Show alerts on stream

Before you start

In guided setup, choose Alerts and reuse the overlay you want. Help me explains only that task; existing external alerts can stay in place. Saving a Studio draft, publishing it and loading its Browser Source are separate steps. On a phone, keep the selected task and resume on your streaming computer.

You need an overlay in OBS: Add an overlay to OBS takes you from New overlay to a Browser Source, and everything below happens in that overlay’s editor. Alerts come with every channel, and so do the Show alert, Play media and Alert queue steps that drive them. So does a media library for their pictures and sounds: every channel can upload 200 MB, paid plans hold more, and the Media storage line under Limits in What your plan includes shows yours.

• An alert layer is where one alert draws on an overlay. It shows one alert design: the look, text, picture and sound of that alert.
• A design belongs to your channel, not to one overlay, so you can place it on as many overlays as you like and change it from any of them.
• Every alert, and every file a flow plays, waits its turn in one alert queue and plays one at a time, so nothing overlaps or talks over anything else.
• A real alert needs its Twitch event — a follow, a raid. Every test in this guide works without going live, and says whether viewers will see it.
• Sub, resub, gift sub and cheer alerts need those features available on your Twitch channel and permission for Bloopbot to receive their events. Eligible channels can unlock subscriptions and Bits through monetization onboarding before becoming Affiliate. Check which Twitch features your channel can use explains onboarding, permissions and live checks. Alert previews and tests work without that Twitch status.

1. Add an alert to an overlay

1. Open Overlays and click the overlay that should show the alert.
2. Choose Add on the left of the editor. Choose the Alerts filter to show one row per alert type: Follow alert, Sub alert, Resub alert, Gift sub alert, Cheer alert, Raid alert, Redemption alert and Custom alert. An alert already placed on this overlay is marked with a dot, and its details say On this overlay.
3. Drag a layer’s name onto the canvas to drop it where you let go, or press the Add icon beside it to add it in the middle. Select its name to open the details.
4. Bloopbot places the design, reusing an existing one when available, then checks what plays it. A matching flow is kept, including one that is paused, customized or conditional. When no matching flow exists, it queues the missing flow; the top bar reads Publish · 1 flow while one is waiting. You choose what happens to it when you publish (What Publish sets up).
5. Press Publish, review the changes, keep Create and switch on if a new flow is listed, and press Publish in the dialog. The editor says Published — ready for your Browser Source. with how many flows it created, and your overlay in OBS has the layer.

To add every alert at once, or the alert flows, open Overlays and press Add alerts. Add alerts opens on the right of your overlays with Alerts & pop-ups (every alert type in one slot, with polls and a highlighted message), any alert designs from other streamers, and the alert packs, such as Alerts and Stream events. Press Add on a row, read its review and press its button: an overlay arrives with Add the OBS source to do next, and a pack’s flows arrive paused. To put a single alert type on an overlay, drag its name from the editor’s Add tab, as above.

On Overlays, an overlay with an alert layer and no flow that puts alerts on screen shows an Alert flows row on its card: No flow puts alerts on this overlay yet. Press Add on it to open the Alerts pack’s review on the right, then press its button to add the flows, paused. The row then offers Switch on, and it goes away once an alert flow is on.

Adding a type your channel already has a design for reuses that design and checks its flows separately. It can queue missing behavior without making another design; an existing matching flow keeps its graph, conditions and on/off state. If other flows choose the design from a variable, review them before adding another. Custom alert makes a new design named custom-1 (then custom-2, and so on) with no flow, for a flow of your own to play with Show alert. Redemption alert asks for a reward only when no matching flow already supplies its behavior: choose it under Plays on (step 4).

The same design can sit on several overlays at once — raids big in the middle of your gameplay scene and small in a corner of your chatting scene. The layers share the design; only their place and size on each canvas differ.

2. Change how the alert looks

Click the alert on the canvas, or its row under Layers. Its settings open in one workspace on the right. Shared alert design names the channel or theme that owns the design. Message, media, layout and timing change every placement using that design; View placements lists the other overlays that place it. Each overlay’s theme decides which version it uses.

