Live Comments

Real-time messages, reactions, or feedback posted by users on a social media platform during a live broadcast, live video stream, or kind of live content, are called Live Comments. They allow viewers to engage actively and in real-time with the creator, host, or other participants involved in the event. Such comments are generally located right beside or underneath the live content itself, going back to the host and being visible to the audience.

The result is something very much like a communal space where communication can be immediate, content can be readjusted as needed, and the event can carry on in a rather pointed and directed way. Live Comments can take on various forms: the undulating 'waves' of emojis that a viewer can send through to the host; question-and-answer opportunities; or more direct chat-like forms of content that allow for more pointed conversation. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube have made these sorts of opportunities part of their basic functionalities.

Twitch may be the best model in terms of spaces where events can be 'readjusted on the fly,' with comments that tend to be more pointed and serve, sometimes, as navigational tools to help audiences better understand the 'plot' of an event.