What's new in Kaiku

The latest updates to the Kaiku desktop app. It installs updates itself, so you'll get these automatically.

Version 0.15.0 — A fresh new look

2026-07-15

Kaiku has a brand-new look -- a sleek dark theme with a violet-to-cyan accent, a tidy 'kaiku' header, and restyled buttons, tabs, sliders and text boxes throughout. Same app, easier on the eyes.
Your Twitch Bits panel got the matching makeover too: a colourful header, lively alert tiles (with a soft animated glow before you add your own artwork), and gold Bits price tags so viewers can see at a glance what each alert costs.

Version 0.14.1 — Refined Bits alert pricing

2026-07-14

The Bits amounts you can charge for an alert now follow a cleaner ladder -- 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, and 10,000 Bits -- with a low price to start from and bigger tiers for your biggest fans.

Version 0.14.0 — Gif and video alerts in your overlay

2026-07-10

Show a gif or video as an on-screen alert in your OBS overlay -- with a sound if you want one. Add clips on the Library tab, pick where each one sits and how big, and trigger it from a channel-point reward, a Bits alert, or automatically on a follow, sub, cheer, or chat message. Videos can play their own audio, an alert can match the video's length automatically, and transparent (WebM) videos show through your scene.
One-click starter blocklists: apply a ready-made English or Finnish set of words Kaiku won't read aloud, then trim it to taste.
Friendlier errors and tidier windows: when a second PC can't be reached for voice work you get a plain-language message with how to fix it (in a pop-up you can actually read), the Rewards / Bits / Blocked-words windows now stay in front of the main window, and long status messages are no longer cut off.

Version 0.13.0 — Let another PC do the talking, and Kaiku comes to Mac

2026-07-10

Run the voice engine on a second computer on your home network, so heavy voice work doesn't have to compete with your game or stream on your main PC. There's nothing to set up: flip on 'Let other PCs synthesize here' on the spare machine and it shows up automatically in a 'Synthesize on' picker on your streaming PC -- no IP addresses to type.
Kaiku now runs on macOS (Apple Silicon), using the Mac's graphics chip for faster speech.
Steadier speech on the graphics card: if a line ever wedges the GPU, Kaiku now switches that one line to the reliable processor path within a few seconds instead of stalling -- and it no longer leaves voice-engine helpers running in the background after you close the app, which could slow your machine down over time.

Version 0.12.2 — Fast-mode reliability fixes

2026-07-08

Fast mode holds up better under pressure: if the voice engine ever stalls, Kaiku now recovers on its own -- and if it keeps failing, it quietly falls back to standard rendering (freeing the graphics memory it was holding) instead of freezing or getting stuck retrying. A single troublesome message can no longer make it thrash.
Fixed a rare case where a message could be read with the wrong words if a second copy of Kaiku was still shutting down in the background -- for example just after an update.

Version 0.12.1 — Stability and reliability fixes

2026-07-08

If the voice engine ever gets stuck (a graphics-driver hiccup), Kaiku now recovers on its own instead of freezing with a spinner that never finishes -- so one bad line can no longer lock up the whole app and stall your chat queue.
Reconnecting to Twitch or YouTube no longer occasionally reads the same message twice.
Voice-engine settings behave properly mid-stream: the Quality setting now works in Fast mode (before, switching it there did nothing), and changing Speed, Quality or Device while a chat line is being read aloud no longer glitches the audio or drops that line.
Rewards and Bits alerts set to the default voice now use the same steady voice every time, instead of a different random voice on each redemption.
A new 'Re-connect account' button fixes Twitch login or permission problems without reinstalling.
Assorted reliability polish: a blocked word in a viewer's name no longer appears on your on-stream caption, the Twitch and YouTube connection and login hold up better on shaky networks, and a mistyped message-wording template no longer quietly stops all reads.

Version 0.12.0 — Notification sounds for every alert, and a tidier layout

2026-07-07

Play a notification sound just before an alert is read aloud -- and pick a different one per event: chat, cheers, subs, follows, channel-point redeems, Super Chats and memberships. The sounds come from your own library and play at the same balanced level as everything else, so a familiar cue announces each message.
Your voices and sounds now have their own Library tab -- one place to add, preview, adjust the volume of, and remove every clip, instead of a separate pop-up window.
The 'About' tab is now 'Settings', gathering the set-once options in one place: your device (CPU or GPU), quality and speed, your blocked-words list, and all the global hotkeys.
You can now edit the message Kaiku posts to chat when the !tts command is on cooldown, so you can word it for your community or language.

Version 0.11.0 — A master mute switch and a hotkey for every toggle

2026-07-06

New TTS button mutes all automatic speech at once -- chat, cheers, subs, channel-point rewards and Bits alerts. Use it as a panic switch: it stops whatever is playing and clears the backlog (refunding any channel-point redemptions it couldn't read). Your own Speak button still works while muted.
Give the mute a global hotkey and you can silence -- or un-silence -- everything without leaving your game. The button turns red so a muted Kaiku is obvious at a glance.
Every read-aloud switch can now have its own optional global hotkey too: chat, redemptions, cheers, subs, follows, Super Chats and memberships, plus each platform's '!tts-only' mode. Flip any of them on or off mid-stream from inside a fullscreen game. They start unbound, so nothing grabs your keys until you set them under About.
Kaiku has a proper app icon now -- you'll see it on the taskbar, in every window's title bar and in the installer, in place of the old generic placeholder.

