Wouldn’t it be great if there was an easy way to share your streaming schedule on your Twitch page? That way your followers know exactly when you are planning to go live.
Wouldn’t it be even better if this schedule took into account where your viewers live in the world? Converting your schedule into their local time, so they never miss another stream?
Well, you’re in the right place! In this guide, I will be showing you exactly how you can set up a stream schedule extension for your stream that you can proudly display in your Twitch panels.
Video Guide
As with all of our guides, below I have included a full video tutorial if that is your preferred method of learning.
You can’t be online all the time and you shouldn't try to be. Giving your viewers a time to turn up each week will massively increase your chances of retaining viewers that enjoy your stream.
Why you need a Schedule
Having a schedule is an important part of establishing and growing an audience as a streamer. If you look at the profiles of the biggest streamers then you’ll quickly notice that most of them have some sort of schedule. They know that they need to let their audience know what they can expect to watch and when.
If people find your profile and they like what they see, but you have no consistency when it comes to your schedule, you’re effectively turning away potential viewers. They’ll come back the next day and be disappointed when you’re not streaming. You can’t be online all the time and you shouldn’t try to be. Giving your viewers a time to turn up each week will massively increase your chances of retaining viewers that enjoy your stream.
But enough chitchat. You’re here because you want to get your panel configured and embedded onto your Twitch page. Let’s make that happen.
Configuring your Stream Schedule and Countdown widget
The first thing that you’ll need to do is to head over to the Twitch website and log in. Head to your dashboard and click on “extensions” on the left-hand side. Search for the extension by typing in “schedule”, which will filter the results. You’re looking for the “Streamlabs Stream Schedule and Countdown”. Hunt it down (or just click our handy link) and hit the install button.
If all goes well, you’ll see a pop-up to confirm that the extension has been successfully installed. But you’ll still need to configure and activate it before you can use it. Hit the configure button and start setting up the options.
The first thing to configure is the color of the text. If you want to build your channel brand then specifying the colors here is a great way to do just that.
Whatever color you use for your avatar or channel headers, match the color here by specifying its hexadecimal value.
Creating your Schedule
Next, it’s time to start adding the scheduled start times, for each of the days of the week. It’s important to make sure that you’re setting up a schedule that you can commit to. Uncheck any days that you’re not going to stream on and specify only the hours you plan on streaming on a regular basis.
While we’re at it, it’s also worth noting that you can set a stream break. This is important for scheduled holidays or other times that you’re not going to be able to stick to your schedule. It allows you to put the extension on hold temporarily.
This next step is the most important step of all: it’s time to specify your local time zone. If you don’t do this then the extension won’t be able to convert the times from your time zone to those of your viewers. Twitch will take this from your visitors’ computer clocks. You can be pretty sure that they’ll see the right times when they view the schedule.
With your time zone specified and your settings saved. Click the little back arrow to go back to the extensions page. Here you should see that you have successfully installed the Streamlabs Stream Schedule and Countdown widget. All that’s left to do is to click the “activate” drop-down to make it live to the public. You can choose to either add it to an existing panel or add it as a new panel.
If everything worked as it’s supposed to then you should see a pop-up confirming that the extension is now active. So head over to your channel page and check it out!
What’s Next?
Head over to your channel page. The newly-configured stream schedule should show, along with the countdown to the next stream. This will display to all of your viewers. So if they visit your page and you’re not streaming, then they’ll see a schedule and a full countdown. If you’re streaming, they’ll still see the schedule but it’ll also show that you’re currently live.
With a bit of luck, you’ve been able to follow along with this article. And you now have a streaming schedule embedded right there on your Twitch page. The good news is that if you stick to the schedule, you’ll soon see your streaming audience start to grow.
If you want to find out more about growing your audience as a streamer, why not check out our guide on Networking on Twitch.