Watch links
A class following the score, a room reading the chords off their phones, a friend listening in from home: an audience doesn’t need to edit, and shouldn’t be able to. A watch link opens the song in a browser, in the Stage view, following you as you play. It can’t change anything, and it gives nothing of the session’s code.
An audience: watch links
Available on Mac and Windows. Not on Web.
This isn’t on Web.
The web app opens watch links but doesn’t make them: a watch link comes from someone hosting a song in Stab on a Mac, a PC, an iPad, an iPhone or an Android device. Opening one is described below.
Sharing a watch link
- Host the song (Hosting a session).
- In the Session pane, choose Open Watching. Choose Together › Share a Watch Link…
A watch link looks like https://stab.audio/w/XYZ-QRS. Its code isn’t the session’s: whoever has it can only watch, whatever they open it with. The QR code is the same link, for an audience to scan with their phones’ cameras.
Watchers come through Stab’s relay, so a watch link needs Join from Anywhere on (Settings › Play Together) (the Together menu). With it off, Stab doesn’t offer one.
The panel says how many are watching: “No one watching yet.”, “1 watching.” Watchers aren’t in the list of people: they have no caret, no colour and no name.
Watching
The link opens in the browser on any phone, tablet or computer: no app, no account. It shows the song in the Stage view alone, filling the screen, and follows the host: their edits as they make them, their Play and Stop, the bar playing lit. Someone opening it in the middle of the song starts where everyone is.
Two buttons sit in a corner:
- Hear it: the song’s sound on this device, in step with everyone. Until it’s pressed, the page is silent (a browser plays sound only after a tap). Pressed again, the sound stops. A song that uses plugins is heard here without them, and a line beside the button says so.
- ☀ Daylight: dark ink on a light page, for a bright room. The page remembers it.
The screen stays on while it’s watching, where the browser allows it.
If the connection drops, the page reconnects by itself. When the host stops hosting, it says “The session ended. Thanks for watching.”
What watchers follow
Watchers always follow the host’s playback, even with Shared Playback off: an audience follows the host, whoever else plays along. Guests’ edits reach them through the host, as everyone’s do.
Watchers never keep a copy of the song, whatever Let Guests Keep a Copy says.
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Share a Watch Link… | the Play Together panel |
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Share a Watch Link… | the Together menu |
Not on Web: Share a Watch Link….