Keep a backup way to sign in

What a backup email is for

If you ever can’t sign in with Twitch, a backup sign-in email gets you back into your dashboard. It’s optional, and only an address you’ve confirmed can sign you in. It doesn’t create a new account: it signs you in to the one you already have.

It’s also how we reach you about your account. Product news, such as launch updates and new features, goes to it only if you ask for it: see Product news. A few short tips and check-ins from Ryan come unless you switch them off: see Tips and check-ins from Ryan.

Before you start

• You need to be able to sign in with Twitch once, to add the address.
• Use an inbox you’ll still have if something happens to your Twitch account. It doesn’t have to be the address Twitch uses.
• Each address can be the backup for one account only.

Add it from the bar at the top

Until you add an address, your channel’s pages show a bar across the top: Add an email so we can reach you.

1. Type your address. If Twitch shared your email when you signed in, the field may already hold it.
2. If you want product news and launch updates, tick the box beside the address. It starts unticked.
3. Choose Send link. The bar now says Check your inbox and names the address. Choose Resend for a new link, or Change to fix a typo.
4. Open the email and confirm the address, as in step 5 below. The bar goes away.

Not now hides the bar for a week, on every device. On a narrow window the bar shows Add email, which opens Account.

Add a backup email

1. In your dashboard, choose Account at the bottom of the sidebar, under your name.
2. Under Backup sign-in email, type the address. If Twitch shared your email when you signed in, the field may already hold it; change it if you like.
3. If you want product news, tick the box under the address. Leave it unticked if not.
4. Choose Save and send confirmation. The card now shows the address as Waiting for you to confirm.
5. Open the email we send. It names the Twitch account the address will sign in to, such as @yourname. Choose Confirm this address, then Confirm on the page that opens. The link expires in 24 hours.

The page says Backup email confirmed, and Account now shows the address as Confirmed. From now on the save button reads Change address.

Check it works

You can test your confirmed address while keeping this dashboard signed in.

1. Open Account and choose Send me a sign-in link. For example, if your confirmed address is [email protected], the page says the link was sent there. A replacement address waiting for confirmation is not used.
2. Open the email in a private window or on another device. Choose Sign in, then Continue.
3. Check that your own dashboard opens there. Your original window stays signed in.

Each link works once and expires in 15 minutes. Asking for another replaces the earlier link. Tests share the usual limit of three sign-in links an hour for one address; if the page says the email could not be sent, wait a minute and try again.

Sign in with email

1. On the sign-in page, choose Can’t use Twitch? Sign in with email instead.
2. Enter your backup email and choose Email me a sign-in link. The next page says Check your inbox.
3. Open the email and choose Sign in, then Continue on the page that opens.

You land on your dashboard, the same as a Twitch sign-in. Each link works once and expires in 15 minutes.

What works while Twitch is unavailable

Signing in by email opens your dashboard, so you can change flows, widgets and settings. It doesn’t reconnect Twitch. Anything that needs your Twitch connection — chat messages, alerts for Twitch events, channel point rewards — waits until that connection works again. When Twitch is back, open Settings › Connections, review your Twitch status and follow a re-authorisation prompt if one is shown.

Product news

Product news is off unless you turn it on. If you ticked the box when you added your address, it starts once you confirm that address; the confirmation email says so.

• Turn it on or off: on Account, under Product news, choose Turn on or Turn off. Turning it on needs a confirmed address.
• If you confirmed an address before this existed: a bar asks once, Want Bloopbot product news at your address. Choose Yes please or No thanks; it doesn’t ask again.
• Unsubscribe from an email: every product news email has an unsubscribe link. Open it and choose Unsubscribe. You don’t need to sign in.

Sign-in links and important account emails still arrive with product news off.

Tips and check-ins from Ryan

Ryan, who builds Bloopbot, sends a few short emails about your own channel: a welcome when you link it, a nudge if setup seems stuck, a note after the bot’s first stream, one question after your first week, and a check-in if you haven’t been around for a while. They’re about using Bloopbot, never offers or adverts, and a reply goes straight to him.

Until your Discord account is linked and in Bloopbot’s Discord, the welcome and the setup nudge also invite you to join it. The link signs you in with Discord and adds you to the server. When there is community news, the invitation also includes a What’s new in Discord section. Where joining unlocks Free+, the email says so: Free+ adds web requests and room for five themes to your channel at no cost.

They go to your confirmed backup email or, if you haven’t added one, to the email on your Twitch account. They’re separate from product news: switching one off never changes the other.

If you’ve separately asked us to stop contacting that address, we respect that request for these tips too. Turning the tips switch on in Account does not undo that request. Sign-in links and important account emails still arrive.

• Turn them off or on: on Account, under Tips and check-ins from Ryan, choose Turn off or Turn on.
• Stop them from an email: each one ends with a link. Open it and choose Stop these emails. You don’t need to sign in.

Change or remove the address

On Account, type a different address and choose Change address. We send a confirmation email to the new address, and the card shows Waiting to confirm with the new address under your current one. Your current address keeps signing you in until you choose Confirm this address in the new email. Once you do, the new address takes over, the old one stops working and gets a notice saying so, and any sign-in link sent to the old address stops working. To keep your current address instead, save it again.

To stop using a backup email, choose Remove backup email. A confirmed address gets a notice that it was removed, and product news stops. Either way, any sign-in link you already had stops working.

Choosing Unlink Twitch, or Unlink Kick on a Kick channel, on your channel’s Connections page also removes your channel’s backup sign-in email.

If something goes wrong

• No email arrived. Check your spam folder, wait a minute and ask again. For your safety you can request three sign-in links an hour for one address.
• “This link has expired or was already used.” Choose Send a new link. Links work once, for a short time, and asking for a new one replaces the old one.
• The link opened on another device. That’s fine: press Continue there, or ask for a new link on the device you want to use.
• “That address is already used for another account.” Each address can be the backup for one account. Use a different one.
• “You’ve changed this a few times already.” You can save a backup email five times an hour. Try again later.
• “Confirm your backup email first, then switch product news on.” Product news goes only to a confirmed address. Confirm it from the email we sent, or save it again for a new link.
• “We couldn’t read this link” after choosing Unsubscribe. Sign in and choose Turn off under Product news on Account instead.
• “We couldn’t read this link” after choosing Stop these emails. Sign in and choose Turn off under Tips and check-ins from Ryan on Account instead.
• Account says “Backup sign-in isn’t available on your channel yet”, or the sign-in page has no email option. Backup sign-in may not be available on your channel yet. Sign in with Twitch as usual.