Twitch Emotes Explained: What KEKW, LUL, PogChamp and More Mean

Twitch emotes are small images that appear in chat when you type their code: Kappa, LUL, PogChamp. Some are built into Twitch itself and everyone sees them. Others, including KEKW, monkaS, Sadge and COPIUM, live in third-party extensions such as 7TV, BetterTTV (BTTV) and FrankerFaceZ (FFZ): without the extension you just see a plain word instead of a picture. Below you will find a table of the 29 most common emotes with explanations, the differences between the extensions, and the rules a streamer follows to add their own emotes.

Emote table: what KEKW, LUL, PogChamp and others mean

“Global” in the Source column means the emote works in any channel: for Twitch, for everyone; for an extension, for everyone who has it installed. “Channel” means an emote the streamer connected to their own chat through the extension’s library.

A couple of nuances. Letter case matters: LUL and LuL are different emotes (the second one is from BetterTTV). And meaning depends on context: Sadge after a lost final is genuine sympathy, while after the streamer drops a sandwich it is a joke. Chat words that are typed in letters rather than pictures are covered separately in our article about hix and other Twitch slang.

Why half of the emotes are invisible without extensions

Twitch itself shows only its own emotes: global ones, a channel’s subscriber emotes, follower emotes and bits emotes. Everything else is loaded by browser extensions. When a viewer with 7TV types KEKW, a laughing man appears in their window, while a viewer without 7TV sees just four letters.

BetterTTV

Developed by NightDev. It adds global BTTV emotes (monkaS, FeelsBadMan, FeelsGoodMan) and channel emotes chosen by the streamer. It also highlights messages by keywords, shows deleted messages and automatically collects channel points. Versions exist for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. YouTube support is announced but still in beta.

FrankerFaceZ

FFZ calls itself a set of improvements for Twitch. Besides emotes (including animated and wide ones), it offers very flexible chat customization: filters, fonts, colors, profiles for different channels, and handy buttons for moderators. It works in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera, and in Safari through a userscript. With The FFZ Add-On Pack you can also enable BetterTTV emotes inside FFZ, so you do not need to install two extensions at once.

7TV

The roomiest option. Its main advantages are plenty of slots (according to 7tv.app, up to 1000 emotes per channel for free), emote updates in chat in real time without reloading the page, and modern WebP and AVIF formats that put less load on the network. It works with Twitch and Kick. There is a paid subscription that gives you personal emotes visible in any channel, as well as “zero-width” emotes that overlay other emotes.

How to install

1. Open your browser’s extension store (Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons or Edge Add-ons) or the official site: betterttv.com, frankerfacez.com or 7tv.app.
2. Find the extension by name and click “Install”. Check the developer: there are plenty of lookalike copies.
3. Reload the Twitch tab. An extension emote menu button will appear in the chat input.
4. A streamer also needs to log in on the extension’s website with their Twitch account and add emotes to their channel from the shared library or upload their own.

What about the extensions in Russia

The situation here is unpleasant. In October 2024 the site 7tv.app was added to the Roskomnadzor registry, and no official reason was given. Industry media report that BetterTTV and FrankerFaceZ also work unreliably for viewers in Russia. The services themselves have made no official statements about a full block, but you should not count on your whole Russian-speaking audience seeing KEKW. The practical takeaway for a streamer: make your channel’s most important reactions native Twitch emotes. Everyone sees them, on any device, including the mobile app.

How a streamer can add their own emotes on Twitch

Custom emotes are available to Affiliates and Partners. They are uploaded in the Creator Dashboard: “Viewer Rewards” → “Emotes”. Each emote gets a code made of your channel prefix and your word, for example with the prefix abc you get abcHype.

