What is Slow Mode on Twitch – (When to Turn On & Off)

This becomes very hard and painful when you grow on twitch with lots of viewers or chatters but are unable to manage them or communicate with them. Even if you are a small streamer you must know what is slow mode on twitch and when to use it and when not.

Don’t worry, I will explain everything about slow mode on twitch and how to turn it on and off.

 

What is Slow Mode on Twitch? 

In simple words, the slow mode is a twitch setting through which you can decide how often chatters on your stream can send messages.

So how long is twitch slow mode in twitch and what exactly does a slow mode do?

You can set the slow mode wait time between 3 to 120 seconds and so the user will need to wait for that specific slow mode time to send the next message.

The slow mode can be activated both through the twitch chat command and as well as through the settings.

 

How to Slow down Twitch chat?

Let me explain to you how to turn on slow mode on twitch and then at the bottom I will also explain when to use it and when you should disable it.

However here Twitch VIPs and Subscribers will not be affected because of their perks. 

You can enable slow mode on twitch with two different methods and both methods are easy and simple.

 

Method 1 – Turn on Twitch Slow mode with command 

/slow (seconds)

This is the first method and also on top priority as I personally like this method because of its benefits.

Enabling slow mode through command in twitch has 2 major benefits that I see are

 

• You can set any custom time for slow mode 
• The slow mode can be quickly turned on by a quick command.  

You will get to know about these benefits once you read the full article and start using it. This slow mode command on twitch chat can be done by either the owner or by any of the mods.

Let me quickly tell you how to use it.

1. Navigate to your twitch channel chat. If you are not online then click on your username at the right-hand top, choose “Channel” and then click on “Chat”.
2. Once you are on the chat use the command /slow followed by the time duration. So if I want to slow down the chat for 4 seconds then I will type the command /slow 4.

   

Once you hit enter you will get a confirmation message of “Xyz enabled 4-second slow mode for this chat room”. 

Do you know why I took 4 seconds above as this is the custom time and will not be available in the second method.

You can also use the same chat command on your twitch mobile app to enable or disable twitch slow mode.

 

Method 2 – Slow down using Twitch chat Settings 

I agree that another method is also easy but here you will get some default time duration to slow down chat.

Once you enable the slow mode you can choose the slow mode time duration given on the list. 

Follow below steps

1. Click on your profile picture located at the very right-hand top and choose “Channel” from the drop-down.
2. Now click on “Chat” to bring up the chat section. On the right-hand bottom of the chatbox, click on the settings cog icon to bring up the chat settings.

   

    

    

3. Scroll down a bit to the Channel Modes section, click on “Slow mode”.

   

    

    

4. Now this will bring up the time range that you can set between 3 seconds to 120 seconds.

 

Choose the time range that you want to set for chat slow mode and you are all set. Now, this is not where you should skip reading as this is very important to know how to turn it off and when to use it.

I have shared brief details that what kind of streamers should use slow mode on twitch and who should avoid it.

 

How to Turn off Slow Mode on Twitch?

Disabling slow mode on twitch is as easy and similar to enabling it.
You can use both methods either through the slow mode command or through chat settings.

If the slow mode was temporarily you can disable it by using the same command of /slow. So you need to type the command /slowoff in the chatbox and hit enter.

 

Once done you will get a confirmation “Xyz disabled slow mode for this room”.

You can also do it from the chat settings by clicking on the chat settings cog icon. Choose slow down and from the list and then select OFF (Turn off slow mode).

Accordingly, you can also decrease and increase the slow mode time range using the same method.

Now as you know what is slow mode on twitch and how to turn it On or Off, let’s see when exactly to use it and why streamers use slow mode.

 

Why do Streamers use Slow Mode?

Streamers use slow mode to slow down the chat if the chat room is overwhelmed by the chatters.

There can be many reasons streamers may use slow with different time ranges depending on how exactly they want to slow down and for what purpose.

