How do you open the Chat Reader?
- Open the Chat Box setup page and type your Twitch channel, your Kick channel or both.
- Click Open Chat Reader under the Widget URL. The reader opens in a new tab.
- Bookmark the tab, or keep its address, to open the same reader next time.
The reader takes the channels and a few Chat Box settings with it: emote providers, badges, Hide Bots, Hide Commands and Highlights. Font, layout, animation and the other looks stay with the overlay, and the reader has its own text size and time settings. To change the settings it took, change them on the setup page and open the reader again.
How do you add the Chat Reader to OBS as a dock?
- Open the Chat Reader and copy the address from the address bar.
- In OBS, open Docks → Custom Browser Docks from the top menu. In older versions it's under View → Docks.
- Type a name like Chat, paste the address into the URL column and click Apply.
- Drag the new dock wherever you want it in the OBS window.
OBS has its own browser storage, so the dock keeps its own history and settings, separate from your regular browser.
What does the Chat Reader show?
Messages from both chats in one list, in the order they come in. When both channels are set, a Twitch or Kick icon shows where each message came from. Emotes, badges and username colors show the same way as in Chat Box.
Deleted messages stay in the list, struck through and marked (deleted), so you can still see what was removed. When someone gets a timeout or a ban, their earlier messages are marked the same way. When a mod clears the chat, a line in the list says so.
A- and A+ change the text size from 12 to 28 pixels, 15 by default. The clock button shows or hides message times, and the trash button clears the history after a second click. The reader remembers your text size and time setting.
If you scroll up to read something, the list stops moving. A button at the bottom counts the new messages; click it to jump back to live chat.
What happens when the connection drops?
Each channel has a status at the top: Connecting, Connected or Reconnecting, or Channel not found when a Kick name can't be found. When a chat connection drops, a notice counts down to the next try, and Retry now tries right away. Tries start 1 second apart and slow down to one every 30 seconds.
The reader also catches a connection that goes quiet without closing, which can happen after a network drop. If nothing comes in for 30 seconds, it checks whether the chat is still there and reconnects if there's no answer. If your computer goes offline, it tells you and reconnects as soon as the internet is back.
Every drop is written into the list, like "Twitch chat connection lost" and "Back on Twitch chat after 12s", so you know exactly where messages may be missing.
Do you lose your chat when you refresh?
No. The reader saves the last 1000 lines in your browser and brings them back when you open it again, followed by a line that says "Saved from your last visit, until" and the time. Lines older than 12 hours are dropped.
Messages sent while the reader was closed don't come back: everything above that line is from your last visit, everything below it is new. Each set of channels keeps its own history, and Clear history deletes it.
What can't the Chat Reader do?
- It can't send messages or moderate. It reads chat anonymously, like a viewer who isn't logged in.
- It doesn't show sub, gift or raid notices. For those, add Stream Alerts to your stream.
- It can't bring back messages sent while it was closed, on either platform.