Chatty Help - Getting Started (2024)

This is a short guide to help you with installing Chatty and getting familiar with some of it's features.

Download & Installation

You can download Chatty from it's Website. The download simply consists of a .zip-file which you should extract wherever you want to have Chatty. The extracted files include a Chatty.jar which you should usually be able to double-click to start the program (if Java is installed properly). (See the help if Chatty won't start.)

Update Chatty

If you already have an older version of Chatty and want to update, then just replace all the files with the new ones in the .zip. Basicially just unzip the .zip into the same folder and overwrite all files if asked (unless you have some custom icons or sounds that have the same name). You can also unzip it into a new folder (just make sure you don't use the old version anymore).

Your settings are saved seperately in the settings directory and are not lost when you upgrade to a new version. The new version should normally automatically use the same settings without you needing to change anything. If you are interested in what your settings directory is, enter /openDir in Chatty. There is also a backup folder in there with backups of the settings.

Please check out the Release Information for any changes in a new version that may require your attention.

Note: If you downgrade to an older version of Chatty, some settings (that the older version didn't have yet) may be lost. So make sure you don't run old versions of Chatty without knowing what you are doing, if you have changed settings unique to newer versions.

Creating a login

If you are starting Chatty for the first time, you will have to request login data from Twitch so Chatty can connect to chat for you and do other stuff like show live streams you follow.

In the Connect-dialog, click on Create login.. and then Request login data and simply follow the instructions. Once you successfully created the login, close the dialog until you get back to the Connect-dialog. (There is a Guide on what to do when getting login data fails.)

Join channels (and leave channels)

In the Connect-dialog enter the name of the channel you want to join in the Channel: input box. The name of the channel is the same as the name of the stream. You can enter more than one channel name to join by seperating them with a comma. To connect simply press Enter or click on Connect. After connecting, it will automatically join the channels you specified.

Even after connecting you can join additional channels via Channels - Join Channel or entering the command /join <channelname> in the inputbox (e.g. /join joshimuz).

You can leave channels by right-clicking anywhere in the channel and selecting Close Channel from the context menu or right-clicking on the channel's tab (only available if there is more than one channel) and selecting Close from the context menu.

Chatting and Moderating

Chatting is pretty straightfoward as you would expect from any chat program, however the inputbox has a few useful features. Enter the beginning of a name in chat and press TAB to auto-complete the name. Press Up-Arrow key to go back to previous stuff you entered.

To moderate a chat, you can of course use the regular moderations commands like /ban, /timeout and so on, but a much more convenient method is to click on the name of a user you want to ban/timeout, which opens the User-dialog, containing several moderation buttons as well as the recent messages of that user, so you can quickly check if you are actually timing out the correct user.

Information about the current stream

Chatty regulary requests information about the current stream, which is displayed in the titlebar and the Channel Info-dialog.

You can open the Channel Info via the View-menu or the channel context menu (right-click anywhere on the channel). The Channel Info contains the current title/game but also a history of the Viewercount and previous title/games (if you hover over points).

Get notified about streams you follow that go live (and join them)

Open the Live Channels-window via Channels - Live Channels to open up a list of streams you follow that are currently live or streams whose channel you have currently joined that are currently live.

(You need to have the required access with your login data to see streams you follow.)

You can enable/disable showing streams you follow in the Settings - Notifications. There you can also configure what kind of Tray Notification you want to have pop up for stream status changes or highlighted messages.

To join channels directly out of the Live Channels-dialog right-click on a stream to open the context menu and then select Join channel to join the channel for that stream and if you want also open the stream in your browser or Livestreamer.

More stuff you might want to try out..

• Right-clicking, or whatever opens a context menu in your OS. There are a lot of context menus in Chatty, e.g. for usernames (as shown above), links, emoticons, anywhere else in the channel, tabs, entries in favorites, the live streams dialog, the Channel Info dialog..
• Configure Chatty to your needs. Open the Settings from the Main-menu to get all kinds of settings to adjust Chatty to your preference. Please make use of the Help link in the bottom left corner of the Settings-dialog to get help on the current page of settings you have selected.
• Ask if you don't understand something. I tried to make the help as comprehensive and easy to understand as possible, but a lot of stuff is probably pretty confusing if you aren't as familiar with the program as I am. So please ask about stuff and maybe also (if you can) propose changes to the help that would make it easier to understand. There are various ways to contact me.