Rave Bee Chat

Every chatter becomes a dancing bee (some in headphones, some in shades) waving glowsticks to the beat, with their message popping up in a comic speech bubble. Shouting in ALL CAPS gets a shaky yellow bubble, and the bees sometimes break out a synchronized spin. BZZZ! KAPOW!

Try the demo ↗ Setup guide All settings

Live demo

This is the real overlay running with fake demo chat. On stream the background is transparent, so the bees dance over your game or camera.

Setup guide

Get it on stream

Add a Browser source In OBS click + under Sources → Browser. Paste https://rave.ixitxachitl.com/bees.html as the URL and set it to 1920 × 1080. The background is transparent automatically.
Open the settings Right-click the source → Interact. Move your mouse over the overlay and click the yellow gear in the bottom-right corner.
Connect your chat Under Chat sources, type your Twitch and/or Kick channel name. Add TikTok or YouTube too if you stream there (see below).
Save & apply Press Save & apply and close the Interact window. Your settings are saved inside this browser source.
Say hi in chat! Send a message and watch your bee pop up. Until a chat source is set, demo bees run so you can see it working.

The settings window shows on stream while it's open. Set things up before you go live, or hide the source while you tweak.

Chat sources

Twitch & Kick

Just type the channel name. Chat is read anonymously, so there's no login and no bot account needed.

TikTok

TikTok needs a bridge app running on your PC. If you use TikFinity, just type 1 in the TikTok box. Otherwise, paste your bridge's ws://… address.

YouTube

Paste your live stream's video ID or link, plus a YouTube Data API v3 key from the Google Cloud Console. You can also give a bridge ws://… address instead.

Check every (s) controls how often it looks for new messages. Lower is snappier but uses up your daily API quota faster. The default of 6 seconds is a good start.

Several platforms at once

Fill in as many as you like. Everyone ends up on the same dance floor.

Tips

Keep bees out from under your facecam with Stage left / right edge (%).
Match the dance to your music with Dance tempo (BPM). The default is 126.
Chat bots like Nightbot and StreamElements are hidden by default. Add more in the filter.
!commands and first-time chatters (often spam bots) are hidden unless you turn them on.
BTTV, FFZ and 7TV emotes, badges and pronouns all show up in the bubbles.

Build a setup link

Settings in the URL

Every setting can also go in the URL, and it overrides what's saved. That's handy for running two copies with different setups, or for setting up without the Interact window. (The overlay's own Copy setup link button does the same thing.) Fill in what you need and paste the link into your browser source:

Using YouTube with an API key? Add it in the overlay's own settings rather than in a link, so the key doesn't end up somewhere it could be shared. (ytkey works as a URL parameter too.)

All settings

Setting	URL parameter	Default	What it does
Chat sources
Twitch channel	`channel`	—	Read anonymously, no login needed.
Kick channel	`kick`	—	Read anonymously, no login needed.
TikTok bridge	`tiktok`	—	`1` uses TikFinity on this PC, or give a `ws://…` bridge address.
YouTube live	`youtube`	—	Live video ID or link (needs the API key), or a bridge address.
YouTube API key	`ytkey`	—	YouTube Data API v3 key from Google Cloud Console.
YouTube check every (s)	`ytpoll`	6	2–60. Lower is snappier but uses the daily API quota faster.
Demo chat	`demo`	off	Fake chatters. Also runs on its own when no source is set.
Bees
Bee size (px)	`size`	120	50–300.
Dance tempo (BPM)	`bpm`	126	40–220.
Max bees on screen	`max`	12	1–40. Also limited by how many fit across.
Stay after talking (s)	`linger`	0.6	How long a bee hangs around after its bubble goes.
Stage left edge (%)	`xmin`	0	Limit where bees can stand, e.g. to keep them out from under a facecam.
Stage right edge (%)	`xmax`	100
Distance from bottom (px)	`ground`	6	-40–600. Raise the dance floor.
Speech bubbles
Bubble time ×	`hold`	1	0.3–5. Multiplier for how long messages stay up.
Max message length	`maxchars`	150	20–500 characters.
Show badges	`badges`	on	Twitch and Kick badges; owner / mod / member / sub / follower on YouTube and TikTok.
Show pronouns	`pronouns`	on	Twitch chatters who set them on pronouns.alejo.io.
BTTV / FFZ / 7TV emotes	`extemotes`	on	Third-party emotes in bubbles.
Filtering
Show !commands	`cmds`	off	Show messages that start with `!`.
Show first-time chatters	`firsttime`	off	Twitch flags these; spam bots usually show up this way.
Hide known bots	`botlist`	on	Uses the public TwitchInsights bot list.
Always hide these users	`ignore`	nightbot, streamelements, streamlabs, moobot, fossabot, wizebot	Comma or line separated.
Effects
Glowing dance floor	`ambient`	on	Rainbow floor glow while bees are on stage.
Comic POW! bursts	`sfx`	on	BZZZ! BUZZ! STING! KAPOW! pop-ups.
Glowstick sparkles	`sparks`	on	Sparkles flying off the glowsticks.

Switches take 1 (on) or 0 (off) in the URL.

For tinkerers

Custom integrations

Streamer.bot or your own scripts can make a bee say something by calling this inside the browser source:

window.raveBees.say("name", "message", {
  color: "#ff00aa",
  platform: "twitch",
});

Questions

I only see demo bees

No chat source is set yet. Add your channel in the settings (or the URL) and they'll stop.

My settings disappeared

Settings live in that browser source's storage. If your setup can't save them, the panel will tell you — use a setup link from the builder above instead.

Can I run two copies?

Yes. Give each browser source its own setup link and the URL settings win.

Prefer cats?

Check out Rave Cat Chat. Same settings, more meows.