Conversational Chat Circles: Being All Here Without Having to Hear It All

Live streaming services are a growing form of social media. Most live streaming platforms allow viewers to communicate with each other and the broadcaster via a text chat. However, interaction in a text chat does not work well with too many users. Existing techniques to make text chat work with a larger number of participants often limit who can participate or how much users can participate. In this paper, we describe a new design for a text chat system that allows more people to participate without overwhelming users with too many messages. Our design strategically limits the number of messages a user sees based on the concept of neighborhoods, and emphasizes important messages through upvoting. We present a study comparing our system to a chat system similar to those found in commercial streaming services. Results of the study indicate that the Conversational Circle system is easier to understand and interact with, while supporting community among viewers and highlighting important content for the streamer.