Start with Message, Picture / GIF / Video and Sound, then Test in editor to hear and see your draft. Open the smaller groups only when you need them:

• More alert options · Shared design below the tests has Alert volume, More message options and Media source. Open More message options inside it for Subtitle and Show the viewer’s message. Message and Subtitle can use $(name), $(amount), $(months), $(tier), $(message) and $(viewers).
• Media source, inside More alert options · Shared design, chooses an avatar, library media or no picture. The picture chooser stays available when Their avatar is selected; choosing a file switches to library media.
• Layout & timing · Shared design has Picture layout, Image size, Arrange card and the design’s entrance, exit and word timing.
• Layer appearance · Local changes this placement’s typography, colours, background, spacing and frame.
• Parts · Layer styles one piece of this layer’s card at a time.
• Motion · Layer has this layer’s idle and letter effects. The alert’s entrance and exit stay in Layout & timing · Shared design.

The design name in the header is a menu. Show a design switches this layer to another design; Duplicate design makes a separate copy and selects it for this layer. Choose that deliberately before changing a shared design when only this placement should differ. Rename design… and Delete design… are covered in step 4. A design name is lowercase letters, numbers, - or _.

Your changes save to your draft as you make them. OBS keeps showing the published design until you press Publish — see Arrange your overlay, step 5.

2a. Arrange the picture and words

Picture layout controls where the alert's image, avatar or video sits relative to its words. You can set it even before choosing a picture.

1. Select the alert layer and open Layout & timing · Shared design.
2. Set Picture layout to Beside for the usual side-by-side card, Above for a stacked card, or Text over image to put the words on top of the picture. Text over image adds a shadow behind the words so they stay readable.
3. Set Image size from 32 to 512 px. This changes the picture inside the card, not the alert layer's size on the canvas.
4. For a custom arrangement, choose Manual. Enter pixel offsets for Image left/right, Image up/down, Words left/right and Words up/down. Positive numbers move right or down; negative numbers move left or up. Manual starts from the Beside layout. To place every part of the card yourself, by dragging, choose Free instead (Place each part of the card).
5. Watch the canvas preview, then press Publish to update OBS.

For example, a raid alert with a 192 px avatar Above its title makes a tall card. If the words cover a face in Text over image, switch to Manual and move the words to one side. The offsets apply to the design wherever that design appears.

Place each part of the card

Free puts the picture, the title, the subtitle and the viewer’s message each where you want them, in a card of the size you choose.

1. Select the alert layer and open Layout & timing · Shared design.
2. Set Picture layout to Free. The canvas switches to Arrange card at once, and every part starts where your current layout drew it, so nothing jumps. You can also press Arrange card in the panel, or on the canvas toolbar, whenever the layout is already Free.
3. The card on the canvas is frozen as viewers see it mid-alert, filled with a sample name, amount and message and your design’s own picture (or the first frame of its video). It does not come in, go out or time out while you arrange it.
4. Click a part to select it, then drag it. It snaps to the card’s edges and centre lines and to the other parts; hold Alt while you drag to place it freely. The arrow keys move the selected part 1 px, and Shift with an arrow 10 px.
5. Drag a part’s handles to resize it. The title, subtitle and message change width only; the picture changes width and height, and holding Shift while you drag a corner keeps its shape. From the keyboard, Alt with an arrow key resizes the selected part.
6. Drag the Move card handle at its top-left, or an empty part of the card’s background, to move the whole card inside the layer. Its parts move with it. With the card selected, arrow keys move it 1 px, or 10 px with Shift. Drag its right, bottom or bottom-right handle to scale the whole card: its picture, words, spacing and effects grow or shrink together, keeping their proportions. Alt with the arrow keys also scales the selected card. Card position in the panel gives you exact X and Y offsets.
7. To change the space available for the card’s contents, use Layout size in the panel: Layout width and Layout height change its box while keeping the parts at their arranged sizes. For exact part positions and sizes, use the selected part’s X, Y and Width (and Height for the picture). A number applies when you press Enter or leave the field; Escape puts the old number back.
8. Press Long in the Arrange card bar above the canvas to fill the card with a long name and message, and Play to watch the alert come in once with its motion and sound. The card is frozen again afterwards. Short returns to the short sample.
9. Press Done (in the bar above the canvas or in the panel) or Esc, then Publish to update OBS.

