How to set up stream alerts

How to set up Twitch stream alerts: picking a service, adding the browser source to OBS, designing alerts that work, and handling the things that break.

By Soulstack · Stream Production · 5 min read · Published 17 May 2026, updated 1 November 2026

Stream alerts are the on-screen popups that play when someone follows, subscribes, donates, or cheers bits. They give the streamer a moment to acknowledge the supporter on stream and give the audience a small celebration.

Leave time to test appearance, volume and delivery before the stream. The work depends on the service and how much you customise.

The three pieces

An alert system needs three components:

• An alert service. The service that watches your channel for events and produces the alerts. An overlay tool with an alert widget, or Twitch's built-in alerts, are the standard options.
• A browser source in OBS pointed at the alert service's widget URL.
• An OBS scene that includes the browser source on top of your other content.

You only need one alert service per channel. Picking one and using it consistently saves a lot of debugging later.

Choosing an alert service

For a new streamer, the practical choice is an overlay tool with built-in alert support or Twitch's own built-in alerts.

A good overlay tool includes an Alert widget that covers follows, subscriptions, bits and raids, and generates a browser source URL you paste directly into OBS once the widget is configured.

Twitch's built-in alerts require no additional software and are managed from the Twitch Creator Dashboard. Review the current customisation and event options in your dashboard instead of assuming they match a third-party service.

Setting up the alert widget

For an overlay tool with a widget-based alert system:

• Open the tool's dashboard and find the widget or alert section.
• Create a new widget and choose Alert as the type.
• Configure the appearance for each alert type: follow, subscription, bits, raid.
• Copy the browser source URL from the widget card.
• Do not share the URL publicly; it is tied to your account.

The widget dashboard also lets you trigger test alerts. Test each type after configuring it.

Adding the alert source to OBS

In OBS:

• Right click in the Sources panel, then Add, then Browser source.
• Name it "Alerts" or similar.
• Paste the widget URL.
• Set the dimensions recommended by the widget provider. A full-screen design may use 1920 by 1080, while another widget may expect a smaller page.
• Decide whether the alert page must remain connected between scenes. Shutdown unloads it when hidden, which can interrupt event handling. OBS Browser source (opens in a new tab)
• Click OK.

The Alerts source should be at the top of the Sources panel for that scene, so it draws on top of everything else.

If you have multiple scenes, you can either add the same source as a reference in each scene where you want alerts (one shared configuration rather than independent page instances), or add separate browser sources in each scene with the same URL (works, slightly more configuration). Use the reference approach unless you have a reason not to.

Volume

Alerts are usually too loud out of the box. Test in OBS by triggering a test alert and watching the audio meter for the alert source. Aim for the alert volume to be quieter than your voice. The alert should be audible but not jarring.

If the alert is hard to hear over your game, the answer is almost always lower game volume in OBS, not louder alerts. A loud alert pattern is exhausting at hour three of the stream.

Designing alerts that work

A good alert pattern:

• Is brief enough not to interrupt the activity. Try a short animation, then check whether the text remains readable.
• Has visual variety. Different sub tiers, different gift sub amounts, different follow vs sub vs raid. Each should look distinct.
• Is quiet enough to talk over without raising your voice.
• Skips for spam events. If 50 follows arrive in 60 seconds (a hate raid pattern), alerts that play 50 sounds in a row are a problem. Configure a follow alert cooldown.

Avoid:

• A single long alert pattern (10 seconds or more) for every event. The viewer's first 50 follow alerts will be charming. The next 5,000 will not be.
• Alerts that play recorded voices reading the supporter's name. Sounded clever once. Sounds dated now and is hard to design well.
• Alerts containing audio you are not authorised to reuse on the intended platforms. Availability in a sound pack does not automatically cover every use.

Resub messages and gifted subs

For subscriptions, two specific events are worth designing carefully:

• Resub alerts. When someone resubs (renews their sub), Twitch lets them post a message with the alert. Display this on screen with the alert if your audience is small enough to read it.
• Gifted sub alerts. When someone gifts multiple subs at once (5, 10, 50), the alert should aggregate rather than play once per sub. Check this setting in your alert tool.

Things that break alerts

Three issues that come up frequently:

• The alert worked yesterday but is silent today. Check the service connection, source audio routing, visibility and test-event result. Update the widget URL only if the provider requires it.
• The alert plays but is blank. Check the page dimensions, visibility and widget configuration, then use the provider's test controls. A regular browser can help diagnose loading, but it may have a different session.
• The alert is delayed by 5 seconds or more. Check the provider's event queue, configured delay and connection status. Do not assume every delay comes from broadcast latency.

What does not need alerts

Some events do not need alerts at all:

• Channel point redemptions may already have suitable Twitch UI; choose an additional on-video alert only if it helps.
• Viewers joining or leaving. Most viewers will hate notifications for every join.
• Predictions have Twitch player UI. That is separate from graphics embedded in your OBS output, so check what appears in recordings or other destinations.

Choose the event types that fit your channel and service. There is no mandatory alert list.

Backup plan

Alerts break. The alert service has occasional outages. A stream where alerts are silent is fine. A stream where you assume alerts are working and they are silently not is not fine.

A simple safety net: every 30 minutes, glance at the alert service's dashboard in another browser tab to confirm events are being recorded. If alerts stop appearing and the dashboard still shows events, refresh the browser source.