How to host or raid another channel on Twitch.tv using simple commands!
To host a channel its pretty simple, go to your chat room from your channel and type /host Channel
Replace Channel with the one you want to host.
If you do this successfully, the channel you are hosting will get a message show up in chat saying "*Channel* is now hosting you for X viewers."
Another way to know if you are currently hosting a channel is to check on your broadcaster dashboard page. It will show a box in the chat window saying, "hosting channel".
If you are receiving a host by many channels and what to know which, you can check this by looking at the dashboard page for the host panel. Click on the "Host" and a list will show all the channels.

Its recommended not to randomly host others with out permission first. Ask the broadcaster if they want to be hosted before you trigger it.
Here is a list of pros and cons of hosting.
PROs
- Great for team building between different channels and different timezones.
- Team groups can boost members ahead of non teams casters for the gaming category.
- Can be use to influence other broadcasters for networking.
- Coupled with loyalty systems, hosting can be turned into a weird legit viewbot boost tactic.
CONs
If you do not have permission before hand and host a channel that didn't want to be hosted they can report you.
Other
Be very aware of casters who use loyalty systems and host your channel.
Loyalty channels have a huge amount of viewers who will sit in channels just to collect tokens. These casters know this and use this to influence or in a sense bribe other channels for a vast variety of things.
Update 11/14/2017
A new command has just been introduced called
RAID and is available to be used by all broadcasts on Twitch.
The new command is similar to the /host command, but instead of /host channel name its /raid channel name.
Viewers will see a countdown progress meter to which they can join the raiding of the target channel.
All the PRO's and CON's that were previously listed for hosting apply to raid also, since its basically the same mechanic.
If you want to prevent raids to your channel, they have added the option to do that in the dashboard.
Go to your Dashboard, then click on SETTINGS, then RAIDS under Raid Preferences.
Other additional options:
- Allow all incoming raids
- Allow only raids from friends, teammates and followed channels
- Disable incoming raids