On-screen alerts pop a card into your OBS overlay when something happens: a follow, a sub, Bits, a tip. The look is packaged into reusable style sets, while the triggering conditions come from the smart alert engine.
What it solves
Support that only appears in chat is easy to miss in a fast-scrolling window, and to the person who sent it, being missed is the same as not being seen. An on-screen alert pushes the event into the middle of the screen so you and every viewer notice it at the same moment, which also gives you a natural cue to say thanks.
Getting started
- Add the alert URL as an OBS browser source.
- Create a style set: layout, theme colour, image, sound, animation.
- Use the wizard to create a rule: pick the event type and the style set it uses.
- Send a test alert to confirm it actually fires in OBS.
How style sets and rules relate
One style set = one look, shared by as many rules as you like. Rules decide when it fires and what it says; the style decides what it looks like. Keeping them separate means restyling everything is a single edit rather than a pass over every rule.
Showing different styles in different scenes
The OBS source URL plays every style set through one overlay. If you'd rather keep a big alert out of some scenes (say, a large tip alert only in your main scene, with smaller follow/sub alerts everywhere), open the "OBS widget" tab and use Split Source URL: tick the style sets you want, copy the filtered URL, and add it as a second browser source. Each source only plays the styles it was given; leaving the field empty keeps the original URL showing everything, exactly as before.
Common misconceptions
- The sound and speech you hear in the dashboard may differ from what OBS plays. The preview uses this computer's browser and speech engine; the real thing is synthesised on the OBS side, so the voice can sound different. That isn't a misconfiguration.
- Browser previews may need a click on the page before audio plays. That's the browser's autoplay policy; OBS browser sources aren't subject to it.
- The voice list comes from your current browser, and OBS may have a different set. If the chosen voice isn't available, the closest match is selected automatically. You can also type a name directly.
- A blocked word stops the speech, not the alert. Filtering applies to what gets read aloud; the card still pops.
- Cooldowns, permissions and "live only" aren't in the wizard. The wizard is for creating quickly; adjust advanced conditions afterwards in the smart alert editor.
- If a test alert doesn't arrive, the OBS source usually isn't open. The test is genuinely delivered to a connected source; it isn't simulated in the dashboard.
Settings
A style = one look (layout / theme / colors / image / sound / animation). Alert rules reference any style, so looks are reusable.
Adjust how the synthesized voice sounds. Whether a message is read aloud is decided by each rule’s “read message aloud” switch. The voice is synthesized on our server and sent to OBS for playback.
Pop an alert card on your OBS overlay when events happen. Triggers/cooldowns/permissions reuse the smart notifications engine; this page lists only rules with an Alert Box action.
The text below is taken from the in-app help, so it stays in sync with the actual interface.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Volume | Shared by the sound effect and the speech; 0 mutes both. |
| Voice | Grouped by language; the list comes from the server. Leave empty to pick a voice from the detected language. |
| Reading language | Leave empty to detect the language of the message. Set it when detection is unreliable, such as very short or mixed-language messages. |
| Command name | Fires when chat types !command. |
| Reward title | Must exactly match the channel points reward title. |
| Minimum amount | Below this it will not pop (0 = no limit). |
| Subtitle | Leave empty to hide the subtitle. |
| Read message aloud | Reads the subtitle aloud (title if no subtitle); blocked words mute the read-out while the alert still pops. |
| Also test the voice read-out | Same as the real pipeline: filtered server-side, synthesized on the OBS side. |
Other notes
- Browser preview audio may require one click first (autoplay policy); OBS browser sources are unaffected.
- The preview plays the exact audio that will be used on stream, so the voice and speed match OBS. If server synthesis is temporarily unavailable, a backup voice source is used and the speed, pitch and voice settings will not apply.
- https only; mp3 / ogg / wav / m4a.
- The character limit decides how much audio is synthesized; the seconds limit decides how long one alert can hold the screen. Whichever comes first wins. At 1x speed roughly 4.4 characters per second for Chinese, 4.8 for Japanese and 17 for English; 20 seconds covers about 88 Chinese characters. The character limit tops out at 200, a hard limit of the backup voice source.
- Wait this long after the alert appears before speaking, so it does not overlap the sound effect. Set 0 to start both together.
- Cooldowns / permissions / live-only and other advanced conditions can be tuned later in the smart notifications editor.
- Send a test alert to the connected OBS source (nothing happens if the source is not open in OBS).
- Pick the styles to play, then copy a filtered OBS source URL for a separate browser source (e.g. show only certain notification types in one scene).
Other settings
These settings have no additional help text in the dashboard; only their names are listed here.
- Add style
- No styles yet
- This style exceeds your plan limit; rules using it will not fire (upgrade or delete extra styles to restore).
- Saved
- Image/sound must be a built-in preset or an https URL with an allowed extension
- Style limit for your plan reached
- Play demo
- Thanks for the support - this is a voice read-out preview.
- Pick automatically by language
- Basics
- Theme & colors
- Image & sound
- Animation
- Voice read-out
- Style name
- Duration (s)
- Layout
- Font
- Theme
- Title color
- Subtitle color
- Accent color
- Image
- Sound
- Preview
- Entrance
- Exit
- Speed (0.5-2)
- Pitch (0-2)
- Reset to default
- Max characters read
- Max seconds read
- Speech delay
- Image top
- Image left
- Banner
- Classic
- Minimal
- Card
- Neon
- Glass
- Retro
- Sans
- Rounded
- Serif
- Mono
- Fade
- Slide up
- Slide down
- Zoom in
- Zoom out
- Bounce
- Open smart notifications
- Add alert rule
- No alert rules yet
- Create at least one style in the Styles tab first.
- New alert notification
- When to show?
- No styles yet; add one on the Styles tab first.
- Name
- Type
- Fired
- Enabled
- Trigger
- Style
- Title
- {username} donated {amount}!
- {username} just followed!
- {username} just subscribed!
- {username} gifted {amount} subs!
- {username} cheered {amount} bits!
- {username} sent a Super Chat: {say} ({amountText})!
- {username} just became a member!
- {username} gifted {amount} memberships!
- {username} sent {giftName} ({amount} Jewels)!
- {username} is raiding with {amount} viewers!
- {username} redeemed a reward!
- {username} triggered an alert!
- {username} sent a GIF: {gifName}!
- Test
- Send test
- Test alert sent
- Test alert
- This is a test message 🎉
- Split Source URL
- Female
- Male
- Using the backup voice source; speed, pitch and voice settings will not apply.
- Preview failed. Please try again later.
- Detect automatically
- Text only
- Sound only
- Full