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Collab

Live Presence

Show who is in a shared AI session right now with avatars or cursors, including agents when that matters. Co-piloting one context needs orientation.

Interactive demo

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Draft ready for review: three remote days with manager approval, core hours 10–3 PT.

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Overview

How might we design live presence so people can trust and act on AI output?

When to use

  • Ideal for collaborative docs, team chat with shared threads, and enterprise assistants where multiple people iterate on the same AI-generated artifact.

When to skip

  • Solo chats with no sharing model.
  • Privacy-sensitive sessions where presence would leak activity.
  • Async docs where presence adds noise without concurrent editing.

Rules

  • Ghost presence after users leave.

  • No distinction between human and agent actors.

  • Presence without a way to follow someone’s view or end sharing.

  • Exposing presence to people outside the share ACL.

Evidence

ProductImplementation
FigmaMultiplayer avatars and cursors on the canvas.
NotionLive collaborators on shared pages.
Google DocsActive user stack and cursors while editing.
LinearPresence indicators on shared issues and docs.

FAQ

Why show presence in AI sessions?

So co-editors know who is prompting, reviewing, or watching, and avoid stomping each other’s runs.

Should agents appear in presence?

Yes when an agent is actively running in the session. Label them as agents, not as fake humans.

How does presence relate to shared session links?

Shared links create access. Presence shows who is currently using that access.

What about idle users?

Dim or mark idle after a timeout so the stack stays truthful.