Custom widgets that draw an alert design get the same Free layout and Arrange card controls in their alert-design setting. Moving the card changes that design’s internal layout; the overlay layer stays where it is.

If a custom widget shows Card size with Width and Height, its card handles change the box’s size. The widget’s author needs to add whole-card scaling before those handles can scale its contents too.

Every change is one step of Undo. Reset to Beside in the panel starts the parts again from where the Beside card puts them. Switching to another layout keeps your arrangement, so choosing Free again brings it back.

The arrangement belongs to the design, not the layer: every alert layer showing that design changes with it, and the panel names the other layers and overlays that show it. To give one alert an arrangement of its own, make a Duplicate design from the design menu first.

When a name, subtitle or message is too wide for its box, it shrinks until it fits, down to 60% of its size. If it still does not fit, it stays at 60% and wraps onto more lines, and its box grows downward. The words always sit above the picture, and the theme’s padding does not move parts placed with Free.

2b. Make it move

Open Layout & timing · Shared design in the alert’s panel to decide how the card arrives, how it leaves and when its words appear. An alert you made before keeps the motion it had until you change it.

1. Under Coming in, point at a tile to watch it play, then click the one you want: Fade, Slide, Zoom, Bounce, Flip, Rotate, Roll, Light speed, Back, Blur, Drop, Pop, Wipe or None.
2. Set how it plays underneath. Direction (up, down, left or right) appears for the effects that travel — a slide, a bounce, a wipe. Duration runs from 0.1 to 3 seconds. Easing is Smooth, Snappy, Bouncy or Linear.
3. Do the same under Going out.
4. Under Words, pick how the title and message come in on their own — or leave With the card — and set a Text delay: how long after the card is in before the words appear.
5. Check the bar above the tiles. It shows the alert’s time On screen as In, Hold and Out, with a mark where the words come in.
6. Press Test in editor to watch it on the canvas, then Publish.

On screen is the alert’s whole time on screen, the way in and the way out included. So coming in, the text delay, the words coming in and going out have to fit inside it together; the bar shows the words’ own entrance in yellow after the delay. If they don’t fit, the bar turns red and says so — for example Coming in, the text delay, the words coming in and going out take 4s, longer than the alert is on screen (3s) — and the design is not saved until you show it for longer or shorten one of them. A Typewriter letter effect is not part of that sum: how long it types depends on the words each alert gets, so a long name keeps typing into the hold, and stops where it is if the alert starts going out first.

To make the letters of the viewer’s name wave, select the alert layer and open Motion · Layer, then Idle and letters. Under Letters, pick Wave — or Wiggle, Bounce, Pulse, Tada, Rubber band, Jelly, or Typewriter, which types the name in once the words have arrived. Letters stay still in names written in right-to-left or joined scripts, such as Arabic or Hebrew, and in any text longer than 200 letters, so they always read correctly. It moves the Highlighted values part, so the name moves and the rest of the title stays still; any other text part can have its own letter effect under Parts · Layer (Style one part at a time). Idle motion in the same section keeps the layer gently moving while it’s on screen.

A computer set to reduce motion shows every alert fading in and out over the same time, with still letters. OBS does not ask for reduced motion, so your stream shows the motion you chose.

2c. Put a frame around the card

An alert card can wear a picture frame: a gold edge for a sub alert, a neon outline for a raid. The frame goes round the card itself, and the picture you choose under Picture / GIF / Video stays inside it.

1. Select the alert layer and open Layer appearance · Local, then Background & spacing. Alert card frame is there, under the card’s background.
2. Press Image, then Choose picture or Upload. Use a PNG or WebP with a see-through middle, so the card’s colour and words show inside the frame. None takes the frame off.
3. Set Corner size to the size of your picture’s corners in pixels, Frame width to how thick you want it drawn (16 to start with, and up to 64), and Frame outset to move it outwards. Sides decides whether the sides stretch or tile. Put a frame around panels, chat lines and cards explains each control.
4. Press Test in editor to see the card with its frame, then Publish.