Version 0.10.0 — Much faster speech, ready-made voices, and reward hotkeys

2026-07-06

Speech starts almost instantly now: Kaiku keeps its voice engine warm in the background instead of spinning it up from scratch every time, so there's no more long wait before you hear a message.
Repeated lines play instantly -- Kaiku remembers recent speech and replays it without synthesizing it again.
Pick a ready-made voice: choose from built-in male and female voices, or 'Random' for a different speaker each time -- no need to record your own just to get started.
Finnish and English come out right: a message no longer flips to the wrong language just because a viewer's name looks English.
Adding your own cloned voice is easier -- Kaiku listens to your sample and writes down what's said for you, so you don't have to type the transcript by hand.
Turn your channel-point rewards off and on with a keyboard shortcut, even from inside a fullscreen game -- no alt-tabbing. It's off by default; switch it on and pick your keys under About (needs Twitch connected).

Version 0.9.0 — A customizable stream caption, and separate Twitch and YouTube limits

2026-07-05

Style your OBS caption to match any scene: add an optional background panel and a text outline for readability. The panel only appears while a caption is on screen.
Dial in the look -- text alignment, how many lines show, exact text size, boldness and an ALL-CAPS option -- with a live preview as you change it.
Colour-code captions by event type (chat, cheers, subs, follows, redemptions) and optionally show the speaker's name.
Choose how words appear and how long a caption stays up, with adjustable hold and fade timing.
Twitch and YouTube each get their own max message length, !tts cooldown and !tts-only setting now, so you can tune them per platform. Your blocked-words list is still shared across both.

Version 0.8.0 — Kaiku now works with YouTube

2026-07-04

Connect your YouTube channel and Kaiku reads your live chat aloud while you stream -- the same read-aloud you have on Twitch, now on YouTube too.
Super Chats and Super Stickers are read aloud with the amount, so paid messages stand out. Set a minimum so only tips above it are read.
New channel members and membership milestones get announced too.
A dedicated YouTube tab with the controls you already know: switch each event on or off, edit exactly what Kaiku says, and Test it. Your blocked-words list and voices apply here as well.
Run Twitch and YouTube at the same time -- both stream into the same voice queue.

Version 0.7.0 — Overlay audio, a custom caption look and a tidier window

2026-07-04

Your OBS overlay can now play the sound too: route the spoken message and sound effects through the overlay so OBS captures them cleanly. Pick where audio plays -- your speakers (App), the overlay only, or Both.
Style the on-stream caption to match your scene: choose its position (top, middle or bottom), size, font, and the text and highlight colours. Changes preview live.
Tidier main window: everything is organised into tabs (Speak, Twitch, Overlay and About), with an always-visible volume and skip bar, so even a small window reaches every control.
Each Twitch event is now one clear row -- switch it on or off, edit exactly what Kaiku says, and Test it, all in the same place.
New About tab: see your version, check for updates on demand, and jump to your data folder or log if you need them.

Version 0.6.0 — Bits alerts, bulk editing and handy fixes

2026-07-04

Bits alerts: viewers can now spend Bits in your Twitch extension panel to trigger a spoken message or a sound effect. Each alert tile has its own title, Bits price and action (a chosen voice, or a sound).
Give any Bits alert tile its own background image. Pictures are automatically checked and re-saved for safety before they're uploaded.
Word blocklist: choose words Kaiku will never read aloud. A blocked channel-point redemption is refunded automatically; a blocked chat, cheer or sub read is skipped.
Skip button: instantly stop whatever is currently being spoken.
Per-item volume: set how loud each individual voice or sound is.
Bulk editing: tick several channel rewards or Bits alerts at once and enable, disable, delete, or change their point/Bits cost together.
Friendlier !tts cooldown: chat now gets a single tidy notice saying how long to wait, instead of one message on every attempt.
Fix: your GPU / CPU choice now sticks across app updates instead of occasionally flipping back to CPU.

Version 0.5.0 — Managed channel-point rewards

2026-07-04

Create and manage channel-point rewards straight from Kaiku: a reward can read the redeemer's message in a voice you pick, or play a sound effect.
Kaiku fulfils or refunds each redemption automatically depending on whether it played, so viewers only lose points when it works.
Build a sound library you can reuse across rewards.

Version 0.4.0 — Chat cooldown and English defaults

2026-07-03

The !tts chat command can be rate-limited so a busy chat can't flood the audio.
Sensible English defaults out of the box.

Version 0.2.0 — OBS overlay and Twitch wording

2026-07-03

An OBS browser-source overlay that shows what's being read on stream.
Editable wording for each Twitch event (chat, redemption, cheer, sub, follow).