23Live sessions
Share your board live with a small group. Whatever you draw appears on their screens as you draw it, and everything travels directly between browsers — your sketches are never stored on a server. Where a school network blocks a direct link, Slate passes it through a small relay instead, which forwards it without keeping anything.
Find itThe Collab button beside Export opens the collaboration panel. Its sections — In session, Spot question, Break & activities, Focus, Quiz, Live poll, Snapshots — are rows you tap to open; opening one closes the others, so the panel stays short even on a tablet, and the one you used last opens next time. People waiting to join and questions waiting for you always show open at the top.
What the class seesAnything you do to the board reaches them as you do it — drawing, of course, but also Group, Align, Distribute, Flip, Match size, the format painter, Paste as picture, and a snapshot placed or restored from the time machine. Kept regions are board content, so they reach the class like any other board change, and a step of a progressive reveal is mirrored step by step — the class sees the same areas appear in the same order, and nothing is revealed to them early. A region replay and a step of the time machine are mirrored too — the class watches the same marks appear, in the same order, at the same speed, on their own copy, and a time-machine step is outlined on their board so nobody mistakes a look back for the live one. Nothing is added to or taken from their board to do it, and Hold the view still holds. Every export and print stays with you. Someone who has joined is watching your board rather than holding their own copy, so the editing tools are refused for them — Slate says so rather than letting a board drift out of step with everyone else’s.
Use itPresent: sign in with your access code (signing in starts nothing), then press Start a new session to get a six-character room code, or Start one of your Links for later. End session signs you out again. Share that code; each person who joins appears under Waiting to join for you to Admit or Deny. There is no small limit on numbers — a whole class can join (up to 60). Join: switch to the Join tab, type your name and the room code.
Invite link and QR codeUnder the room code, Copy invite link copies a link that opens Slate straight on Join with the code already filled in — students only type their name. QR code shows a big code to put on the projector so a class can scan it with their phones. The link stops working when the session ends, like the code.
Links for laterMake a join link before the lesson, so it can go in your Meet, Teams or Zoom invite. In Collab → Present, Sign in with your access code: Links for later appears under Start a new session, with any links you have saved. It also sits in the Collab panel during a live session, as its own fold-out row (🔗 Links for later), so you can make and copy links for future lessons mid-class (to teach in a different link, end the session first). Give the link a name if you like (“Year 4 Tuesdays”) and press New link; it is copied straight away. Each link shows its code with a copy and a QR button beside it. You can keep three, and they are kept with your access code, so they are there on any computer you sign in with. When the lesson starts, press Start on that link: the session opens with that link’s code, so everyone who has the link can join. The same link works lesson after lesson. Reset gives it a new code (the old link stops working at once — use it if a link has gone further than it should), Rename changes its name, and Delete frees the slot. A student who opens the link early is told the lesson hasn’t started yet, and their page joins by itself the moment you press Start — you still admit them as usual. End session puts the link back to waiting for next time, and signs you out: the access code is cleared from the box, and nothing of yours stays on screen.
ConnectionChosen by the presenter before starting, and it applies to everyone. Auto (recommended) connects each student directly and moves anyone who cannot connect onto the relay by themselves, after a few seconds — students do nothing. Direct only never uses the relay; Relay only sends everyone through it, which is useful when testing or on a very strict network. A small relay tag beside a name in your panel shows who is on it. Students cannot choose; it follows your setting.
Back in as themselvesA student whose page reloads, or whose link drops, can join again with the same name in the same tab and is let straight back in — their Spot question working and marks follow them. You see “Priya rejoined”.
Heads-upA session holds up to 60 students. Anyone you remove is disconnected immediately.
Part of the Slate guide — or read the whole guide on one page.