How Twitch offline chat alerts work

PreChat sends an email when a streamer starts a conversation in their own Twitch chat while their stream is offline. It helps you catch the chat before the stream, without keeping every channel open.

Set up your Twitch chat notifications

1. Find your streamer. Search a Twitch username or paste a channel link on the PreChat homepage. Select the streamers you want to watch.
2. Verify your email. Enter your email, acknowledge the Privacy Policy, and enter the six-digit sign-in code. You do not need a password or a Twitch account connection.
3. Join the conversation. When an eligible offline conversation starts, an email points you to the streamer’s chat.

What triggers an alert?

The message must come from the broadcaster in their own channel. Viewer messages do not trigger notifications. PreChat checks that the stream is offline and that its chat connection is active before sending an alert. If stream status cannot be confirmed, it does not send one.

A little less noise

After PreChat observes a live stream, it waits for 30 continuously observed offline minutes before an alert can be sent. Starting monitoring or reconnecting alone does not start that wait.

A new conversation requires at least 60 minutes since the last broadcaster message PreChat recorded. This interval continues across restarts and reconnections. Messages during downtime may be missed, so an alert after reconnection can arrive during an ongoing conversation.

Alerts for a streamer are spaced at least two hours apart. If a recorded conversation begins during that cooldown, it stays suppressed; an alert is not sent partway through it when the cooldown ends.

Manage your watches

Sign in through Manage subscriptions on the homepage to pause, resume, or remove watches. Every email includes “Manage my subscriptions”. In an alert, that private, single-use link signs you in and is valid for seven days. You can also delete your account from the same page.

Early access and reliability

You can keep up to ten watches. PreChat supports 100 distinct active streamers shared across the entire service. When those places are full, an already covered streamer can still be watched within your personal limit; adding a new active streamer must wait for space.

Twitch outages and chat disconnections can cause delays or missed messages. There is no replay of messages lost during an EventSub WebSocket outage. An alert is not a promise that a stream will start soon.

Read the frequently asked questions for more help, or see the Privacy Policy for how your information is handled.