by
on
August 14, 2021
Want to know how to follow or unfollow a streamer on Twitch? Step by step guide on how to do this on desktop or mobile. Also explore the benefits of following a channel!
Have you found yourself watching a streamer on their Twitch channel and want to make sure that you can find them again in the future? You don’t need to bookmark the URL, because Twitch has a “follow” feature that will allow you to save their channel to your Twitch account to revisit in the future. This simple guide will show you exactly how to do it
The first step to follow someone on Twitch is to make sure that you are logged into your Twitch account. Once you’re logged in you will want to go to a specific streamer’s channel that you’d like to follow. Once on the channel, you need to click the “Follow” button that has a heart in it. This button is located right below the video of the streamer.
Once you have clicked on this button, the heart button on the follow button will change. The word “follow” will disappear, and the button will transform to a smaller grey button with a heart symbol within it. Once you see this button, you are following the streamer.
Sometimes when you follow a streamer they may have an alert (visual and/or audio) that goes across their content announcing that you have followed them. This is a fun way for streamers to acknowledge and thank you for following their channel.
Many larger streamers do not have a follow alert, because it would either be abused or too annoying. Can you imagine an alert going off all of the time as people continuously followed the channel? Larger streamers also attract more trolls who would intentionally follow with numerous accounts or unfollow/follow to trigger the alert.
To follow someone on Twitch while on mobile is similar to as if you were on a desktop. Go to the streamer’s channel that you would like to follow. Below the video of the stream you’ll see a purple button on the right side that says “Follow.” Sometimes the button might not show up immediately, and you’ll need to click on the video to have a menu drop down with a follow button. Just click on the purple “follow” button and you’ll now be following this stream.
If you arrive at a stream and an advertisement begins to play you will need to wait for the ad to complete before being able to follow the streamer.
To unfollow a streamer on Twitch you’ll need to go to their channel. Once you’re on the streamers channel you will see a grey button with a black heart in the middle of it. This button is under the video stream, and if you hover over it you’ll notice that the heart will change to the color red and break. Click on the button and you will successfully unfollow the streamer.
But what if someday you want to refollow the streamer, is it possible to follow a streamer that you’ve previously unfollowed? Yes, you can unfollow and follow as many times as you’d like. There’s no penalty for unfollowing someone and following them later.
Personally there are some streamers that I followed, got bored of, and decided to unfollow. After some time passed, I decided to look them back up and refollowed because I found their content engaging again.
But how about mobile? How can you unfollow a Twitch channel on mobile? It’s very similar to unfollowing someone while on the desktop twitch browser.
To unfollow a streamer on Twitch mobile you will need to go to their channel first. Once you’re on their channel you’ll see a heart icon on the left side under the video. It will have the word “following” underneath it. Click on the heart icon, and you’ll receive a message prompt that asks “Are you sure that you want to unfollow?” - click Unfollow and you will have successfully unfollowed the streamer on Twitch mobile.
As a reminder - if you go to the stream and an ad is playing you will need to wait for the ad to complete before you’ll have the option to unfollow the channel.
It is also the same as unfollowing on desktop, you have the option to visit the streamer’s channel and follow again at a later date. Unfollowing is not a permanent decision that can’t be reversed. If at a later date you decide you want to follow the streamer again, you can refollow!
You should follow Twitch channels that you enjoy, because it allows you to receive notifications when they’re live, keep up to date on the streamer, quickly find their channel, and for some channels allows you to talk in chat.
When a streamer goes live there’s a notification that will appear on Twitch and an email notification for all followers. It’s a simple notification to allow anyone that is following the stream to know that the streamer is now live! The streamer has the ability to customize these notifications to say exactly what they want.
While it’s nice to get these notifications from streamers you’re really engaged in, it can be overwhelming and annoying to receive notifications from EVERY streamer that you follow. You can turn the notifications off for streamers you don’t want notifications from by going to their stream and toggling the notification bell to off.
Personally as I don’t follow a lot of streamers I enjoy getting a notification from each and every one, but I do know some people are following 100s of streamers and don’t want to be bombarded by notifications. It’s up to you and easy to turn the notifications off and back on again if you’d like them back in the future.
Following a streamer shows that you support them and want to come back to the channel to watch more of their content. The channels that you follow show that you’re looking forward to viewing future streams and keep up to date on the content that they’re making.
Site Note: Most of the time when you follow a streamer there’s a twitch alert and notification that comes across their stream to notify them that you’ve followed. It’s a way for the streamer to acknowledge and thank you for following the channel. Most of the bots that make this happen are smart enough to only let a viewer get the alert to trigger once. This makes it so that trolls can’t follow, unfollow, and follow again to constantly trigger the stream notification.
Practically, following a streamer puts them in a sidebar (desktop) or in the “Your Live Channels” on mobile that makes it a single click to join the streams. You won’t need to search for the stream in Twitch search, but they’ll be right there ready to join. The streams you follow will be organized from highest views to lowest views.
I don’t like to follow every stream that I go into. I follow streams that I truly enjoy, and want to be able to have them “saved” in a sense to easily jump back in the next time that the streamer is live.
Streamers have the option to turn their chat into “follower only” mode which only allows viewers to send messages to chat if they’ve been following the chat. Sometimes there’s even a timer that won’t allow you to chat until you’ve followed the streamer for a specific amount of time.
By following a channel you’ll be able to chat in the “follower only” channels. Why would a streamer make their chat be follower only? There could be a number of reasons. Some streamers have been harassed by trolls who make their way to random channels and write terrible things in chat. By putting their chat as “follower only” it puts a small obstacle in the path of trolls.
Another reason is that some streamers feel like by putting their channel to “follower only chat” it encourages people to follow the chat. I completely disagree with this perspective and believe that it actually does the opposite.
New viewers want to get a feel for a streamer, and sometimes that means seeing how they react to what they put in chat. There’s some streams that I go into for the first time and say, “Hey!” and wait to see if the streamer responds. If the streamer doesn’t respond or ignores my message, I’m likely to leave without wanting to follow. If I go into a stream with “follower only” there’s a high chance that I will leave without even waiting around. I want to interact and engage with the streamer!
At the end of the day you should follow channels that you love, want to watch, and engage with. Don’t get caught up in doing follow for follow or following channels that you have no interest in following in. Follow as many channels as you want, but know that there’s a 2,000 max cap of channels you can follow. Chances are you’ll never hit that cap!
Enjoy streaming and watching other streamers on Twitch. If you’re looking for my tips, tricks, advice, and guides to streaming please give StreamerGrowthSchool on YouTube a follow. I’m creating content on YouTube to help other streamers grow their channel in a healthy way.
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