Question regarding channels/:channel/follows

[zerocarbthirty]

Hey everyone thanks so much for any assistance with this issue.

I have been watching for new followers using channels/:channel/follows and I notice that no matter how often I pull the list for a specific channel, the new follows seem to appear on the list in bursts and the time that they appear in the list don’t match the created_at time on users/:user/follows/channels/:channel

here are some example timestamps of when the API reports a follow vs when it actually appears in the list:

UTC channels/:channel UTC users/:user/follows/channels/:channel

(11/3/2016 1:35:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:32:52+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:35:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:31:03+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:41:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:39:32+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:41:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:38:27+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:41:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:36:38+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:41:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:36:17+00:00
(11/3/2016 1:41:21 PM) 2016-11-03T13:34:50+00:00

I know there is some way to get follows in real time because streamlabs and other bots do it all of the time, can anyone let me know what I might be doing incorrectly?

Incase it helps this is actually the code I am using to pull the information:

https://github.com/swiftyspiffy/TwitchLib/blob/master/TwitchLib/Services/FollowerService.cs

[DallasNChains]

You’re not doing anything incorrectly. All endpoints are cached from 1 - 3 minutes. StreamLabs and all other users of the API are under the same restrictions on the API. Here are the other threads about this same issue:

Follower Notification Issue

Other Broadcasters can get follower notices within 20 seconds, I timed it. If the API only updates every minutes, how is this possible? I use a new WebClient each request. I’m requesting every minute. It still took almost 4 minutes before the API gave me the updated followers when checking this link https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/channels/[channelName]/follows?limit=100 If the API is the only way to get new follower notifications, then why does it take my request almost 4 minutes to get updated, …

Quickest Follower Notification?

I noticed some bots seem to know when there is a new follower fairly quickly, much quicker than it seems the API updates. Is there some other way of detecting new followers immediately?

[zerocarbthirty]

So, I have been in some channels that do text follow notification and it generally takes 1-2 seconds before the bot says “Thanks for following… blah blah blah” on stream alerts are usually 10-15 seconds (i assumed this was due to the 10 second delay). I don’t think I have ever seen it take anywhere near a minute for a streamlabs alert/text bot alert to fire unless there are many many alerts queued.

There is no follow alert sent in the IRC interface is there? I know some things are handled differently in there.