How to Whisper on Twitch
If you want to send a direct and private message to another Twitch user, you’ll need to whisper them. This guide explains how.
Twitch is a community platform built for making friends and building followers. If you find a streamer you like or have fun chatting with someone in a Twitch chat, you might want to follow them to keep in touch.
What happens when you want to speak with someone you’ve followed outside of a stream? Unless you wait for the next one, you might need to think about some direct message methods.
Thankfully, Twitch has a method for this called whispers. If you want to whisper on Twitch, follow the steps below.
What are Twitch Whispers?
A Twitch whisper is just another name for private messaging on Twitch. If you want to send a private message to another Twitch user, you’ll use the whisper system.
You can send a Twitch whisper using the Twitch website or the Twitch mobile app on Android, iPhone, or iPad devices. Depending on the recipient’s settings, you may see limitations on the whispers you can send.
For example, if a Twitch user doesn’t follow you, you might be unable to whisper to them. To stop the abuse, Twitch allows users to limit the whispers they receive from certain senders.
For that reason, you may also find that Twitch whispers that contain certain words (such as offensive and banned words) are blocked. You should take time to consider Twitch’s terms of service to ensure you don’t fall foul of it by sending an offensive message.
How to Whisper on Twitch on PC or Mac
There are three ways to whisper someone on Twitch if you use Twitch on your PC or Mac.
You can use a chat command in a live Twitch stream to do it. You can also click on their username in a live stream and send them a whisper using their pop-up profile information panel. Finally, you can use the Whisper menu to find users and send whispers directly.
How to Whisper Using a Chat Command
To send a Twitch whisper using a chat command, you’ll need to open a Twitch chat panel. These are usually found in live streams, but you might be able to view one on a channel that isn’t currently live.
In the chat panel, type /w @username message and press the Whisper button. You’ll need to replace @username with the Twitch user’s username and message with the message you want to send.
For instance, if you wanted to whisper the Twitch Gaming channel with the username twitchgaming, you’d type /w @twitchgaming message.
This will open up a pop-up chat panel at the bottom. From there, you can send more messages, as well as see the messages you receive back.
How to Whisper Using the Profile Information Pop-Up Panel
Want to send a whisper to someone in a live stream? You can do this by using the chat panel on the right. You’ll need to make sure that the Twitch chat panel isn’t hidden, however.
To do this, open the Twitch website and start watching a Twitch stream, making sure the chat panel is open on the right. If it isn’t, hover over the live stream and press the Expand button.
Next, tap the Community icon in the top-right corner of the chat panel. Locate the user you want to whisper in the menu, then click their username.
To whisper them, click the Whisper button. This will open up a pop-up chat panel for you to send and receive messages—as long as the other Twitch user allows them.
How to Whisper Using the Whispers Panel
Want to view a previous conversation you had on Twitch, or do you need to find and whisper to someone when a stream isn’t live? The best way to do it is to use the Whispers panel.
To access this, open the Twitch website and sign in, then click the Whispers icon in the top-right. You’ll see a list of previous messages from Twitch users you’ve whispered previously.
To send a new message to a Twitch user, use the search bar to search for a Twitch user based on their username (eg. twitchgaming). Once you’ve located the user, click on their username—a pop-up whisper panel will appear at the bottom of the Twitch page.
From there, you’ll be able to send and receive messages from that user, depending on whether or not the user has allowed you to message them.
How to Whisper on Twitch on Mobile Devices
You can also send whispers on Twitch using the Twitch mobile app. This is available for Android, iPhone, and iPad users.
Using the Twitch mobile app, you can use similar methods to those we’ve outlined above to send direct messages to other Twitch users using the whisper system. However, some changes do apply.
How to Whisper Using a Chat Command
Chat commands on Twitch mobile work the same as PC and Mac users. In a live chat panel, type /w username message and press the Send button. You must do this without the @ symbol on mobile.
As before, you’ll need to replace username with the Twitch user’s username and message with the message you want to send.
How to Whisper by Tapping a Username in Chat
Unfortunately, you can’t view information on a Twitch user in a pop-up on mobile. You also can’t view the list of active users in a live Twitch stream—you’ll need to wait for someone to write a message in chat first. If that user does, however, you can tap their username in chat to send a whisper.
To do this, wait for them to send a message in a live chat, then tap their username. A pop-up menu will appear at the bottom. From there, tap the Whisper option.
Twitch will switch to an all-screen chat panel for that user, allowing you to send and receive messages.
How to Whisper Using the Whispers Menu
You can also visit the Whispers menu to view older messages and send messages to users you’ve not contacted before.
To do this, open the Twitch app and tap the Whisper icon in the top-right (next to the Create button).
From there, you can open and resume messages you’ve had with users in the past. To send a new message, tap Start a Whisper and search for the user you want to message.
Once you’ve tapped that user’s username, a new Twitch whisper will open, allowing you to begin messaging them.
Making Friends on Twitch
If you want to message a Twitch user, you’ll need to use the whisper system unless you’ve added them on Discord or another platform first. Once you know how to whisper on Twitch, you should be able to send direct messages to your followers and to some other Twitch users who haven’t increased their privacy settings.
You can also improve your own Twitch whisper settings to stop unknown users from whispering you and appear invisible on Twitch. If you get abusive or unwelcome messages from a Twitch user you follow, don’t forget to unfollow them on Twitch and (if necessary) block them.
Made friends already? Why don’t you add them as a friend on Steam and start playing together.
