You’re sitting there, watching a high-stakes gaming marathon or a late-night tech talk, and the chat is moving like a waterfall. Suddenly, someone drops a comment so insightful—or maybe just so chaotic—that you think, "I need to see what this person is about." You click their name. Nothing happens. You try again. Still nothing.
It’s frustrating.
YouTube has a weird history with how it handles user profiles in the middle of a live stream. Sometimes it feels like they want to keep you locked into the video at all costs, even if that means making it a chore to check out a fellow viewer. But honestly, as of 2026, the process has settled into a specific rhythm that varies depending on whether you're leaning back with your laptop or clutching your phone.
The Desktop Click-and-Go Trick
Most people assume you just click the profile picture and you're gone. On a computer, that’s actually not quite right. If you just left-click a name in the heat of a live broadcast, YouTube usually opens a small "user card" or a pop-up menu instead of whisking you away to a new tab. This is actually a safety feature so you don't accidentally close a live stream you paid for (or one that’s about to hit a climax).
To see someone channel in the yt live chat while on a desktop browser, you want to look for the three dots (vertical ellipsis) that appear when you hover your mouse over their message.
Click those dots.
A tiny menu will slide out. You’re looking for "Go to channel." In many updated 2026 browser versions, you can also just right-click their username and select "Open link in new tab." This is the pro move. It lets the stream keep playing while you snoop through their uploads in the background. If you're a moderator, you actually get a more detailed view here, showing you their recent chat history in that specific stream, which is pretty handy for spotting bots.
Mobile Users: It’s All About the Long Press
On the YouTube app—whether you’re on an iPhone or an Android—the screen real estate is tiny. If everyone could just tap a name and leave the stream, creators would lose half their audience to accidental clicks.
So, here is how you handle it on mobile:
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- Tap the specific message sent by the person you're interested in. Just a quick, firm tap.
- A bottom sheet (that little menu that slides up from the floor of your screen) will appear.
- You’ll see their avatar, their handle (like @User123), and a big button that says "View Channel."
Sometimes, if the chat is moving too fast, you might miss the hit box. If that happens, try pausing the chat. You can usually do this by just scrolling up a tiny bit; most versions of the app will stop the "auto-scroll" the moment you manually move the feed. Once it's still, you can tap with precision.
Why can't I see their channel sometimes?
There are a few "gotchas." First, if a user has a "brand account" with no public content or if they’ve set their profile to be completely private, the "Go to channel" button might lead to a page that looks like a ghost town.
More importantly, if the person has been timed out or hidden by a moderator right as you click, the link might break. YouTube’s 2026 moderation AI is fast. Sometimes a troll's message stays on your screen for a second after they’ve been nuked from the platform. If you click it and get an error, they’re probably already gone.
The "New" 2026 User Preview Feature
YouTube recently started rolling out a feature called "Live Cards." This is basically a mini-profile that appears without leaving the chat. When you click a name now, instead of a blank menu, you might see:
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- Their total subscriber count (if public).
- How long they’ve been a member of the channel you’re currently watching.
- A "Common Interests" tag if you both subscribe to the same big creators.
This makes it way easier to tell if someone is a regular or just a random passerby without having to actually navigate away. It saves a ton of time.
A Quick Word on Privacy
Keep in mind that when you go to see someone channel in the yt live chat, you're only seeing what they've allowed to be public. If they have their "Subscriptions" set to private, you won't see that you both love the same obscure synth-wave channel.
Actionable Next Steps
If you're trying to find a specific person and the chat is just too fast to click, try these steps:
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- Switch to "Top Chat" instead of "Live Chat." This filters out the "spam" and makes the individual messages stay on screen for a few milliseconds longer.
- Use the Search History. If you miss the click, wait for the stream to end. Once the VOD (Video on Demand) finishes processing, the "Chat Replay" allows you to scrub through the timeline and click names at your own pace.
- Check the "Members" list. If the person has a badge next to their name, they are a channel member. On the desktop version, you can sometimes see a list of top members in the "About" or "Community" tabs, which is a slower, easier way to find a profile.
Don't let a fast-moving chat stop you from connecting with the community. Just remember: dots on desktop, tap on mobile.