Shared Rooms

Overview

A Shared Room turns a private conversation into a live, multi-person one. Everyone in the room sees the same messages and the same answers arrive at once — useful for research sessions, reviewing a document together, or any discussion where the whole group needs to be looking at the same thing at the same time.

Shared Rooms are a paid-plan feature: creating a room requires a paid account. People you invite can join and participate even on a free plan.

Creating a Room

Open a chat you'd like to turn into a Shared Room.
Look for the Create Room option in the session interface.
You'll get an invite link to share with the people you want in the room.

Room size

A room starts with room for 5 members by default, and can be raised up to 16 by the room's owner. Plan for the size you actually need — a smaller room keeps the conversation easier to follow.

Inviting people

There are two ways to bring someone into a room:

Share the invite link. Anyone with the link can join, up to the link's use limit. Links expire after a period of time and after a set number of uses, so generate a fresh one if an old link stops working.
Invite by email with a specific role. Instead of a generic link, you can invite a specific person by email and choose whether they join as an editor (can send messages) or a viewer (can read the conversation but not send messages).

Roles

Every member of a room has a role:

Owner — the person who created the room. Can archive the room and manage its settings.
Editor — can read and send messages, same as a normal participant.
Viewer — can read the conversation but cannot send messages. Useful for someone who needs to follow along without adding to the discussion.

Each participant is assigned a color when they join, so it's easy to tell who asked or said what as the conversation moves.

Closing and archiving a room

The room's owner can close a room when the discussion is done. A closed room becomes read-only for everyone, but it stays visible in everyone's chat list so the history isn't lost.
The owner can also archive a room. An archived room is removed from the sidebar for everyone, but nothing is deleted — the conversation itself is preserved.
Regular members (non-owners) cannot delete a shared room outright — since it's a shared conversation, only the owner can close or archive it. This protects everyone else in the room from losing a conversation they're also part of.

A worked example

Say you're researching a topic with two colleagues and want everyone looking at the same answers as you go.

Start a chat and browse to the page you want to discuss.
Click Create Room and copy the invite link.
Send the link to your two colleagues — one you want fully participating, the other just needs to follow along.
Instead of the link, you invite the second colleague by email as a viewer, so they can read but not accidentally derail the discussion with unrelated questions.
As everyone joins, each person's messages appear in their own color, so it's clear who asked what.
Once the research session wraps up, you close the room — the conversation stays visible to everyone as a reference, but no one can add new messages to it by accident.

Using a Shared Room effectively

Set the goal before you start. A quick note at the top of the session about what the room is for keeps the conversation focused.
Use viewer invites for people who just need to follow along — stakeholders who want visibility without needing to participate.
Reference the page content directly. Questions asked in the room are answered using the page context available at the time, so pointing at specific content on the page gets more relevant answers.
Close the room when you're done, rather than leaving it open indefinitely — a closed room is easier for everyone to recognize as finished, while its history stays intact.

Troubleshooting

Unable to join a room. The invite link may have expired or reached its use limit. Ask the room's owner for a fresh link.

A member can't send messages. Check their role — viewers can read a room's conversation but can't send messages by design. The room owner can send a new invite with the editor role if they should be able to participate.

The room disappeared from my sidebar. If the owner archived the room, it's removed from everyone's sidebar automatically — the conversation still exists, it's just no longer listed. Ask the owner if you need to revisit it.

I closed the room by mistake. A closed room's history is preserved and stays visible — it's read-only rather than gone, so nothing is lost.

Frequently asked questions

Can a free or guest account create a room? No — creating a room requires a paid plan. People joining a room someone else created don't need a paid plan themselves.

How many people can be in one room? Up to 16, though a room starts smaller (5) by default — the owner can raise the cap as needed.

Can I reuse an invite link after it expires? No — once a link expires or hits its use limit, generate a new one.

What's the difference between closing and archiving a room? Closing makes it read-only but keeps it visible to everyone; archiving removes it from the sidebar entirely. Neither one deletes the conversation.

Can I remove someone from a room? Room management, including who's currently a member, is handled from the room's own settings by its owner.

Can a viewer be upgraded to an editor later? The owner can send a new invite with the editor role — role changes go through invites rather than an in-place switch.

Do I need to be on the same page as everyone else in the room? Questions asked in the room are answered using the page context available at the time they're asked, so being on the same page as the rest of the room generally gets the most relevant answers.

Related features

Multi-Tab Sessions — for working across several conversations on your own, without inviting anyone else in.
Custom Appearance — for how your own account's orb and chat appearance are set, separate from a room's per-participant colors.