How long does it take for twitch to approve emotes?

How long does it take for Twitch to approve emotes? Twitch can take anywhere from 8 to 24 hours to approve an emote. The process can sometimes take less time, and if you meet specific criteria, you can even bypass the process. 

Twitch is an online streaming community famous for its custom emotes. These are emotes that streamers can create and give out to subscribers. These emotes engage the community and set an environment for your subscribers. 

However, Twitch manually reviews each uploaded emote. And this process can take time. 

So, keep reading if you want to know more about Twitch emotes.

Twitch Emotes
Twitch Emotes

How Long Does it Take for Twitch to Approve Emotes?

Twitch takes anywhere between 8 and 24 hours to approve emotes. Emote approval could take much longer, but it’s usually not more than 24 hours. Whether or not your emote gets approved depends on several factors, including following Twitch’s Terms of Service (ToS).

What are Twitch Emotes?

Twitch emotes are emoticons that are exclusive to Twitch. They depict certain emotions and help engage the audience and reward loyal fans. Although Twitch has global emotes that everyone can use, certain custom emotes are reserved by creators. 

These custom emotes can feature original art, doodles, and even the streamer’s face. They’re great souvenirs for fans, especially when given out as a reward for subscribing. 

Most streamers begin with global emotes. These are sufficient for displaying emotions but are not customized. Affiliate and partner streamers can customize their emotes and add them to their emote slots. These slots allow them to upload multiple custom emotes featuring original art or their faces. 

Additionally, the more subscriber points the streamer has, the more emote slots they get. 

What are sub emotes?

Sub Emotes are also called Subscriber Emotes. These are the emotes that a subscriber can unlock by subscribing to a channel. Unlike global emotes, these emojis are not readily available to everyone. These often feature custom artwork and illustrations. They may also feature other streamer-specific images, including their face. 

Sub Emotes can be used for various purposes — the most common reason streamers have Sub Emotes is to reward subscribers for subscribing to them. The subscription system on Twitch has 3 tiers; the higher the tier, the more subscriber points the streamer gets, and the more emotes the subscriber can unlock. 

Another benefit that Sub Emotes bring to the streamer is advertising — when a subscriber uses the emote in other places online, many people see it and subscribe to the streamer’s channel to get the emote.

How many emotes do affiliates get?

Twitch streamers can upgrade from being regular streamers to Affiliates and Partners. These streamers can then monetize their content and get special perks. One of those perks is access to special custom emotes. 

Twitch Affiliates start with 5 Standard Emote slots, which are static and not animated. They also get one Animated Emote slot, making it a total of 6 emote slots. As they gain more subscriber points, they can unlock more Standard Emote slots, up to 9 in total. 

An additional Standard Emote slot and Animated Emote slot are acquired at 15, 25, 35, and 50 Subscriber Points. 

This makes the total number of emote slots 14, with 9 Standard Emotes and 5 Animated Emotes. 

Partners get more emote slots (up to 60 Standard Emotes), depending on their Subscriber Points. They also start with more Animated Emote slots (5). 

Can you lose emote slots?

No. Once you have acquired a certain number of emote slots, they are permanent. For instance, if you are an Affiliate streamer with 15 Subscriber Points, you will gain an Animated Emote slot. If your Subscriber Points drop below 15, this additional slot will not be removed. 

Alien Twitch Emotes
Alien Twitch Emotes

How Long Does It Take for Twitch to Approve Emotes?

The exact time it takes for emotes to get approved varies; however, the general rule is that you must wait between 8 and 24 hours. And this is regardless of whether you submit the emote for review on the weekend or a weekday. Often, the approval will take a lot less time than that. 

Twitch emotes must ensure they comply with the Community Guidelines. They should not be offensive or inappropriate. Usually, the emote approval time is not very long, and sometimes, they can get approved in less than 2 hours. The process rarely exceeds 24 hours. 

Requirements to submit Twitch emotes

Twitch has certain guidelines that you must follow when submitting emotes:

Content

Firstly, you must ensure the content of the emote follows Twitch’s Community Guidelines. It should not include violent, hateful, or distasteful content. Here’s what is prohibited by Twitch:

  • Hateful content
  • Bullying and harassment
  • Violent threats
  • Nudity and sexually suggestive emotes
  • Illegal drugs or their references
  • Obscene content, including depictions of violence, blood, injury, gore, and death
  • Vulgarity
  • Encouraging or glorifying violations of Community Guidelines
  • Political content
  • Animations, except for those supported by Cheermote and Animated emote submissions
  • Flashing effects
  • Individual characters and letters
  • Emotes violating Twitch Brand Assets Guidelines and based on Twitch Brand Assets or Twitch Global Emotes

Copyright

In addition to regulating the content of your emote, you must also ensure that it does not infringe upon anyone else’s copyright. Ensure that the emote you make is your creation and does not violate someone else’s intellectual property rights. Your emotes should also not include the name, logo, or other definitive marks of other people or organizations. Lastly, your emotes should not include a celebrity’s face or have their likeness. 

Image Formatting

Twitch sets several formatting standards for both Standard Emotes and Animated Emotes. You can find both here.

How to create Twitch emotes?

