Commands · 7 min read
How the Twitch !so shoutout command works, how to add an on-stream shoutout overlay in OBS, and when to automate shoutouts for raiders and returning friends.
A shoutout costs you eight seconds and can hand another streamer a real chunk of your audience. It's the most direct way small channels grow each other, and the mechanics are worth getting right.
This covers the !so command, Twitch's native shoutout, on-stream overlays, and when to automate.
!so username is the standard. Your bot posts something like: “Go show some love to @username — they were last live playing Elden Ring: twitch.tv/username”.
Two settings matter. Restrict it to moderators, or viewers will shoutout their friends all stream. And use round robin responses so the wording varies instead of reading like a form letter.
Twitch's built-in /shoutout renders an official card in chat and can appear in the other streamer's notifications. It also has a cooldown and no customization at all.
They're complementary. Native gives you Twitch's own surface; the bot command gives you the wording, the links, and — the part viewers actually notice — something on screen.
A shoutout in chat scrolls away in seconds and everyone watching fullscreen misses it entirely. An overlay card puts the streamer's avatar, name and a preview of their stream on screen for a few seconds, where your whole audience sees it.
R3ddyBot's Shoutout module is a browser source: copy the URL, paste it into OBS, pick a template. No plugins, and the scene doesn't need rebuilding when you change the look.
A raid is the highest-value shoutout moment there is, and it always arrives while you're busy. Wire a shoutout to the raid event so the card fires the instant the raid lands, then follow up verbally.
If you run raid trains, this is non-negotiable — a train is dozens of handoffs and you won't catch them all manually.
!so is the conventional shoutout command. A mod or streamer types !so plus a username and the bot posts a message crediting that streamer, usually with a link to their channel and what they last played.
Twitch has its own native /shoutout, which shows a small in-chat card and has a cooldown. The !so command comes from your chatbot and is fully customizable — wording, links and an on-stream overlay.
Automate shoutouts for raiders — the moment is time-sensitive and you're usually mid-sentence. Keep manual shoutouts for friends who drop in, so they still feel deliberate.
Use a browser-source overlay. R3ddyBot's Shoutout module gives you a URL you paste into an OBS Browser Source; when a shoutout fires, a card with the streamer's avatar, name and stream preview animates on screen.
Chat message plus an animated overlay card, with a template library to match your scene. Free in R3ddyBot.
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