For Twitch streamers, keeping viewers engaged is crucial. Interaction is key to building a community and keeping a channel lively. If you ever looked for a tool that can help you with just that, InstructBot (aka BitBot) may be it. This Twitch bot offers an easy and effective way for viewers to interact with streams. It integrates with Twitch, as well as services like StreamElements, StreamLabs, TipeeeStream, enhancing the viewer experience through interactive commands and features. In this article, we inspect what InstructBot offers and how it can make Twitch streams more engaging and fun for everyone involved.
InstructBot has found considerable popularity among Escape from Tarkov players. The game itself is stressful enough. When you add your mischievous viewers' ability to mess with your gaming session, it takes the entire experience to a new level.
In its essence, InstructBot is a tool that allows your viewers to mess with your game by using bits, donations, points, and more. Your viewer can activate a script by completing the requirements you’ve set (donating a certain amount or spending channel points). These commands are configurable and application-aware. This means you can create specific key combinations and link them to a certain game you play. InstructBot will virtually press these button combinations when the user buys a corresponding reward and if the game is currently active. One of the most popular use cases is setting an Alt+F4 macro so that your viewers can turn off your game by donating to you. Granted, it may make you mad but also a tiny bit more financially secure and your viewers will get a good laugh.
You can also link these commands to different profiles to switch between them in different scenarios. Some commands created by other people are also available to download inside the application, sparing you some time on creating your own.
Besides taking control of your game, InstructBot also lets viewers control your audio and time out other viewers for a certain period by redeeming rewards. That’s a nice way to humble your mods a bit. Just saying.
InstructBot can contribute to increased viewer donations and bits usage by offering viewers entertaining ways to interact with the stream. This can lead to a potential increase in the streamer’s revenue.
InstructBot isn’t free. Every subscription has a 30-day free trial after which you can either buy a 6-month subscription for 18.00 GBP or an annual one for 30 GBP, making it either 3 GBP or 2.5 GBP per month respectively. That said, a single donation started by InstructBot a month would be enough for the bot to pay for itself.
Setting InstructBot up is really easy. You can download it here. It’s your standard exe file installation process. Just follow the instructions provided in the installation wizard and connect your Twitch account.
The first thing you should do in InstructBot is to create an application. To do that, move to the application tab, name the application to correspond to the game you want to use it for and drag the ‘Target Window’ field onto the game.
After setting up your application, you can create custom input commands that you can activate while it’s running. This tool is very flexible, allowing you to configure not only the button combinations themselves but also all the conditions in which it can be activated and the people who can activate it. Besides that, InstructBot also has a set list of commands that may be useful for your general streaming:
- Disable Profile: Disables one or more profiles.
- Enable Profile: Enables one or more profiles.
- External: Launches another application on your computer.
- Help: Automatically lists other commands that are currently active.
- Input: Sends keyboard or mouse input to the active application.
- Mute Sound: Mutes the active application.
- Parallel: Allows you to run one or more commands, randomly, from a single trigger.
- Play Sound: Plays a sound.
- Random: Randomly pick another command from a list you define.
- Sequential: Allows you to run one or more commands, in order, from a single trigger.
- Swap Mouse Button: Swap your left and right mouse buttons.
- Text: Send text into chat.
- Timeout: Times out a user in the chat.
- Toggle Profile: Toggles the enabled state of one or more profiles for a duration.
Although fairly simple in concept and flexible in implementation, direct button manipulation has its drawbacks. If the reward is redeemed while you are pressing the buttons that may alter the button combination needed for action to be performed, the command may not do what it was intended to. Thankfully, InstructBot allows you to grant a free use of a specific command to certain viewers so you can use that as a refund system in case the command wasn’t executed properly.
Overall, InstructBot is a great addition to the roster of services like Dixper.gg and CrowdControl. It has its drawbacks and benefits. While being simple in concept and flexible in implementation, it is also bound to not work as intended sometimes and the action customization process can be quite tedious. It’s not free, but its flat rate subscription may end up more affordable to many than a ~20% revenue cut from awards redeemed through other services. So InstructBot can be the best option for many streamers who want to increase their streams’ interactivity and monetization.
Trust us, this type of service shouldn’t be overlooked. No matter what you end up using, CrowdControl, Dixper.gg, or InstructBot, implementing them into your streaming routine may make both your viewers and your wallet happier.