There are even many big streamers like XqCow who don’t use slow mode in their chat room.

I know you might be thinking why, so I will brief that later below.

I am sharing a few of the purposes that will help you to better understand.

 

NO 1 – Better Moderation 

Your moderators may have trouble moderating when the chatters are sending messages too quickly.

Slowing down the chat can really make their task easier for better moderation. A mod can adjust the slow-down time range according to the flow of the chat.

NO 2 – Streamers wish to Communicate 

Many times streamers wish to reply or respond to their viewer’s queries and questions which cannot be possible if the chat flow is too high.

So in order to read messages properly, streamers will need to use slow down. 

Streamers can easily see viewers watching their streams with their twitch account and so that can be only utilized if they keep track of the chatters and their messages during the chat.

 

NO 3 – Reduce Spamming

Slowing down will of course reduce the spamming done by the users where they send tons of messages in a minute.

After enabling the slow down in the chat room they can send only limited messages with a time range gap.

 

NO 4 –  Hate Raids

As per my knowledge, every streamer on every platform like Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook has haters.

Even you may have some haters who are your kind of competitors who can do a hate raid on your stream. In such cases, their audience will come to your chat just to send hate messages and troll.

Slow down won’t stop them but of course, will slow them down so the mods can ban them all.

 

When should you use Slow mode on Twitch?

This is very important that you must know when to use slow mode on twitch and when to totally ignore it.

Slow mode is made only for specific categories and also depends on the chat flow and audiences.

 

Slow mode for Average level Streamers

Slow mode is generally more useful for the mid-level streamers who have an average watching of 500 chatters.

So let’s say these audiences of 500 start spamming and if you enable slow mode of 100 seconds which means only 5 people can send messages at a time.

So accordingly streamers having 100 live viewers can set the slow mode to 10 seconds.

 

Twitch Slow Mode for Top Streamers

If we talk about top twitch streamers like TimtheTatman and Pokimane where they have live viewers around 8k slow mode doesn’t make sense.

Even if you put a slow mode of 100 seconds on their chatbox, still 80 people among those 8000 viewers can send messages every second.

So these viewers rarely notice chats and even mods miss most of the messages. 

 

Twitch Slow mode for Beginner Streamers

If you are a beginner or if you have an average of 50 viewers on your live stream, never think of slow mode. 

It doesn’t make sense as you can easily manage these viewers up to 50 or 100.

If you see slow mode as a viewer, you would hate this feature, and especially if any viewers find slow mode on a channel with just 40 live viewers, they start trolling.

So even if you grow and your live viewers go up to 200 to 300, you or your mod can easily manage them.

 

Cons of Slow Mode on Twitch

So far you learned what is slow mode on twitch and when the slow mode is used but there are also some disadvantages if not used properly.

Though slow mode is a feature that can be used by the streamers, viewers really don’t like it at all not only on twitch but also on other platforms like YouTube.

Now slow mode on twitch can be really a bad idea in the following scenarios.

 

➡️ Fall in Viewers Engagement 

Viewers really love chatting without any limitation while enjoying the stream. If they are restricted to sending messages in the slow mode they may leave your stream or they may feel uncomfortable.

So you need to be sure twice before turning on the slow mode and turn it on only when very important.

 

➡️ Not Suitable for Beginners

I have seen many beginners streamers who turn on the slow mode with just a few live viewers.

You must understand the exact purpose of slow mode in the chat room.

Users will really make fun as you are not so popular and this will also have a big negative impact on your growth.

 

CONCLUSION

When you are in the streaming world either as a streamer or a viewer you must be aware of all stream-related features and information.

Like I briefed you today about what is slow mode on twitch and when you should use it.

Hopefully, you know when to enable and disable slow mode and once again this is mostly used by the mid-level streamers.

If still, you have any doubts related to the slow mode or any related stream issues let me know in the comment box. 

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