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An brief introduction to Truffle and Truffle apps |
Welcome to the Truffle Developer Platform docs! If you are looking at these docs, you probably want an easy cross-platform way to create interactive experiences for creators and their viewers.
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Snuffle the pig hacking into the mainframe
Truffle is the platform that connects online content creators with their followers. With Truffle, you're not a Youtuber, a Twitch streamer, or a TikToker, you're a creator. Viewers can install the Truffle Browser Extension to use Truffle Apps on various different content pages that belong to the creator. These apps can appear on a creators Youtube video, Youtube stream or Twitch stream.
Truffle apps are collections of features that creators can install to interact with their followers. I know that sounds a little vague, so let me give you a couple concrete examples.
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Custom chat
Custom Chat is one of our earliest and most popular Truffle apps. It allows viewers to participate in an enhanced, cross platform chat. It works on both Youtube and Twitch, so if you're a cross platform streamer, you'll want Custom Chat.
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Polls
Polls is another popular app. The Polls app allows you to create real-time polls that your viewers can respond to. You can pose a question, offer some options, and specify a voting period for your viewers to respond. When the voting period ends, you and your viewers will see what the most popular option was!
Truffle currently only supports Twitch and YouTube for 3rd party apps. We're exploring expansions to other platforms like Kick or any other site, based on community interest (so reach out if you are interested).
The Truffle browser extension is currently only supported on Firefox and Chromium based browsers.
Right now, apps can have two main components: Embeds and Economic Features.
Embeds allow developers to embed their web app directly into a creator's content page (e.g. a Youtube or Twitch video or stream). Custom chat, for example, gets embedded where the normal Youtube or Twitch chat would be. The Polls embed doesn't get embedded anywhere specific on the page, but rather appears as a window that can be opened through the Truffle Sidebar. These are called Windowed Embeds.
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The polls app being opened from the sidebar
There's a lot to talk about Embeds, so we'll discuss them more in a later section.
Economic Features allow users to buy, sell, and trade different items and virtual currencies. Sparks are Truffle's primary premium currency that viewers can buy with a credit card. You can then offer Products for viewers to buy using Sparks. If you want to issue your own virtual currency, you can create a Countable in your app and decide how viewers earn that currency. Maybe you make a game where viewers must collect coins that they can spend on other items. The world is your oyster!
Again, there's a lot to discuss about the Economic Features in an app, so we'll save the deets for a later section.
I could talk all day about how great Truffle is, but I'm guessing you want to get your hands dirty and make something. We'll do that in the next section!