OBS Studio Adding Stream Chat Overlay to Your Stream (Twitch, YouTube, Kick)

In this article, I'm going to show you how to add your stream chat to OBS Studio. It doesn't matter if you stream to Twitch, Kick, or YouTube; the process is exactly the same. I'm even going to show you how to see your chat yourself if you only have one monitor that you're also gaming on. 

Getting Started

The very first step is to make sure that you have OBS Studio open. Then, you'll want to go to Socialstream.ninja. This is the tool that we're going to be using to bring our chat into OBS Studio, regardless of what platform we're streaming on. 

Select 'Download.' I'm not going to skip any steps, because I don't want you to get confused or frustrated. Then, choose your operating system.

I'm on a Windows, so I'll select and download Windows. You may see a newer version, but the process will be exactly the same. If you see it say 'untested build' or 'pre-release,' I would encourage you to avoid it for now, until you get a little bit more comfortable using the tool.

I also encourage you to scroll down and look for the one that says 'latest.' This means that it's tested and there aren't going to be a lot of bugs. Then, you can get this installed. It's going to begin to download, and once it's done, we can get it opened up.

Installation 

Select 'Open File,' and then you'll see 'Choose Installation Option.' You can select 'Only Me,' and it's going to tell you where to save it, or you can decide where you want to save it yourself. Hit 'Next,' then you'll see 'Add directory path,' where I'll select 'Next,' making sure it's unchecked. 

You can select and install 'Local AI model.' You can uncheck anything that you don't want checked. Now this will begin installing, and then we'll have just a few steps to get this set up. The most important part is getting this installed. It's going to pop up a window and we can just close that. It will say 'Run Social Stream.' Leave this selected, then we're going to hit 'Finish.' It's going to open up the desktop app now. 

On the left-hand side, you're going to see the options for which platform you want to use. For this example, I'm going to use Twitch, but if you want to do YouTube or Kick, go ahead and select that option. Everything else is exactly the same. I'm going to select Twitch here, and all you need to do is enter your username for your Twitch channel. Mine is 'LasCurry.' Press 'OK,' and now this is added. 

Customizations

Now, on the right-hand side of the menu here. You're going to see several options. There are tons of customizations you can go through to do this. I'm going to show you the most basic ones to get you up and running as fast as possible.

The first thing is you're going to come to where it says 'Menu.' You're going to select to hide the menu bar. Then, come to where it says 'Overlay,' and make sure that 'Force Transparent Background' and 'Dark Mode' are on. You also want to make sure that 'Fade Out on the Top of the Overlay' is on. These are the three most important, but again, there are tons of customizations you can do. I encourage you to look through it when you get the opportunity.

Adding in Your Chat

Once we have that in place, you're going to see that we have a link here. Select 'Copy Link,' then go back into OBS Studio to the scene where you want to add your chat. I'm on my 'Just Chatting' scene, so I'm going to add this here. If you just have your camera, that's totally fine. In 'Sources,' press the plus icon and look for where it says 'Browser Source.' This will ask us for the URL we just copied, so we'll paste that URL in there. 

Now, our chat is here. Select 'Allow' when prompted, and now our chat is in place where we need it to be.

Head back to Social Stream Ninja and select 'Auto-Activate.' When you go live, this is going to automatically activate, so you don't have to open up Social Stream Ninja again. Your chat will just start to populate inside of OBS Studio.

A good feature that you'll see on the top right-hand side is 'Trigger a Fake Message.' This will let you test your chat. 

Just like that, we already have our chat in our stream, and this is going to be the same for any platform.

Adjusting Your Chat

Now, let's go ahead and take this a step further. You might want to be able to see the chat yourself if you're on one monitor and you're playing the game. You don't want to be on your phone looking across.

Before we jump to that step, I want to show you how to customize this. My 'Just Chatting' scene overlay is from Stream Designz. If you're looking for professional overlays, go to Stream Designz, and you'll be able to find 'Just Chatting' scenes and all kinds of overlays. These help to personalize your stream and take it to the next level. 

Now, head back over to OBS Studio. Let's say I want to put my chat in the chat-box section of my overlay, but it looks kinda crazy right now. 

To fix this, right-click and select properties. Depending on the overlays you have, the numbers that I'm going to put in are going to be a little bit different, but at least you can understand how to adjust this.

For the Stream Designs overlays, most of the time it's going to be '750' at the top and 1,400 for the bottom. All you need to do is press 'Okay,' and now the chat will be the right size. I can resize this to make it a little bit smaller until it's just right. 

Just like that, you can see how professional we're starting to make this look. If you open up Social Stream Ninja and do a test, you'll see that your chat is moving.

This is going to work the same way if you are on Kick or YouTube.

Adding Your Chat to Your Monitor

Let's go ahead and go over how to be able to see the chat while you game on the same monitor. 

There's another step that we need to take. We need to go to Electron Capture. This is the same company that makes Social Stream Ninja, so it's going to work together and be trustworthy.

Hit 'Download,' and just before, look for the latest version. Scroll down to where it says 'Windows Installer.' Get this downloaded, then hit 'Open File.'

Double click the file and then you'll get a popup saying, "It's not safe," but you can go ahead and hit 'More Info' and then 'Run Anyways.' This is going to begin downloading. Once it's done, I'm going to select that this is only for me and  I'm going to save it to the place where I want it to save it.

Make sure you have Social Stream Ninja open. Once this is ready, we'll copy the same link that we copied into OBS Studio. 

This is going to allow us to be able to put our chat on top of our monitor above everything else that we're doing in the event that you only have one monitor. Now, the pop-up is going to come up.

The key thing you need to know is that wherever you place this is where the chat is going to be. You know your game and what you'll be showing on screen better than I do, so I'm going to place this here at the top. Then, we're going to paste the link that we just copied directly into the top line on Electron Capture. Then, hit 'Go.'

Now, we're going to have this box and you're not going to be able to move it from here, but you can resize it to be a little bit smaller. You can trigger fake messages, and you'll be able to see that our chat is now showing and moving. 

In order for you to make sure that it stays on top, you need to right-click. When you right-click initially, it's going to give you access to make changes, remove people, delete people, toggle pin, and stuff like that. You'll see here it says 'CTRL (x) + Click for alt menu,' and this is how you can easily pull up the menu. 

Under 'Toggle Pin,' be sure to select 'Always on Top.' This is how you can make sure that when you're gaming, it's showing. The second thing you need to select is 'Make UnClickable until in-focus.' If you're playing and you accidentally move the mouse over to that section, you don't want the chat to pop up or disturb what you're doing.

Remember, you can set up a hotkey or use 'CTRL+Shift+Alt+X' to unlock the chat for you to go ahead and mess with it. If I open up OBS, there's no chat there. If I come back and hit 'CTRL+X' right, and I select 'Always on top,' my chat will appear. 

You can remove it by pressing CTRL + X + right-click. Now, when I come into OBS, I'm not able to see it.

Next Steps

One of the biggest things that I want to show you is how to combine all the chats together. If you're currently struggling to grow your stream and you want to get coached by me, I just opened up the Streamer Academy Pro community, which is a community of other streamers and creators who are wanting to grow and go full-time.

In order for you to be able to combine your chats if you're streaming to Twitch, YouTube, and Kick all together, watch this video right here where I show you how to combine the chats using Social Stream Ninja.