Moderating your live chat lets you interact with your audience and curate your live stream experience in a way that works for you. YouTube gives you the tools you need to keep yourself and your viewers safe. For example, everyone who participates in a live chat can report or block another user. How to Moderate Live Chat on YouTube Before your live chat Get ready for your live chat session by setting up these moderation tools. Some of these tools can be used during and after your live stream too. You can make live chat only available to your subscribers, and you can specify how long viewers must be subscribed. This setting can be changed before and during your live stream or Premiere. To turn on subscriber-only live chat for Premieres: Sign in to YouTube Studio . From Content , select the Premiere you want to update. In Details, go to Show More Live chat . Under Participants mode, select Subscribers . When you turn on subscribers-only chat, your audience will be notified that it’s turned on and how long they must be subscribed to send messages. Slow mode and subscribers-only chat can be turned on at the same time. Members-only chat and subscribers-only chat can’t be turned on at the same time. To turn on subscribers-only chat: Go to Live Control Room. From your live stream, click Edit . Click Live chat . Under “Who can send a message,” select Subscribers . Optional: Choose how long viewers must be subscribed before they can send live chat messages. Optional: Choose how long viewers must be subscribed before they can send live chat messages. Members-only live chat Sign in to YouTube Studio . At the top right, click CREATE Go live . From the left, click Stream . Create a stream: To copy a previous stream: Select a previous stream and click Reuse settings . To create a new stream: Enter your stream's info and click Create stream . To copy a previous stream: Select a previous stream and click Reuse settings . To create a new stream: Enter your stream's info and click Create stream . From the top right, click Edit . Under "Live chat," select Enable members-only chat . To turn on members-only chat for Premieres: Sign in to YouTube Studio . From Content , select the Premiere you want to update. In Details , go to Show More Live chat . Under Participants mode, select Subscribers . Live commentary Mode You can set up your live chat to only allow approved users as live chat participants during a live stream session. Only users you select may send live chat messages, other viewers may view these messages alongside your live stream or premiere. Sign in to YouTube Studio . At the top right, click CREATE Go live . Under Customization Check the Live chat box to turn on Live Chat. Select Live commentary to enable. (You can update the Approved Users list in community settings). Optional: Add channel URLs to the approved users list. Note: If no channels are in your Approved Users list, your channel will be the only approved user to use live chat. Note: If no channels are in your Approved Users list, your channel will be the only approved user to use live chat. Click Next to save. To turn on Live commentary Mode for Premieres: Sign in to YouTube Studio . From Content , select the Premiere you want to update. In Details , go to Show More Live chat . Under Participants mode, select Subscribers . Assign moderators Open the YouTube app . Start your live stream by pressing the Plus, then Live , to start live chat. Next to a chat message, click the Menu and select ”Add as managing moderator” or “Add as standard moderator.” YouTube Studio app Open YouTube Studio . From the left, click Settings Community moderation . From the User management tab, enter the channel URL in the “Managing moderators” or “Standard moderator” box. Block messages containing certain words Hold potentially inappropriate live chat messages Go to YouTube Studio . From the left, select Settings Community moderation Content controls . Under “Messages in your live chat,” select the Moderation dropdown to choose from the options: None: Don’t hold any messages. Basic: Hold potentially inappropriate messages. Strict: Hold a broader range of potentially inappropriate messages.

None: Don’t hold any messages. Basic: Hold potentially inappropriate messages. Strict: Hold a broader range of potentially inappropriate messages. You can also change your live chat moderation settings while live streaming on the YouTube app: From your live stream, tap Settings Community moderation . Under “For this channel,” tap the Live chat moderation dropdown to choose from the options. If you select SHOW: Chat messages are displayed in the chat stream at the original time that they were entered. If you select HIDE: Chat messages remain hidden from viewers. If you take no action: Chat messages remain hidden from viewers. Create a live stream . Click Customization . Under "Message delay," check Slow mode . Enter how long you want participants to wait between sending messages. Turn Live chat on or off You can turn Live chat on or off at any time, even after the event has started. You cannot turn off Live chat on Premieres. From the top right, click Edit Live Chat Enable live chat . During your live chat Manage moderation activity in live chat feed You can turn moderation activity on or off in live chat feeds. The default setting for live chat moderation is to remain off. From the live chat feed From the live chat feed, click More . Then click More Toggle moderation activity . Then click More Toggle moderation activity . Moderate messages & viewers from the live chat feed Delete the message. Place the user in time out. Hide the user from the chat message feed or comments section on your channel. Tip: Moderators can learn about a live chat participant by going directly to their channel. On computer: Hover over a message, click More Go to channel . On mobile: Tap a message Go to channel . Access Channel Activity from live chat feed User’s public profile picture User’s public handle YouTube join date Number of subscribers of the user Public live chat messages (max 50 messages per stream) It will also contain total counts of moderation actions taken against user in last year: Deleted messages Hide or show a viewer from live chat From the live chat feed, find a message from the viewer that you want to hide. Next to the message, click More Hide user . Open YouTube Studio. From the left, click Settings Community moderation . From the User management tab “Hidden users,” type the name of the viewer you want to hide. To unhide a viewer, click the X next to their name. They can now leave comments and live chat messages on your channel. After your live chat Live chat replay Go to youtube.com/my_videos . Click the Live tab. Select a video. Click the Customization tab. Deselect the box next to "Live chat replay." View or delete your Live chat history Go to History . On the right of the page, click Live chat . Scroll down and find the live chat message. To delete it, hover over it and click X . View comments after your stream has ended Was this helpful? Need more help? Try these next steps: