FAQ
The questions with awkward answers, first
You would find all of this out in your first week. Finding it out now is cheaper for both of us.
What it needs
What do I actually need to run this?
OBS Studio 28 or newer on Windows 10 or 11, recording locally, and the Aftercast desktop app on that same machine. OBS 28 is the first version with the WebSocket server built in, which is how the app knows when you start and stop.
Is there a Mac or Linux version?
Not for the capture app — it is Windows only today. The dashboard is a website and works anywhere, so you can review and publish from any machine; the recording has to happen on Windows.
Can OBS run on a separate PC from the one I use?
Yes. Point the desktop app at that machine's address and allow the OBS WebSocket port through its firewall. The app itself has to run on the machine doing the recording, because that is where the footage is.
Do I have to link Twitch?
It works without it, but not well. Chat and channel events — follows, subs, cheers, raids — are most of what detection reads. Unlinked, you are left with audio, game logs and your own markers, and the list of candidates gets thin. If you sign up and see almost no candidates, this is almost always why.
Does streaming start a session?
No — recording does. Aftercast cuts clips out of your local recording, so a stream with nothing being recorded has nothing to cut from. This catches people out more than anything else on this page.
Your footage
Do you upload my whole stream?
No. Only short segments around scored moments are uploaded, plus a compressed audio track used for the transcript. The recording itself stays on your PC.
Uploading the full file is a setting, off by default. Turned on, it runs in hours you choose and throttles if you happen to be recording at the time — it is gigabytes per stream, and it should be your decision rather than a default.
What if my capture PC is off when the stream ends?
The session waits in footage_pending and the segments are requested again when that machine reconnects. Nothing is lost; it just is not ready to review yet.
Why are my clips cut a few seconds off?
Usually the recording format. A plain MP4 that is still being written cannot be seeked precisely, so a clip cut mid-stream lands in the wrong place. Switch OBS to MKV or fragmented MP4 under Settings → Output → Recording — which also means a crash leaves you with a recoverable file instead of an unusable one.
How long do you keep anything?
Transcription audio for a day, uploaded segments and archived recordings for 30 days, finished clips for 180. Those are storage lifecycle rules rather than a promise to tidy up later. Details, plus export and deletion, are on the security page.
How it picks moments
Does it predict which clips will go viral?
No, and it is worth being blunt about that. The best-known virality score in this category still has roughly two in five of its clips discarded by the people using it.
Aftercast's score says something narrower and checkable: several independent things happened at this second and real people reacted. Every candidate lists which signals produced it, so you can judge the reasoning rather than a number.
What counts as a signal?
Chat activity (message rate, unique chatters, emote density — including 7TV, BetterTTV and FrankerFaceZ emotes), channel events, events from a supported game's local log files, audio, and your own markers. Signals of different kinds happening together score higher than one kind repeating.
My marker hotkey does nothing.
Another program has almost certainly registered the same combination first, in which case Windows never hands it to us. The desktop app's setup check reports whether the hotkey actually registered, and you can pick a different one. The Mark moment button on the dashboard works regardless.
Can I change how long a clip is?
Yes. Clips are cut with a lead-in before the moment and a tail after it, because the setup usually matters as much as the payoff, and you can trim both ends when reviewing.
Publishing and your team
Where can it post?
TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, on a schedule with cadence guardrails. Twitch, YouTube, Kick, TikTok and Instagram can all be connected — Twitch and Kick are also where chat and channel events come from.
Are the AI titles and captions posted automatically?
They are drafted automatically and they are suggestions. They are wrong sometimes. You are responsible for what goes out under your name, whether or not a machine drafted it — read anything before it publishes.
Can my editor use it without seeing my billing?
Yes, on the Staff plan. Owner, admin and member roles, with an audit trail. Nobody can invite someone at a higher role than their own.
I invited someone and they got no email.
Expected. No mail provider is wired up for invites yet, so inviting someone produces a link for you to send them yourself; it expires after seven days. If they already have an Aftercast account they are added straight away and there is no link at all.
The product itself
How finished is this?
Early. The capture, detection, review and publishing path works end to end; parts of the wider catalogue are newer and will have rough edges. It is provided as it is, with no warranty — keep your own recordings and do not make Aftercast the only copy of anything you care about. The terms say the same, at greater length.
Who owns the clips?
You do. Your recordings, clips, transcripts and everything derived from them stay yours. We claim no ownership and no licence to publish, display or resell them, and we do not use your data to train models.
Does it cost more if I stream a lot?
No. The plan price is the price — no per-minute metering and no credits. See pricing.
My question is not here.
Send it to us, or email hello@aftercast.live. If you are already using the product, the full guides are in the dashboard under Help.
Still the only way to know is to run one stream through it
Detection either agrees with your instincts or it does not. Nothing on this page settles that, and one evening does.
Free plan, no card. You need OBS 28 or newer on Windows 10 or 11.