Twitch testing feature for viewers to pay up to $100 to highlight a message

Twitch is testing a feature where viewers can pay up to $100 to highlight a message in chat.

Elevated Chat, as it's known, is currently a limited time experiment for four weeks only available for select streamers.

It allows viewers to pay to "elevate" their message in chat, either pinned to the top of chat or at the bottom of the video player. Varying payment amounts allows for various amounts of time for elevation.

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That ranges from $5 for 30 seconds of elevation, to $100 for just 2.5 minutes of elevation.

The revenue split of this is 70/30 in the streamer's favour, but only after fees and tax. More information can be found on Twitch's FAQ.

The feature is similar to YouTube's Super Chat, where viewers can pay any amount from $1 to $500 (for up to five hours of highlight). The revenue split is also 70/30 in the streamer's favour.

Multiple people in Twitch chat can elevate their message, which will be added to a queue for moderators and streamers to manage.

Still, there's room for this system to be abused with hateful messages if not chargeback-protected.

The revenue split is also highly contentious following the recent news that Twitch won't be amending its 50/50 split for subscriptions anytime soon due to the cost of running the streaming platform.

Twitch's senior vice president of global creators left the company shortly after that revenue split announcement, as the company has been accused of being money grabbing and out of touch with streamers.

Elevated Chat differs from another, permanent, feature now added to Twitch: Chat Highlights.

Last year Twitch rolled out the first-time chatter highlight, so streamers can recognise a new viewers in chat. Now that's been expanded to all streamers and with customisation, to highlight first-time chatters, suspicious users, moderators, VIPs, subscribers and more.