On the alert layer the frame is that layer’s own, so a raid can wear a bigger frame than a follow. Set Alert card frame on the theme instead, under Look → Background & spacing, and every alert card wears it; a layer can still change it or choose None, and Reset to theme hands it back.

While the card wears a frame, its Frame width replaces the card’s Border width, including one set on the Card part under Parts. The Card part can also take a Frame of its own, which keeps its own width. To take the theme’s frame off the card, press None there (it says Uses the theme’s frame until you choose): the frame goes completely, and the plain border comes back with no thick edge left behind. The same works on the theme’s own Card part, where None keeps the card free of the theme’s frame in every overlay using the theme, and Use the theme’s frame takes it back.

Choose alert media and sound

Select the alert layer. Its picture and sound fields are near the top of the workspace:

1. Under Picture / GIF / Video, press Choose media to browse pictures and videos together, or Upload to add one. KLIPY offers GIFs, stickers and clips. Preview your choice, then press Use media (or Use GIF, Use sticker or Use clip for KLIPY). Choosing another file replaces the current media.
2. Leave Sound empty to hear the video's own audio. To replace it, press Choose sound, preview an MP3, OGG or WAV, then Use sound. The selected sound plays and the video is muted. Remove the sound to return to the video's audio. A picture has no audio of its own.
3. Open More alert options · Shared design below the tests to set Alert volume, then press Test in editor, then Publish when you are happy. Test turns on canvas sound so you can hear the alert. Use Mute preview to quiet it again; testing does not change your saved preview-sound preference. The picker's mute button controls only its own preview.

For example, choose a celebration clip and leave Sound empty to hear its soundtrack. Add an airhorn as Sound to play the same clip silently with the airhorn instead. If the video stays silent after Test, check Alert volume and whether the video contains an audio track. Test published output… uses the published choices and plays sound on the live stage; listen through your streaming app.

3. Show the viewer’s avatar

Open More alert options · Shared design below the tests, then Media source. It offers Their avatar, From library or None. Their avatar shows the Twitch or Kick profile picture of whoever the alert is about: the follower, subscriber, cheerer or redeemer; the raiding channel for a raid; and the gifter for gifted subs.

1. Choose Their avatar.
2. In More alert options · Shared design, pick a Shape: Circle or Rounded square.
3. Pick a Fallback from your media library for when there is no avatar to show, or leave it on None for no picture.
4. On a design that plays on Gifted subs, Whose avatar appears: Gifter or Recipient. For a gift of several subs at once, Recipient shows the first person who got one.
5. Publish.

A flow’s Show alert step has an Avatar of field. Leave it blank for whoever triggered the flow, or give a viewer’s name, with or without @ (their Kick name on a Kick channel) — a shoutout command sets it to $(1) so the card shows the channel being shouted out.

• The fallback shows straight away, with no wait, for an anonymous gift, a name Twitch does not know, a picture that will not load, or when Twitch takes longer than half a second to answer. An alert never waits for a picture.
• Someone who has just changed their picture may appear with the old one for up to an hour.
• Choose From library to replace the avatar with your own picture or video, or None to show just the words.
• Tests from the alert panel show your own Twitch picture. Alerts sent by a script with a write key show the fallback.

4. Choose what plays it

Plays on keeps a compact summary below the tests. An enabled raid flow appears under On:; a paused flow is named with turned off, and a queued flow with created when you publish. (with conditions) means the flow checks the event before showing the alert. Other flows may play this design warns that a flow chooses its design from a variable, so review that flow before assuming this alert has no behavior. No flow plays this yet means no matching behavior was found.

1. Press Review, or Set up when no flow is listed, to open the flow controls. Each row names its flow and offers Open flow. Press Choose what plays it… to choose events.
2. Tick each event that should play this design: Follow, Sub, Resub, Gifted subs, Cheer, Raid or Channel points redemption. For a cheer, type a number in Minimum bits before you tick it, or leave it empty for any cheer; a raid has Minimum raiders; a redemption needs its reward chosen first.
3. Each tick queues an ordinary flow named after the design — Alert: raid, or Alert: custom-1 on cheer for a design named after something else — and its row reads created when you publish. Untick it to take it back. Unticking a flow that is already live turns it off when you publish.
4. To have only your own flows play the design — a command, a timer, a webhook — leave every event unticked. That is Only when a flow plays it.
5. Press Done, then Publish.

