---
title: Alert announcements
description: The bot's chat messages for follows, subs, gift subs, resubs, cheers, raids, and tips - each with an editable template.
---

When something happens on stream - a follow, a sub, a cheer, a raid, a tip - the bot can post a message in chat. The **Alerts** tab on the **Chat bot** page controls which events get announced and what the bot says.

Chat announcements are independent of the on-stream alert pop-ups: those are configured per overlay in the [overlay editor](/overlay/edit-your-overlay), so an event can be announced in chat without showing on an overlay, and vice versa.

## Per-event toggles

One row per event: **Follow**, **Sub**, **Gift sub**, **Resub**, **Cheer**, **Raid**, and **Tip**. Flip the toggle to announce that event. All announcements are off by default.

For cheers there's also a **Min bits for chat announce** threshold - cheers below it don't get a bot message. (Overlay alerts have their own per-overlay minimum in the editor.)

## Custom messages

Click the pencil on a row to write your own message. Leave it blank to use the default. Variables in `{curly braces}` are filled in when the message posts:

| Event | Variables | Default message |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Follow | `{user}` | `Welcome @{user}! Thanks for the follow!` |
| Sub | `{user}` `{tier}` | `🎉 @{user} just subscribed! (Tier {tier})` |
| Gift sub | `{user}` `{count}` `{s}` `{tier}` `{recipients}` | `🎁 @{user} gifted {count} sub{s}! (to {recipients})` |
| Resub | `{user}` `{months}` `{tier}` | `🎉 @{user} has been a sub for {months} months!` |
| Cheer | `{user}` `{bits}` | `💎 @{user} cheered {bits} bits!` |
| Raid | `{user}` `{viewers}` | `🎉 @{user} raided with {viewers} viewers!` |
| Tip | `{name}` `{amount}` `{symbol}` | `💜 {name} tipped {symbol}{amount}!` |

A few notes:

- `{s}` is `s` when the gift count is more than one, empty otherwise - so `sub{s}` reads "sub" or "subs".
- Every template also supports `{channel}`, `{pick:a|b|c}` (a random inline pick) and `{list:name}` ([response lists](/chat-bot/custom-commands)) - the same variables as custom commands.
- Unknown `{tokens}` are left as-is, so a typo shows up literally in chat rather than vanishing.
- Messages are capped at 400 characters and can't start with `/` or `!`.

So a sub template like `Thanks {user} - welcome to tier {tier}! {pick:GG|PogChamp|LFG}` works exactly how you'd hope.

:::info[Sub reward credits]
If you run [sub rewards](/viewers/sub-rewards), the "you've earned a free TTS credit" sentence is appended automatically after your sub and resub messages - you don't need to include it in the template.
:::