18. Playing together

The Session pane

When you play together, or a shared song is open on several devices at once, two things tell you how it stands: the session chip in the title bar, always in sight, and the Session pane, where the session is run.

The Session pane and the session chip

Available on every platform.

The session chip

The chip sits right after the workspace menu in the song window’s toolbar, before your pinned views.The chip sits right after the workspace menu in the title bar, before your pinned views. It says the session’s state in a word or two:

• Play Together: no session. Select it to host the song or join someone’s.
• Joining K7Q-M4R…: a code is being joined, until the song arrives.
• Hosting K7Q-M4R, in brass: you’re hosting and nobody has joined yet. The code stays in sight, to read out across the room.
• Hosting · 2, in brass, with faces: you’re hosting, and two people are in.
• Live · 2, with a green dot and faces: you’re a guest, or editing a shared song live. Nothing to do.
• Anna is here and Join: a shared song someone else has open, and you’re not editing it live. Join joins them.
• Reconnecting…, in orange: the link dropped. Keep editing; your edits go when it’s back.
• Session ended: for a few seconds after a session ends.

The faces are the people in, you first, each in their own colour, the colour of their caret in the song. After three, the chip shows how many more.

Opening the Session pane

What it shows

With no session, the pane offers Host This Song and Join a Session…. In a session, from the top:

• Who’s hosting: “You’re hosting”, or “Playing with Anna”, and since when, on the Wi-Fi or the internet.
• The code: the host sees “Join with this code”, the code in large type, Copy Link, Show Large (the code across the whole window, to read from across a room) and its QR code. A guest gets Show Code.
• The watch link (the host): Open Watching lets an audience follow the song in a browser; then the link, how many are watching, and Copy. See Watch links.
• People: each person’s name and role, and their connection (“Wi-Fi”, “Internet · 38 ms”). When a song uses plugins that someone’s device doesn’t play, their row says so (“Hears it without 2 plugins”), and a note tells the host once; What’s Different in that note shows which plugin plays where. Nothing is blocked: they still join and play. The host has a role pop-up for each guest, Can Edit or Can View (More Roles has Player, Student and Custom in a Play Together session). Follow beside a name keeps their caret in sight; it reads Following while it does.
• Shared Playback: play and stop for everyone, in time. A guest sees Hear Anna’s Playback.
• Let Guests Keep a Copy (the host): when the session ends, guests keep the song. A guest sees whether the host allows it.
• At the foot: Look Here, to show everyone where your caret is; End Session for the host, Leave for a guest, and Keep a Copy when the host lets guests keep one.

What happens, as it happens

Joins, leaves and the like are said in small notes in the bottom corner of the pane you’re working in, never across the song: “Ben joined · Can View”, “Anna left”, “Reconnecting…”, “1 edit couldn’t be kept · Show”, “Anna ended the session”. Each fades after a few seconds; one with a button stays a little longer, and holding the pointer over them keeps them.