There are many ways to customize your Twitch channel creatively. Having a custom offline video player banner can highlight important information on your Twitch channel.
Usually, streamer provide their social media account and the date and time when the streaming start, so viewer that stumbles upon the offline screen can know your social media account and streaming schedule
Adding a good offline screen can help communicate with your audience even when you’re not streaming
Should You Add Offline Screen on Your Twitch Channel?
While it is not an absolute necessity, you should add an offline screen for your Twitch channel. It can make your Twitch channel stand out from the other streamer’s channel. Streamers that don’t use an offline screen can be viewed as not “serious” streamers by their audience. Anyway, the default offline screen on Twitch is not visually pleasing, so it’s better to change it
Let’s see the example of a Twitch channel that doesn’t have an offline screen
You can see that it’s an only plain black background which is not visually appealing. This is the default banner on all channels that don’t enable video player banners on their channel. It doesn’t give any information on your Twitch channel
Here is an example of an excellent offline screen from the Pokimane Twitch channel
The design is beautifully crafted. It also shows Pokimane social media account from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Now let’s see xQc channel Example
Just like Pokimane banner, we can see xQc’s social media account from the offline banner. Not only that, but xQc also shows his Discord group link and Reddit link. If a new viewer accidentally stumbles upon the xQc channel, he can open the discord or Reddit link to communicate with other xQc fans while he is offline. This is one of the xQc strategies to get more channel followers
Recommended Image size and type for Offline Screen on Twitch
Twitch already has a recommended setup for your channel video player banner. The image you choose for the offline screen must have an HDTV resolution which means a resolution of 1920×1080 with an aspect ratio of 16:9. The image format type must be in JPG, PNG, or GIF format with a maximum size of 10MB
Make sure that you have the license for the design of your banner. You can’t just search it on Google Image because most of the banner designs on Google have a commercial license. You need to have an attribution link if you want to use the design
The design also must comply with Twitch Community Guideline, basically a family-friendly design
How to Get Twitch Offline Screen Banner for Free
There are many ways to get an offline screen for free Offline Screen. The first way is to get an image with creative commons license for your offline screen. The good thing about the creative commons license is you can use it in any situation without paying it
The disadvantage of getting a free offline screen is that many Twitch streamers will use the same offline screen because it’s free and has a creative commons license. For some images, you need attribution to use the image
So, If you want to have a unique offline screen for your channel, you need to design it yourself or purchase a premium offline screen on an online marketplace like NerdOrDie
If you want to design it yourself, you need to have basic designing skills on image editing software like Photoshop or Gimp. Luckily there is an online tool that you can use to make custom offline screen banner for your channel easily
Crello lets you design your Twitch offline banner for free five times a month. You can open Crello at this link: https://crello.com/templates/twitch-offline-banner/
Should You Buy a Premium Offline Screen Banner for Your Twitch Channel?
Buying a premium offline screen banner is better than using a freely designed banner. It can make you stand out and give you more information to your viewers when you are offline
If you buy a design on NerdorDie you can get a package from your Logo, Offline Banner, Overlay, Channel banner, Social Banner, Animation and many more.
How to Add an Offline Screen to your Twitch Channel
After creating the offline screen banner, then you need to upload the design and set it as an offline screen on your Twitch channel
1. Login to Your Twitch account and click your profile image on the top right corner
2. Click Setting from the dropdown profile’s menu. You can instantly open your channel setting by opening this link: https://link.twitch.tv/myChannelSettings
3. On the top menu, click “Channel and Videos”
4. Click the “Brand” Menu between the “About” and “Schedule” menu
5. Scroll Down to the bottom part of the website. On the Video Player Banner Section, click the “Update” button
6. A pop-up will appear. Click the “Upload a Photo” section. Choose the photo on your PC, then click OK
7. Wait for few seconds until the uploading process ended. Your setting will be automatically saved
You can check your offline screen banner on your channel by logging off and open your channel link
How to Delete Your Twitch Channel’s Offline Screen
1. Login to your Twitch account
2. Open the Brand menu on your “Channel and Videos” setting as explained in the step above
3. Scroll Down and Click the trash icon next to “Update” to remove the offline screen
4. If you want to change your offline screen banner, then upload your next design by clicking the “Update” button again