Live presence

See who else is looking at the same map right now and where their cursor is.

basic

Live presence shows you who else has the same map open right now. Each viewer gets an avatar chip at the top of the canvas, and their cursor position appears on the map as a colored arrow with their name.

This is the simplest signal that you're not working alone. When you're walking a teammate through a map over a video call, you can move your cursor over the spot you're talking about and they see it land in real time without you having to describe coordinates.

What you see

  • Avatar chips in the top-right of the canvas, one per active viewer. Your own chip is included so you can confirm the connection works.
  • Cursor markers for everyone else: a colored arrow with a small name label, drawn at their mouse position on the map. Your own cursor isn't drawn (no point self-watching).
  • Distinct colors per viewer, drawn from a palette of eight high-contrast options. Two adjacent viewers always get different colors.

How it works

The map editor sends your cursor position to the server every couple of seconds and pulls down the latest list of everyone else's. When you stop moving the cursor, your "last known position" stays where you left it for a few seconds, then your chip drops off until you wiggle the mouse again.

Cursors that have been idle for more than 5 seconds disappear so the canvas doesn't get cluttered with stale arrows.

When you close the tab or navigate away, your chip drops off immediately for everyone else.

Privacy notes

  • Only viewers who can already read the map ever see anyone else's presence. A private map's avatar list is gated by the same permission check as the map itself; nothing leaks.
  • Phase 1 is signed-in only. Anonymous public-link visitors do not appear in the avatar strip.

What ships in Phase 1

Phase 1 uses periodic polling. Phase 1.5 will switch to a live WebSocket connection so cursors track each other at sub-second latency. The visible UX stays identical; only the smoothness of cursor motion changes.

  • <a href="map-editing-markup">Markup</a> for leaving persistent pins on the map.
  • <a href="map-editing-comments">Comments</a> for threaded conversations.