Each event is a trigger in the flow editor’s node library, and the flow a tick adds starts on it: New follower, New subscriber, Resub message, Gifted subs, Bits cheered, Incoming raid or On a reward redeemed. Power-ups have their own trigger, Power-up used: see React to Twitch Power-ups. Start a flow of your own on the same trigger to do more on that event — a thank-you in chat for every raid, say — beside the alert.

A yellow line such as “Raid also plays raid — ticking this shows both” means another design already plays on that event. Tick it anyway and both alerts play, one after the other.

The setup action reads the latest flows and queued changes before adding behavior. It reuses an existing custom, paused or conditional flow without resetting its configuration; changes queued here take effect only at Publish.

The picker only ticks flows that do nothing but show this alert. Anything else — a chat command, extra checks, a thank-you in chat — is a row with Open flow, and you change it on the Flows page like any flow. Starting from Flows instead? The Alerts pack in the flow marketplace installs the same kind of flows, plus Show an alert from chat: a moderator’s !alert raid Ada plays the raid design for Ada without a chat reply.

What Publish sets up

When your draft has flows waiting — an alert you added, or an event you ticked under Plays on — Publish opens a review before it sets them up. Every Publish opens this review, even for one changed part; it names what changes and which overlays a shared design can affect.

1. Press Publish (it reads Publish · 2 flows while two are waiting).
2. Publish your overlay lets you choose the changed parts to publish and lists each new flow with what it does, such as “Plays the raid alert on a raid.” For each, pick Create and switch on, Create switched off or Don’t create. Don’t create any flows sets them all at once; press it again to go back.
3. Changes to your flows lists what Publish will do to flows you already have — a rename after you renamed a design, or turning a flow off after you deleted one. Change those where you made them.
4. Review the affected overlays, then press Publish, or Cancel to change nothing. Unticked parts stay in your draft. A flow waiting for an alert you are leaving in the draft offers Later or Don’t create.

A flow you choose not to create is gone from your draft. The alert then plays on nothing until you tick an event under Plays on, or play it with Show alert in a flow of your own. A flow created switched off appears on the Flows page, ready to switch on. Once you press Publish in the dialog, the status line at the bottom says how many flows it created, created switched off, or didn’t create, such as “Created 2 flows, 1 not created.”

If a switched-on flow still points to an alert design that is not published, Publish shows a result listing the affected flows and designs. Your overlay update reached OBS, but those alerts will not appear there yet. Add a Custom alert for each missing design, rename its design to the name shown, then publish again. Or choose a design you have already published in the flow or group that plays it.

4a. Make a variation for some events

A variation is a copy of an alert design that plays only when a rule matches. The original design plays when it does not. Start with a design that already has an alert flow in Plays on. The Variation button (with a plus icon) is available on the original design's simple alert flows and flows made by this variation tool.

1. Select the original alert layer and find Plays on. Press Variation.
2. If the design has more than one alert flow, choose the Flow to change.
3. Under When, choose Random chance, Subscription tier, Bits at least, Months at least, Gift count at least, Raid viewers at least or Specific viewer. The choices depend on the flow's event. Enter the threshold, percentage or viewer login.
4. Press Add variation. Studio copies the design as it appears on this overlay, including its theme's picture, sound and words, places a new alert layer, and queues a branch in the selected flow. The new design and branch wait together for Publish.
5. Select the copied layer to change its words, picture or motion, then press Publish. Use Open flow in Plays on to see the branch and edit it further.

For example, on a Cheer alert choose Bits at least and enter 1000, then give the copied design a larger picture. Cheers of 1000 bits or more show that copy; smaller cheers show the original. For a rare alternative, choose Random chance and enter 10: about one in ten matching events shows the copy. The flow editor calls this check Random chance. Its true path shows the copy, and its false path shows the original. A simulated Test can take either path; it does not send a real Twitch event.