Wondering how to create Twitch emotes? Here’s a full guide on how to do so:

  1. First, decide on what type of emote you want to make. What type of emote will best please your community? Many streamers resort to asking their community for suggestions, which makes sense since the emotes are for them. 
  2. Next, start with a basic draft. You might want to create several emoticons at once based on the same theme. You can also experiment with different styles of emotes. You can even outsource emote creation via freelancing platforms. Another option is Twitch’s own Art Section.
  3. Once you have laid the groundwork for your Twitch emote, it’s time to start making it. If you are outsourcing, you don’t need to worry about this step. But if you’re creating the emote yourself, consider a few different software platforms. If you’re already into graphic design, this should be easy. Which reminds us, have you read this article on the best monitors for graphic design?
  4. After choosing the right software, start with a blank canvas. You must add your design to the canvas and remove the background altogether. Then, download the emote in multiple sizes and upload the emote to Twitch. 
  5. To upload your custom emote to your channel, go to the Dashboard and click on the Affiliate or Partner Settings tab. Here, click on Emotes and upload the emote according to the 3 specified emote sizes. Lastly, click on “Save Changes” to upload the emote. 
  6. Once uploaded, the emote will go through a rigorous approval process that can take up to 24 hours. Given certain conditions, you can skip this step if you’re exempted from the approval process. We’ll discuss these conditions in the next section. 

How to skip the approval process?

So, do you want to know the secret to instantly skipping the approval process and getting your emotes uploaded to your Twitch channel? Well, here’s how to get the Instant Upload functionality:

For partners

It’s easier for partners to skip the approval process. You can skip the process if:

  • At least 60 calendar days have passed since you became a Partner. 
  • At least 60 calendar days have passed since you received a conduct infraction. This includes a ToS or Community Guidelines suspension or warning.
  • You have not received any warnings for major emote-related infractions. You will not lose access to the Instant Upload option on your first offense for minor emote-related infractions. But you will lose that option for subsequent violations. 

For affiliates

It’s a bit harder for Affiliates to unlock this feature. To get this feature, you must:

  • Have streamed as an Affiliate for a minimum of 60 days over 2 years. The days are not required to be sequential but cannot include the days before becoming an Affiliate.
  • Have not received any warnings or suspensions for violating the ToS or Community Guidelines within the 60-day window. 
  • Have not had any emote denied or removed from the platform within those 60 days. 

How to Upload Emotes to Twitch

The first step to uploading an emote is making it. You can refer to the section above for creating a Twitch emote. 

Once you have your emote, you can either use the Auto-Resize Mode or the Manual Mode. If you choose Auto-Resize, you only need to upload one size of the emote, which will then be resized accordingly. 

First, go to your Dashboard and click on the Affiliate or Partner Settings tab. Then, click on Emotes and upload the emote. Make sure it is a square image file with dimensions between 112 x 112px and 4096 x 4096 px. The size of the emote should be under 1 MB. Select the Auto-resize option. This emote will then be converted into the 3 specified sizes. 

In the Emote Code field, enter the name of your emote. The full name will be your emote prefix + the emote code. Now, click Upload Emote to upload your emote. Your emote will either be uploaded to your library or into a slot. 

For the Manual Mode, deactivate the Auto-resize option and upload the emote in 3 different file sizes. The 3 sizes required are 112 x 112 px, 56 x 56 px, and 28 x 28 px. Once you’ve uploaded the required sizes, click on Upload Emote. 

The Twitch team will manually review your emotes. During this time, you will see a Pending Approval status on your emote. 

How to make sure they get approved?

To ensure the approval, get familiar with the Twitch Terms of Service, as these guidelines dictate that the emote should not be:

  • Vulgar or sexually explicit
  • Violent or promoting violence
  • Depicting hateful content and symbols
  • With flashing images and lights
  • With single letters or characters

You must also ensure the emote does not infringe upon anyone’s intellectual property rights. For example, the emote must not depict a real-life celebrity or athlete. Additionally, the emotes shouldn’t feature political content that could spark hatred. Also, be sure to follow the formatting standards set by Twitch. 

Who Can Upload Emotes?

Only Affiliates and Partners can upload emotes. Default streamers do not get emote slots, but they can use global emotes. You must first become an Affiliate to get access to emote slots. Then, you can upload up to 14 custom emotes depending on your subscriber points. Once you become a Partner, you can upload up to 65 emotes depending on your subscriber points. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How will I know when my Twitch emotes are approved?

When your emote is under review, you will see a status that says “Pending Approval” next to the emote, along with a watch icon. When the emote has been approved, it will automatically be added to the Library or the selected emote slot. You won’t see the “Pending Approval” text next to the emote.

Why does Twitch take so long to approve emotes?

Twitch needs to ensure that each emote follows the ToS and Community Guidelines. This means that the emote mustn’t be offensive or dangerous and shouldn’t infringe upon any copyrights. Even then, the process hardly takes 24 hours or less.

How many emotes do affiliates get?

Affiliates get 1 Standard Emote slot for Tier 1, with one additional emote each for Tier 2 and Tier 3. So they start with 5 Standard Emotes slots. They can get up to 9 Standard Emote slots with 50+ subscriber points.

Conclusion

So, to bring us back to the question: how long does it take for Twitch to approve emotes? The general time frame is between 8 to 24 hours — but generally, the approval process usually lasts only a couple of hours, and you should be able to use your emote in no time. Getting your Twitch emotes approved by the Twitch team is a daunting task. But if you follow the Community Guidelines, there won’t be any problem. 

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comment below!

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About Nathan

Hello! I'm Nate. I work for an internet company during the week, so you'll probably see me on here jabbering about the internet and building websites, which is my main side hobby.

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