Live collaboration

Live collaboration lets you edit a lesson together with other people at the same time. Everyone sees the others' changes as they happen, can see where the others are working, and can talk in a chat panel beside the lesson.

You need to be signed in to start or join a session.

See it in action

Two practitioners editing one lesson. Maya, on the left, starts a session and sends Daniel the invite link. It arrives in his notifications, he asks to join, and she adds him. Then each sees the other's edits as they type, and they talk in the session chat. Both people are made up; the lesson is a real one from the hub.

Starting a session

Whoever starts a session is its host. Everyone else is a guest.

1. Open the lesson in the editor and press Collaborate in the toolbar.
2. Press Start a collaboration session. You get a session code, with Copy code and Copy invite link buttons. Send link sends the invite to someone by their email address, with an optional message. It appears in their notifications the next time they're signed in.
3. When someone joins, they appear under Waiting to join. Press the add button beside them (a person with a plus sign; its tooltip says Add to lesson) to let them in, or the X (Decline) to turn them away. An AI assistant's request is marked AI. Nobody sees the lesson, or anyone's edits, until you add them.
4. Everyone you've added is listed under In this lesson. You can Remove from lesson at any time.
5. Press End session when you're done.

Trusted collaborators

The Trusted collaborators list in the same panel is a list of email addresses saved with the lesson. Each time you start a session, everyone on it is sent the invite link automatically (it arrives in their notifications), and when they join they're let straight in without waiting for you. The list itself is never shown to anyone else in the session.

Being on the list matters outside live sessions too. A trusted collaborator can save changes to the lesson, and can review and merge proposed changes to it, alongside the author.

Joining a session

Open the invite link you were sent, or press Collaborate, paste the code under Join someone's lesson, and press Join. You'll see "Connected. Waiting for the host to add you to the lesson." until the host adds you.

Once you're added, the editor saves the lesson you had open and opens the host's lesson as a new lesson in your library. Your own lesson is never overwritten or mixed with the host's. The session's copy stays in your library after the session ends. It's a copy of your own, so publishing it makes a new lesson in the hub rather than updating the host's.

If you open or start a different lesson while that is still saving, your choice wins and you leave the session with a message saying so, rather than have the host's lesson land in the lesson you just opened.

Editing together

• Changes are merged. Two people working on different sections, blocks or fields both keep their work.
• The same field at the same time. If two people type into the same field at once (the same question, say, or the same text block), one version wins and everyone ends up seeing that one. A whole text block counts as one field, formatting and all. Working on different blocks, which is the usual case, always merges.
• Cursors. You can see where each person is working, as a colored marker with their name. Inside a text block a marker can sit a few characters off for a moment while someone is mid-word.
• Folded sections. You won't see someone's marker inside a section you've folded away, though their edits still arrive. Folding only changes your own view, never anyone else's.
• AI assistants. An AI assistant can join a session through someone's account. It's listed with an AI badge, and the host adds or removes it like anyone else. See Live sessions with an AI assistant.

Chat

Once you're in a session, a chat button sits at the bottom left of the screen (Open chat). It appears for the host as soon as the session is live, and for a guest once the host has added them. A badge on the button counts unread messages while the panel is closed.

Chat isn't saved anywhere. The messages last only as long as the session.

Who gets credit

Changes made in a session go into the lesson's version history like any other edit. Everyone whose edits made it into a version is credited on it, so the history reads something like "Alex, with Sam and Priya". Someone who only watched isn't credited.

Limits

• Up to 10 people in one session, host included.
• You can host up to 6 sessions at once, and join or start at most 5 a minute.
• Chat allows up to 2 messages a second, each up to 2,000 characters.
• Very fast bursts of edits or cursor moves are slowed down, and a connection that keeps flooding a session is closed. Normal editing never comes close.

For how live collaboration works underneath, see the developer notes on live collaboration.