Subscription tier offers Tier 1 (including Prime), Tier 2 and Tier 3. Twitch's subscription event does not distinguish Prime from paid Tier 1 here, so a Tier 1 variation matches both. A gift's Specific viewer checks the gifter's login; anonymous gifts have no gifter login to match.

To remove a variation, select its copied layer, choose Delete design…, then press Publish. Studio removes that branch from the alert flow; the original design still plays. If another flow also plays the copied design, the delete dialog lets you turn that flow off or move it to the Trash.

If Variation is missing, open the flow and check whether it has other steps or edits outside the variation branch. You can build your own conditional path on the Flows page. If Studio says it could not place the copied layer, remove another layer and add a Custom alert layer showing the new design before you publish. If the variation is still showing the original, check its rule and that the new layer was published; a chance rule may simply have taken its false path.

Renaming a design (Rename design… in the header’s menu) renames it on every overlay that shows it, and the flows that play it by name follow when you publish — their rows read renamed to this design when you publish. Deleting one (Delete design…) that flows still play lists them and offers Turn them off or Move them to the Trash, so no flow is left playing a design that is gone. It all happens when you publish, and a layer that showed the design then draws nothing until you pick another.

If the delete dialog says Finding what plays this design…, wait for the flow information to load. You can cancel at any time. Deletion choices appear once both the live flows and your draft have been checked. If that check fails, the dialog explains the problem; reload the page to try again. Nothing is deleted while the information is unavailable.

5. Test it

There are two tests in the alert panel, and they reach different places:

Test published output… answers in a sentence under the button: Playing now on your overlay., Queued — number 2 in line., or one of the notes under If something looks wrong. That reply reports queue state, not proof that OBS displayed or played the alert. Watch and listen in your streaming app. It plays the design itself, whether or not a flow plays it, so the conditions in a flow are not checked by it — use the flow’s Test fire for those. Test alerts and check OBS delivery covers checking the Browser Source itself.

Open Published output below the tests to check the selected overlay’s published revision and source load history. The disclosure also shows the latest recorded channel test for this design. Opening it only reads evidence; it does not publish changes, connect a source or send another test. Press the refresh icon (Refresh output evidence) for a new check. If the check fails, retry there; any older result is marked as the last check.

Source connection and Visible or audible playback remain Unknown. “OBS or Streamlabs fetched revision …” is historical load evidence, not a current connection or a last-loaded time. “A surface accepted the test frame” means a surface accepted it; the receipt does not identify which overlay or published version received it. Watch and listen in OBS to confirm the result. If the output changed during the check, refresh before comparing revisions.

For sub, resub and gift sub alerts, $(tier) shows Tier 1, Tier 2 or Tier 3 with Bloopbot’s preset flow. Use $(tier) by itself in your title or subtitle, for example $(name) subscribed at $(tier). The preview and direct alert tests use Tier 1; Arrange card → Long uses Tier 3.

6. Play images, videos and sounds

A Media layer is where a flow’s Play media step shows an image or a video, and plays a sound. Media waits its turn in the same queue as your alerts, so a sound never plays over an alert.

1. Add a Media layer from Add and put it where the pictures should appear. Its Fit is Fit inside the box or Fill the box.
2. At an alert's Media or Sound field, press Choose media or Choose sound to preview files you already have, or Upload to add one, preview it, then press Use to apply it. You can also drop files into the editor's Media tab or upload on the Media page in the sidebar. PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP pictures and MP3, OGG and WAV sounds can be up to 5 MB each; WebM clips can be up to 25 MB. Every channel can upload 200 MB; paid plans hold more, and the Media storage line under Limits in What your plan includes shows how much yours holds.
3. In a flow, add Play media and choose its File, Seconds on screen (1 to 60; a video or a sound stops when the time is up) and Volume.
4. Publish the overlay, and switch the flow on.

Each file in the list says what plays it — Played by Airhorn, or No flow plays this — so you can see what a file is for before you delete it. For example, a chat command !airhorn with one Play media step playing airhorn.wav for 3 seconds plays the sound on every open overlay that has a Media layer, in its turn after any alert already playing. Media reaches only overlays with a Media layer.

