Live rooms and presence

A live room lets you notice other people while exploring the same shared node. You may see their cursors moving, a room's online count, typing indicators and chat bubbles. These indicators describe activity in Glob Social, rather than a permanent attendance list.

A shared node has a room. Travelling into another shared node changes your current room. Your other open chat conversations can remain available alongside that canvas room.

Other people's cursors#

Signed-in people in the same room can appear as small arrows with their names. The arrows follow the canvas as you pan and zoom. Your own pointer is not drawn again as somebody else's cursor.

A room shows a limited selection of cursors, up to 24. In a busy room this is a selection of the people present, so the absence of a particular arrow does not establish that the person has left.

The pointer leaves this display when its person moves away from the canvas, changes to another tab or window, or stops being connected. A short interruption can make a cursor disappear even while the person is still reading.

Signed-out viewers do not appear as chat participants. Account safety settings also determine whether a person can be named in presence.

Named presence and online lists#

Open Settings → Privacy & security → Safety to review the two relevant controls:

• Show my name beside my cursor and in presence (turn off to appear anonymous) controls whether your account is identified through named presence. For an adult who has made no choice, it starts on.
• Show me as online controls whether your name and picture may appear in a node's online list. It starts off.

These are separate choices. Turning off the online-list choice does not turn off named cursors. Protected accounts have these controls locked off. Neither setting removes the name from a message you choose to send.

Chat-room activity#

Global, direct messages and group chats can show an exact count such as online in Global beneath their tabs. The Current room can instead show a broader here band. Do not compare these as if every display counted the same conversation or the same list of visible pictures.

A typing indicator appears while someone is writing and clears after a short pause. A join notice can appear for someone whose presence may be named. These notices are temporary; reloading the conversation is not a way to recover an attendance history.

Speak from the canvas#

With your pointer over the canvas and focus outside a text field, press Enter or /. A bar marked Chat on the canvas opens at the bottom. Type your line and press Enter to send. Escape closes the bar and discards its current draft.

A line sent this way makes a bubble above your cursor for about five seconds. In a shared node, it also goes to that node's chat if the room accepts it. At home, it goes to the home's chat where permitted. When there is no stored conversation available, it can remain only a temporary bubble.

Your own bubble appears immediately; that echo is not a delivery receipt. A refusal can retract it and reopen the bar with your text and an explanation. Lines typed in the ordinary chat panel do not create these cursor bubbles.

If activity stops updating#

After a connection interruption, Glob Social attempts to reconnect and join the room again. The available chat history is reloaded. A deliberate sign-out ends your participation.

If you can read old content but no new activity arrives, check your connection and reopen Chat. For a posting refusal, read the message under the composer; see Chat and Moderation and appeals.