you can add custom emotes to your channel to encourage people to subscribe (so they can access them).
The more subscribers you get the more custom emotes you can add to your channel.
It is possible to get free custom emotes for your channel if you use BTTV. Using BTTV on your channel allows you to offer up to 15 free emotes for viewers and subscribers (but they’ll need to have the BTTV chrome plugin installed too!).
You can also add 15 public emotes from the BTTV public emote library for your users to use. This is a good chance to let viewers use some of the most common Twitch emotes on your channel.
What makes a good Twitch emote?
Another good question, and one that is somewhat subjective! It all depends on your own personal preferences really but most good emotes have a few commonalities.
Here are the boxes a good Twitch emote normally ticks:
- It’s relevant to you and your community e.g.
- Common phrases used in your channel
- Related to games you often play
- Inside jokes in your community
- Nicknames you have for your community
- etc.
- It’s easy to see and understand straight away
- It’s unique to your channel
- It keeps to the humor or comments you regularly see with your Twitch community
- It’s relevant to situations that regularly occur in your channel e.g.
- New followers
- Funny moments
- Critical moments in games – good and bad
- etc.
A great idea is to actually ask your Twitch community what custom emotes they would like to see. This has multiple benefits of giving your more ideas and also making everyone in your community feel part of it.
Where and how to get good Twitch emotes?
If you plan to make your own Twitch emotes you can use software like Paint, Gimp, or Photoshop. We’ve put some videos below that show how to create emotes with those programs.
You can also use an online design tool. We covered the best options for that in our Twitch Emote Makers article. So check that out if you’re interested.
Two of our favorites from that article are Placeit and EmotesCreator.
Alternatively, you can hire a designer from a site like Fiverr or buy premade Twitch emote designs and packs. Here are some sites to get the best Twitch emotes (premade):
Create free emotes using Paint:
Create free emotes with GIMP:
If you want to use Photoshop to create your emotes here’s a good video showing you how:
How to add Twitch emotes to your channel
If you’re not sure how to add Twitch emotes to your channel, here’s a quick run-through:
And here’s a video on how to setup BTTV emotes on your channel:
Examples of some awesome custom Twitch emotes:
Here’s some examples of custom Twitch subscriber emotes from some of the biggest streamers on the platform, for your inspiration:
Ninja
Auronplay
Myth
SypherPK
AlanZoka
Final thoughts
So, that’s everything you need to know about ensuring your Twitch subscriber emotes are the correct size and format – so you can add them to your channel with no problems.
Enjoy creating! Oh, and if you have any questions, comments, or have extra advice around Twitch emotes, leave a comment below!