An alert design can also speak. A flow’s Speak text step with the design’s name in Alert design shows the card with the viewer’s name and message and plays the words out loud instead of the design’s sound, for as long as the speech runs. Make sure the design shows its message. Let viewers send text-to-speech covers it, and spoken messages wait in the same queue as your alerts.

7. Control the queue while you are live

The Live page has an Alerts card. It says what the queue is doing — Idle, Playing (with what is on screen, who or what sent it and the seconds left), Paused, Waiting for an overlay with alerts in OBS, Held: your overlay is hidden in OBS (the alerts play when you show it again, within two minutes), or Held: no open overlay shows what’s waiting — and lists Up next.

An alert whose design no open overlay has a layer for is held rather than shown. The card counts it beside the queue (0 in queue · 2 held) and names each design, for example 2 alerts held: no open overlay shows the design kittypaws-follow. Add a layer for that design to an overlay you have open and publish, or change the flow so it plays a design your overlay shows. A held alert plays as soon as an overlay that shows it opens, and is dropped after ten minutes.

• Skip ends what is on screen, and the next one starts.
• Pause holds the queue: new alerts wait until you press Resume.
• Replay plays the last one again.
• Clear throws away everything waiting, held alerts included; what is on screen finishes.

A flow can do the same with the Alert queue step. Its Do field is Skip what’s on screen, Pause the queue, Resume the queue, Replay the last one or Clear the queue — for example a !skipalert command for your moderators, behind a Who can trigger check. An alert that has waited ten minutes without playing is dropped rather than shown late.

If your alerts are in more than one scene

OBS keeps a Browser Source running while its scene is hidden, and tells your overlay when it is shown or hidden. Bloopbot uses that: only the copies OBS is showing play an alert, sound and all. A copy in a hidden scene plays nothing, then or later.

1. In OBS, open the properties of each Browser Source that holds an alert or Media layer.
2. Leave Shutdown source when not visible unticked, and press OK. A source OBS shuts down cannot tell Bloopbot anything, and cannot work with OBS either.
3. After OBS starts, click through each scene that has the overlay once. OBS only reports a change, so until a copy has been shown or hidden Bloopbot does not know where it is, and that copy plays every alert.

When every copy that shows an alert is hidden, for example while your Be right back scene is up, the alert waits. It plays as soon as you show a scene with one of those overlays, in the order the alerts came in. An alert that waited more than two minutes is dropped instead, so hiding your alerts for a while never plays a backlog when you come back.

Two things still play an alert at once, because Bloopbot cannot tell whether they are on screen: a browser tab with the overlay's URL open, and an app other than OBS showing it. With Studio Mode on, a scene in Preview counts as shown, so an overlay in both Preview and Program plays in both.

An alert that arrives while no open overlay shows its design waits in the queue and plays as soon as one does.

A worked example: raids big, follows small

Your gameplay scene should show a raid across the middle of the screen and a follow tucked into the top-right corner, and your chatting scene should show the same raid alert.

1. Open your Gameplay overlay, choose Add, open Raid alert and press Add. It lands in the middle of the canvas. Drag the handle on its right edge until it spans about half the canvas.
2. Choose Add again — adding an alert switches the left panel to Layers — and drag Follow alert into the top-right corner of the canvas. The line at the bottom of the settings panel shows where it is, for example x 566 y -361 w 640.
3. Press Publish. The dialog lists Alert: raid and Alert: follow, both set to Create and switch on. Press Publish in it: “Published — ready for your Browser Source. Created 2 flows.”
4. Open your Just chatting overlay and add Raid alert there too. Studio reuses the raid design and its matching flow; View placements in its panel now includes Gameplay. Publish the new placement.
5. With the Gameplay scene visible in OBS, select the raid layer and press Test published output…, then Play it on stream. Do the same for the follow.
6. Leave Shutdown source when not visible unticked on both Browser Sources. Switch to Just chatting and test the raid again: it plays there, and not on the hidden Gameplay scene.

