Review: What is Casterlabs Caffeinated and Does it Work?
For those who are into multistreaming, Casterlabs Caffeinated has tools that let you connect to the most popular platforms to accentuate your broadcasts. It’s a free app that you can run alongside your favorite streaming software while monitoring different channels simultaneously.
What piqued my interest most was bringing all of the chat windows into one location. That way, I can see YouTube and Twitch chatters at the same time without keeping a browser window open.
However, Casterlabs has more than just chat capabilities and is geared more toward the average and new streamer. It’s a bit different than Streamer.bot in the regard that it doesn’t have the advanced toolsets. Still, it has everything the average streamer might want and use to add a bit more pizzazz to the broadcast.
What, Exactly, is Casterlabs Caffeinated?
Casterlabs Caffeinated is a free program that you download and install on your computer to help you manage the chat and appearance elements of your stream. Its ease of use and connectivity to many platforms make it ideal for those who want to multistream their broadcasts.
The program also has the capacity to integrate with some of the most popular streaming tools such as Streamlabs Alerts and Ko-fi for donations and membership management.
For those who know a bit about JAVA, you can add your own custom plugins to Casterlabs Caffeinated through its SDK to accommodate virtually any need.
Currently, Casterlabs can connect to:
- Twitch
- YouTube
- Trovo
- DLive
- Kick
- TikTok
- and music services such as Spotify, System, and Pretzel (through Twitch)
With the popularity of the tool, I am betting that more streaming services will be added as time goes on.
The Functions of Casterlabs Caffeinated
Casterlabs doesn’t have all the bells-n-whistles that something like Streamer.bot has available. Its design is more for everyone rather than the advanced user. As such, it doesn’t have some of the more higher-level coding and management elements.
However, Caffeinated has a lot of tools that most streamers will use.
Let’s take a look at the features of Casterlabs Caffeinated, starting at the top of the program.
Dashboard
The Dashboard of Casterlabs is the main screen of what you want to see while streaming. You can choose from the screen being empty, Viewers List, Stream Chat, and Activity feed. It all depends on what is more important to you during a broadcast.
In my case, I’m using the program to pull all of the chat from all of the platforms into one viewable screen. Then again, I don’t have that many viewers, so it’s easy to keep up with chat.
In order to change the display, you have to unlock the Dashboard, which opens a drop-down list of what you can pull into the window.
NOTE: If you use Stream Chat and move to another view, you’ll have to change the chat options on the bottom left to include all or to select specific channels. Casterlabs will default the feed to your top streaming platform.
Chat Bot
The Chat Bot is an integrated response system for commands in chat. You can set up a variety of triggers, timers, and change whether to hide commands or hide certain accounts from chat.
What makes this tool great for multistreaming is that the Chat Bot will monitor the chat of any platform while streaming. This means you can add a “Shout” to chat when someone subscribes to YouTube or if someone donates money from Twitch all from a single screen.
Your commands can be simple replies when someone uses the exclamation point or you can run scripts.
Although you can do a lot of fun things with the Casterlabs Chat Bot, it does have its limitations for moderation. For instance, Nightbot can easily block links, block excess symbols, remove repetitions, and more with a simple flip of the switch. You don’t have those features available in Caffeinated.
You’ll have to learn scripts and create an executable for all instances that I just mentioned. It’s a bit of a pain, especially for new users, but it’s possible to set up.
Widgets & Alerts
If you want an alternative to Streamlabs Alerts, Casterlabs Caffeinated has you covered. Using images and sounds from your own computer system, you can create customized alerts for some or all of your connected platforms.
For example, you can add an alert to show during stream when someone follows your Twitch channel and a different alert when someone subscribes to your YouTube channel. You could go so far as to add the logo of the streaming service to differentiate the viewers.
Once you create the alert, you can then copy the link and use it as a browser source in your streaming software. Although Caffeinated is geared toward OBS Studio users, you can also use the same method for Streamlabs Desktop as they use an identical layout…as do many other streaming apps.
Alerts aren’t the only thing you can customize. You can also set up widgets for things like “Now Playing” or the “Cam Widget” for the multistream. Just keep in mind that some of the alerts and widgets are platform-specific. For instance, the “Subscriber Count” label is only available for Twitch, even if you have YouTube connected.
Although Caffeinated has all of the most popular labels available, Streamlabs has a much larger list of what you can display. But if you can do without some of those labels, Casterlabs can virtually replace the alerts and widgets from Streamlabs with a more customized appearance.
Docks
A Browser Dock lets you connect certain elements of a stream to the dashboard of OBS and similar streaming apps. That means you can add the chat from the video platform to the OBS preview window that only you can see and manage.
Casterlabs currently has docks for Viewers List, Stream Chat, and Activity Feed. That way, you can monitor those elements from the OBS Studio preview window instead of needing a new browser window open for such. In other words, it’ll cut down on desktop space as well as computer resources.
The process to add a Browser Dock is relatively simple. Just click the dock you want to use to copy the link, go to OBS (or another similar program), add a custom browser dock, add the link, and place the dock where you want it in the preview window.
Issues I’ve Had with Casterlabs Thus Far
So far, I’ve only had two distinct issues with Casterlabs Caffeinated. The first is the one I mentioned earlier about having to reset the chat screen.
If you use Stream Chat as your Dashboard and you move to any other window for any purpose, you have to change the service back to where you had it. This option is on the bottom left of the dashboard window.
This isn’t technically a deal-breaking issue and more is more of an annoyance.
The second issue I’ve had with Casterlabs is that the streaming services you connect will disconnect without warning. The first day I used Casterlabs Caffeinated, everything went smoothly. But today, both YouTube and Twitch disconnected at different times during the day.
I’m still not sure why they disconnected, but it was easy enough to reconnect them.
However, I am concerned about what this would mean if they randomly disconnected during a live stream. I’m not sure if Casterlabs will attempt a reconnect automatically like some other apps, or if the streamer will have to reconnect them manually during a broadcast.
This hasn’t happened to me during a stream yet, so I don’t know what will happen.
What Makes Casterlabs Ideal for Multistreaming?
With the exception of dropping connections, Casterlabs Caffeinated has a lot of benefits for the multistreamer. Most notable are the Stream Chat and Chat Bot functions. Both of these are designed to work in a multistream capacity while offering useful flexibility.
This is in addition to how easy it is to set up the app.
Another one of Casterlabs’s interesting features is being able to customize alerts. For those who are looking for a free and easy-to-use alternative to Streamlabs, Caffeinated gives you the necessary components to use your own images and sounds.
Just be mindful of copyright infringement. Unless you have Disturb’s explicit permission, playing part of “Down with the Sickness” when someone subscribes might land you in some hot legal water.
The best part of all this is that Casterlabs is free. All you need to do is download, install the app, and customize your settings.
What Is Your Favorite Multistreaming App?
Before Casterlabs, I was using Streamlabs Desktop and Streamer.bot. Streamlabs connects to multiple streaming services just as easily as Caffeinated, which makes it a great program for streaming. Caffeinated then brings all of the chats to one window. It’s easy and efficient.
I’m not sure if I would set up the Chat Bot, as I use others that double as moderation platforms. But, I could see adding a few commands that are specific to platforms through Casterlabs while still running those other moderating bots.
At the end of the day, Casterlabs is a great addition for anyone who wants to multistream. Its easy-to-use layout and features are great for anyone regardless of skill level.
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