Slots

• Subscriber emotes. An Affiliate starts with a small number of slots, a Partner with more. New slots unlock as sub points grow: a Tier 1 subscription gives 1 point, Tier 2 gives 2, Tier 3 gives 6. For Partners the cap is 60 Tier 1 emotes, which unlocks at roughly 10,000 sub points. Twitch shows the exact threshold table right in the Creator Dashboard, and it changes from time to time.
• Follower emotes. Up to 5. Anyone who follows the channel can use them, no paid subscription needed.
• Bits emotes. Unlocked for viewers after they have spent a certain amount of bits in the channel.
• Animated emotes. They take the same slots as regular ones. Twitch can make a simple animation from a static image using templates.

File requirements

Draw with the smallest size, 28 pixels, in mind: that is how the emote will look in chat. Use a large face, a thick outline, and as few small details and as little text as possible. Avoid harsh flashing in animations: such emotes get rejected. For a detailed look at how to come up with and draw a set of emotes and badges, see our article on creating emotes and badges for a channel.

Moderation

All emotes are checked for compliance with the Twitch community guidelines: no explicit content, insults, violence, or other people’s brands and characters without permission. As a rule, an emote cannot be made of separate letters or symbols. Channels with a good reputation and enough history get instant upload: the emote appears right away, but Twitch may remove it later if it breaks the rules. Everyone else waits for manual review, typically from a few hours to a couple of days. Twitch does not publish an official timeframe. Before uploading, check current limits and formats in the help center at help.twitch.tv, in the Emote Guide and Emote Formatting & Instant Emote Upload Requirements sections: Twitch updates them periodically.

Emote-only mode

In this mode only emotes can be sent to chat, and text does not go through. Moderators turn it on with the /emoteonly command and off with /emoteonlyoff. It comes in handy against spam, a hostile raid or spoilers. One nuance: Twitch treats extension emotes as plain text, so KEKW cannot be sent in this mode. More in our article on how to enable emote-only and when to use it.

How emotes help bring chat to life

• A lower barrier to entry. Writing a meaningful message is hard for a shy viewer, while dropping a PogChamp is easy. That is how a person takes the first step toward joining in.
• Chat waves. When a dozen viewers send the same emote at once, the streamer sees the reaction instantly, and a newcomer who just walked in sees that the channel is alive.
• In-jokes. An emote with the streamer’s face or the channel mascot gradually acquires a meaning of its own. This is the community’s inside language that makes people come back.
• Motivation to subscribe. A good emote that you want to use in other chats too is one of the clearest reasons to subscribe.

More tricks, from questions to viewers to mini-games, are collected in our article on how to bring a Twitch chat to life.

The main problem for small channels is an empty chat where nobody starts a wave of emotes. Our Twitch chat bots help here: they write messages and react with emotes, creating a background that real viewers are more willing to join. And if you need a conversation about the stream’s topic, the live chat service fits: real people talk in your chat.

FAQ

Why do I see the word KEKW in chat instead of a picture?

KEKW is not a built-in Twitch emote but an emote from the FrankerFaceZ or 7TV extensions. Without an extension it shows up as text. Install an extension and check whether this emote is enabled on the channel.

What happened to PogChamp?

In January 2021 Twitch removed the original image with the face of Ryan Gootecks Gutierrez after his statements. For a while the image changed every day, and in February 2021 viewers voted for a permanent replacement: the KomodoHype lizard. The PogChamp code keeps working.

Can I use emotes from someone else’s channel?

Subscriber emotes, yes, if you are subscribed to that channel: you can send them in any Twitch chat. Follower emotes work only in the chat of the channel you follow. Channel emotes from 7TV, BTTV and FFZ are visible only in the chat where the streamer enabled them.

Do viewers on phones see extension emotes?

In the official Twitch mobile app, no: it shows only native Twitch emotes. That is why it is better to upload a channel’s key emotes through Twitch itself.

Do I need to be a Partner to make my own emotes?

No, Affiliate status is enough. Partners get more slots and faster review, but the first subscriber emotes and follower emotes are available to Affiliates already.