A live X ticker in your stream is a browser source with a transparent background. Once you have a share link it takes about two minutes to set up, and it costs nothing beyond your existing plan. This guide gives you the exact URL format, the dimensions that work, and the two OBS settings that break it if you get them wrong.
What you need before you open OBS
One thing, and it is the step most guides skip: a share link.
OBS loads your ticker in its own browser, and that browser is not signed in to your account. If you paste the plain ticker address into a browser source you will get a redirect to the login page and a blank layer in your scene. The share link is what lets an unauthenticated browser display your feed.
Open your dashboard, pick the accounts you want on screen, and create a group. That generates an eight character share ID. Your OBS address is that ID plus one parameter:
https://tweetticker.com/ticker/?share=YOUR_ID&bg=clearThe bg=clear parameter is the part that matters for streaming. It renders the page with a genuinely transparent background rather than a black one, so OBS composites the cards straight over your gameplay or camera. Without it you get an opaque black slab sitting on top of your scene.
You need the parameter in the URL rather than the on screen control because OBS gives every browser source its own isolated storage. A setting you picked in your own browser does not carry across. The URL is the only thing that travels.
Adding the browser source
- In the Sources panel for your scene, click the plus icon and choose Browser.
- Name it something you will recognise later, like Ticker.
- Paste your share URL into the URL field.
- Set Width to 1920 and Height to 200 for a single lane strip along the bottom.
- Leave the Custom CSS box empty. The transparent background is already handled by the URL, and anything you add here fights it.
- Click OK, then drag the layer to sit where you want it.
Height is the setting people get wrong. A browser source renders at the size you give it, so a 1080 pixel tall source will draw the full stacked layout and you will be cropping most of it away. Match the height to the number of lanes you actually want visible.
Sizing by layout
| Layout | Width | Height | Lanes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower third strip | 1920 | 200 | 1 |
| Two line band | 1920 | 340 | 2 |
| Right hand rail | 620 | 1080 | 3 |
| Full second screen | 1920 | 1080 | 6 to 12 |
Lane count is set on the ticker itself before you generate the share link, and it is capped by your plan. The Personal tier gives you one lane, which is enough for a lower third and nothing else. Basic gives you three, which covers the rail layout. Twelve lanes needs Pro.
Two settings that will break it
In the browser source properties there are two checkboxes worth understanding, because the defaults are wrong for a ticker.
Shutdown source when not visible. Leave this off. With it on, OBS destroys the browser every time you switch scenes and rebuilds it when you come back. Your ticker restarts from an empty state and takes a few seconds to repopulate, which viewers see as a blank bar.
Refresh browser when scene becomes active. Also off, for the same reason. The ticker already pulls fresh posts on its own roughly every thirty seconds. Forcing a reload on every scene change throws away the content it has already collected and gains you nothing.
Why a ticker instead of an on screen phone
Plenty of streamers read posts off a second monitor and narrate them. That works, but it puts the pace of the stream on you. A ticker moves on its own, so breaking news arrives whether or not you are looking, and your audience reads it at the same moment you do. For a news, trading, or sports stream that shared timing is most of the value.
It also removes the thing nobody wants on camera, which is your actual timeline. No notifications, no direct messages, no algorithmic recommendations wandering into frame. Only the accounts you chose.
Things that catch people out
Hover to pause does not work in OBS. On the web you can rest your cursor on a lane to freeze it and read. A browser source has no mouse, so that feature is unavailable while streaming. If you want to hold on a story, use a slower speed rather than reaching for a pause you cannot trigger.
The background is transparent, not white. If you preview the share URL in a normal browser tab it will look white, because that is what a browser shows behind a transparent page. Judge it inside OBS, over your actual scene, not in a tab.
Speed reads faster on stream than on a desktop. Your viewers are often watching at a smaller size than you are editing at, sometimes on a phone. A pace that feels comfortable on a 27 inch monitor can be unreadable at 400 pixels wide. Start one step slower than you think you want.
Using it as a green screen layer instead
Some switchers and older capture setups do not honour alpha channels. If yours is one of them, put a chroma colour in the same parameter and key it out downstream:
https://tweetticker.com/ticker/?share=YOUR_ID&bg=00b140That is broadcast chroma green. The cards stay dark and readable, and only the backdrop keys out. Any six digit hex works in that parameter, so if your setup keys on blue instead, use that.
Common questions
Does this work in Streamlabs or vMix?
Yes. Anything with a browser or web source takes the same URL. Streamlabs handles transparency the same way OBS does. vMix works too, though on some versions the green screen variant is more reliable than alpha.
Will it slow my stream down?
A browser source costs some CPU, and a ticker is a moving layer so it is not free. On modern hardware the impact is small. If you are already close to your encoding limit, use fewer lanes and a smaller source height before you drop other scene elements.
Can I change accounts without touching OBS?
Yes. The share link points at a saved group, so editing that group updates what appears in the browser source. The URL in OBS stays the same.
Is the share link public?
Anyone holding it can view that ticker, so treat it like an unlisted link rather than a password protected one. It only exposes the feed you built, not your account.
Getting it on screen
Build the group first, take the share ID, add &bg=clear, and drop it into a browser source at 1920 by 200. That covers most streams. Everything after that is positioning and speed, and both are quicker to judge live than in advance.
If you are still choosing accounts to follow, the roundups for finance and breaking news are a reasonable starting point, and you can swap them out later without rebuilding the source.
TT Staff
The TweetTicker Editorial Team provides real-time insights for high-velocity data environments.