What you should see

• Under Plays on, an On: summary for the raid; Review opens the Alert: raid row and Open flow. On the Flows page, Alert: raid and Alert: follow are switched on after you create them with Create and switch on.
• Test published output… answering Playing now on your overlay., with playback checked separately in your streaming app.
• The Live page’s Alerts card reading Playing with raid · Ada · Test · raid, and the follow under Up next until the raid has finished.
• One alert at a time, with the queue’s gap between them.
• An alert coming in, holding and going out with the motion you picked, within the time On screen says.
• If you gave the card a frame, the picture drawn round it with its corners as you made them, in the test on the canvas and in OBS once published.
• A real raid on your channel playing the raid design on every overlay that shows it, once — only the scene on screen plays it.
• With both scenes hidden (say your Be right back scene is up), Test published output… answering Queued. Every overlay in OBS with the raid design is hidden right now. It plays when you show one, within two minutes., and the raid playing when you switch back.

If something looks wrong

• The layer draws nothing and its panel says This layer shows the … design, which doesn’t exist any more: the design was deleted. Pick another from the design menu in the panel’s header, then publish.
• Publish stops and the alert layer says it shows the … design, which only … has: the overlay uses one theme, and the design belongs to another. Pick one of the overlay's own designs from the design menu, or pick that other theme under This overlay uses in the overlay's style, then publish.
• A banner says Your old Alert box was retired. Its settings weren’t carried over — add alert layers from Add. Nothing of the old one plays any more, so add a layer for each alert type you want, then publish.
• A flow is marked as needing attention because it used the old Overlay card step: its message says that action was retired and names the Alerts pack. Add the Alerts pack from Overlays → Add alerts or Flows → Add, or replace the step with Show alert.
• Nothing plays on a real event: Plays on reads No flow plays this yet, or its flow is turned off. Open Set up or Review, then choose the event under Choose what plays it… and publish, or review and switch on the existing flow through Open flow.
• Test published output… says OBS does not have the raid design yet. Publish, then test again. The design is only in your draft.
• It says Queued, but no overlay open in OBS right now shows the raid design: no open overlay has a layer for that design. Make the scene with it visible in OBS; the alert plays as soon as one is open.
• The Alerts card reads Paused: press Resume. It reads Waiting for an overlay with alerts in OBS: open the scene that holds your alert layers, or press Resume. It reads Held: your overlay is hidden in OBS: show the overlay in OBS, and what was held plays; an alert held for more than two minutes is dropped.
• The Alerts card says alerts held: no open overlay shows the design …: no overlay you have open has a layer for that design, often because a flow names a design your overlay doesn’t use. Add an alert layer for it and publish, or pick one of your overlay’s designs in the flow’s Show alert step. Press Clear to drop what is held now.
• A design will not save and the timing bar in Layout & timing · Shared design is red: coming in, the text delay, the words coming in and going out are longer than On screen. Make On screen longer, or shorten a duration or the delay.
• The letters of the name don’t move: the Highlighted values part is not used by the title, or its Letters is None. Check the title uses $(name), and pick a letter effect under Idle and letters.
• An alert only fades, whatever you picked: the computer showing it is set to reduce motion. OBS never is, so check on stream.
• A sound plays twice: OBS has just started and you have not clicked through the scenes with the overlay yet, the overlay is also open in a browser tab or another app, or Studio Mode shows it in both Preview and Program. Click through those scenes once, or close the extra copy (see several scenes).
• An alert that came in while your overlay's scene was hidden never played: it waited more than two minutes, or another overlay that shows the same design was on screen and played it then.
• An alert card shows no frame: check that Image is chosen under Alert card frame with a picture, that Frame width is not 0, and that the layer has not switched the theme’s frame off with None. Publish first if it shows on the canvas but not in OBS.
• The frame’s corners look squashed or stretched: Corner size does not match the corners in your picture. Set it to their size in pixels, with Frame width near the same number.
• On a Free card the words look small: they shrank to fit their box. Select the part in Arrange card and make it wider, or give it a shorter template.
• A part of a Free card is missing: its box is off the card (select it with the Tab key in Arrange card, or check its X and Y), or the design has no subtitle, or it does not show the viewer’s message.
• Two different alerts play for one event: two designs both play on it. Their Plays on lines show it; untick one.