Tipping has been part of Twitch for a long time now, but donations can be a little stale, which is why Twitch is looking to revamp it with a new system: letting you tip right through the chat box itself. You'll need to pre-purchase credit though, which is where Twitch wins every time.
The tippable tokens/credits are called "bits," and bits can be bought from $1.40 for 100, all the way up to 25,000 for those willing to spend $308. Depending on which emotes you use within the chat, from 1-right up to 10,000, you can donate by simply popping that symbol into the chat and bam, you've given your favorite streamer some cash.
Twitch calls it cheering and you can start doing it today if you want.
"Cheering is a new way to show support for streamers and celebrate the moments you love with the community," Twitch said in a blog piece.
However what it doesn't explain is how much of it actually goes to streamers. Although you purchase the 'bits' from Twitch for the purpose of cheering, we're told only eligible partners will receive a 'share' of the revenue made from cheering. So where is the rest of it going?
Twitch doesn't explain, which would leave us to suggest that you don't go overboard with cheering just yet, until we've figured it all out.
Indeed many fans have that feeling already, saying that they would just continue to donate directly, because that guaranteed the whole thing went to the streamer.
How do you feel about this new cheering platform?
