Replay the last hour

Play the last hour replays the building of a shared room. It shows the canvas changing over time, so you can see how a group of nodes and links took shape.

This is a replay of canvas history. It does not create a Pixl animation or save a screen recording.

Start a replay#

The room’s host sees Play the last hour in its chat view when the room supports replay. Other viewers can watch but do not get the host’s start button.

Pressing the button starts the same replay window for viewers connected to that room. Their screens use a shared start time rather than each beginning a new hour when its download finishes.

The standard button requests 60-times speed, so a full hour takes about a minute. A room shared less than an hour ago has a shorter window: the replay starts no earlier than the room’s sharing time.

Starting a replay affects the room’s viewers. Use it when the people in the room are ready to watch the building history together.

What you see#

The replay opens over the canvas. It starts with Loading the shared canvas replay…, then shows a canvas and a time indicating the room’s moment being replayed. At the end it says Replay finished.

The initial picture represents the canvas at the start of the replay window. Changes during that window then build on it. It does not rewind through the room’s private construction before sharing.

The replay follows canvas changes such as adding, moving and changing nodes and links. Chat messages are left out. A chat line someone kept as a canvas node can appear in its role as a node.

Content currently removed or quarantined is omitted from the replay. The replay is therefore a view of the available canvas history, rather than a way to retrieve every object that ever appeared.

Return to the canvas#

Press Return to live canvas at any point. This closes your replay view and returns your screen to the live room. It does not undo the room’s changes or stop other viewers’ replay views.

Changing side-panel tabs does not itself cancel the replay. The replay view is associated with the room’s canvas, so moving to another room does not place that old replay over the new room.

Limits and unavailable replays#

A replay holds at most 25,000 history entries. If its window reaches that limit, the screen says This replay reached its entry limit. Treat that as an incomplete replay of a busy window.

Only eligible shared rooms can supply replay history. If the room is no longer shared or cannot supply the window, the view can say This shared canvas replay is unavailable. Return to the live canvas, check that you are in the intended shared room and try again if appropriate.

There is no replay timeline, scrubber or file-download control in this view. Return to live canvas remains the exit if loading fails or you are finished watching.