Twitch test feature allowing viewers to pay up to $100 to highlight a post

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

Elevated Chat, as it’s called, is currently a four-week limited-time experience only available to select streamers.

It allows viewers to pay to “elevate” their message in chat, either pinned to the top of the chat or to the bottom of the video player. Varying payout amounts allow different amounts of time for elevation.

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

The revenue split is 70/30 in favor of the streamer, but only after fees and taxes. More information can be found on the Twitch FAQ.

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

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

Still, there is room for this system to be abused with hate messages if it is not protected against chargebacks.

The revenue split is also highly controversial following recent news that Twitch won’t be changing 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 this revenue split announcement, as the company was accused of hoarding money and failing to connect with streamers .

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

Last year, Twitch rolled out chat highlight for the first time, so streamers could recognize a new viewer in chat. Now this has been extended to all streamers and with customization, to highlight first-time chatter, suspicious users, moderators, VIPs, subscribers and more.