VioletWire
Followed and live channels
Your follows split into live and offline, with thumbnails, categories, viewers, and uptime. Right-click to favorite a channel and it gets a star and sits at the top of its group.
VioletWire
A better way to watch Twitch on Windows.
A desktop Twitch client built with Electron and React that behaves like a real Windows app instead of a browser in a box. Followed channels, native playback, up to four streams at once, and chat with the emotes you actually use.
Windows 10 and 11 · Free and open source · alpha
Features
Everything you need, nothing you don't
Built around how people actually watch: check who's live, open a stream fast, and keep chat readable.
Sign in with Twitch, properly
Twitch's official Device Code flow, so you never type a password into VioletWire. Tokens are encrypted with Windows DPAPI, and signing out removes them. Public streams work without an account at all.
Playback that stays out of the way
Quality selection, theater mode, fullscreen, keyboard controls, and a volume level that's remembered between streams. Controls fade out on their own, with a delay you can set.
Two player modes, plus multistream
Use Twitch's own player for maximum compatibility, or the experimental Native player built on Streamlink and mpv. Native mode also runs up to four streams in one grid, with audio focused on whichever tile you pick.
Chat that isn't an afterthought
Read and send messages with badges, colors, reply threads, and moderation events. Click a name for a profile card, get autocomplete for users and emotes, and pick a sound for mentions.
7TV, FFZ, BetterTTV, and Twitch emotes
Global and channel emotes from all four, in a searchable picker grouped by provider, with favorites and a size you can adjust. Hover any emote to see where it came from.
Local-first, no accounts of ours
There is no VioletWire server and no VioletWire user database. Settings live in a file on your PC, and the app talks to Twitch and the emote providers directly — nothing is routed through us.
About ads
VioletWire does not include an ad blocker and does not route playback through a third-party proxy. Twitch stitches ads into the stream itself, so expect to see them in both player modes. Turbo and channel subscriptions are the supported way to avoid them.
Screenshots
A look around
Pick a view below, or select the image to see it full size.
Download
Get VioletWire
A standard Windows installer. VioletWire is alpha software — things work, but expect rough edges.
VioletWire for Windows alpha
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The installer bundles the Streamlink and mpv runtimes the Native player needs, so there's nothing else to set up.
- The alpha installer isn't code signed yet, so Windows may show an unknown-publisher warning. Signing is planned before a wider release.
- Installed builds check GitHub for updates on launch and every six hours, and ask before restarting.
- Windows only for now. Linux support may come later, but it isn't being worked on yet — the Native player leans on Windows-specific graphics APIs.
Support
Chip in, if you want to
VioletWire is free and always will be. Support goes toward development tools, code signing, hosting, and the other small costs of keeping the project going. Entirely optional.
GitHub Sponsors
One-off or monthly, handled entirely through GitHub with no extra account to make.
Sponsor on GitHubKo-fi
A one-time tip, if that's more your speed. No account needed to send one.
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