Visual Space manual, Meetings, Collaborate With Live Apps

Live apps let an activity meeting work with Visual Space content as a shared, selectable feed. This walkthrough takes you from opening `Live Apps` through choosing or creating work, arranging it on the stage, switching between active apps, and ending the shared feed cleanly.

Live apps let an activity meeting work with Visual Space content as a shared, selectable feed. This walkthrough takes you from opening Live Apps through choosing or creating work, arranging it on the stage, switching between active apps, and ending the shared feed cleanly.

Check The Meeting And Access First

Live apps are available only in meetings attached to a space activity. They are not available in direct-message calls because those calls do not have the activity context that owns the shared work. In a direct-message call, use screen sharing when you need to present content.

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Join the activity meeting - Open the meeting stage for the activity where the group will work. You can start or join the room as usual; you do not need a separate kind of meeting for live apps.

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Choose your starting path - Decide whether the group should use an existing item or create a fresh draft. Opening existing work preserves that item's normal access. Creating a draft places new content in its owning app and may require additional access.

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Expect app-specific checks - Some app families or creation paths require Coordinator or owning-app access. Retrospectives, Whiteboards, and Canvas can show an explicit Coordinator prompt, while Articles, Polls, and Frames follow the access available through their own app and the selected content. There is no single permission rule that applies to every live app.

Being present in the meeting does not grant access to a private activity or to content a participant could not otherwise open. If the group needs everyone to edit or view an existing item, confirm its normal access before bringing it into the room.

Open Live Apps And Choose A Workspace

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Open Live Apps - Use the meeting action on the stage. The live-app picker opens without ending the call and offers six app families.

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Choose Articles - Browse an existing article or use New article to create a draft for the meeting.

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Choose Polls - Browse an existing poll or use New poll to create a draft. The poll can stay visible while the room discusses it; this guide does not assume any additional poll interaction.

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Choose Retrospectives - Browse an existing retrospective board or use New retrospective when your access allows it.

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Choose Whiteboards - Browse an existing whiteboard or use New whiteboard when your access allows it.

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Choose Canvas - Browse an existing Canvas document or use New Canvas when your access allows it.

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Choose Frames - Browse an existing Frames project or use New Frames project when your access allows it.

An app family that is already running shows an active marker. Choosing that family returns you to its current meeting feed instead of starting a second copy of the same app type.

The activity meeting gathers every supported shared-work family in one launcher before the group chooses content.

Branch: Open Existing Work

Use this path when the group already has an article, poll, board, document, or project to review or continue.

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Choose the app family - Select the type that matches the existing work. The file browser opens in the meeting's space and activity context and shows compatible content for that app.

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Browse to the item - Move through the available areas and folders until you find the work you want. Only choose an item that belongs in this meeting and that participants can normally access.

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Open the item - Select its file row. The picker closes, the live app starts, and its feed becomes available to the activity meeting.

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Handle an access message - If Visual Space explains that Coordinator or app access is needed, stop and use content that your role can open or ask someone with the appropriate owning-app access for help. Do not assume the meeting itself can override the restriction.

The source item keeps its existing ownership, visibility, and access. Bringing it onto the stage does not copy it into a public meeting file or widen who can open it later.

!Whiteboards Explorer inside the meeting with area navigation, New whiteboard, a folder, and an existing board

The embedded explorer keeps the source area's folders, existing files, and create action visible before shared work starts.

Branch: Create A Supported Draft

Use this path when the room needs a clean workspace rather than an existing item.

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Choose the app family - Open the explorer for the kind of draft the group needs.

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Select the New action - Use the app-specific label shown in the browser, such as New article, New retrospective, or New Frames project.

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Respond to access gating - If a Coordinator or owning-app access prompt appears, follow that guidance or return to the picker and choose another supported path. A prompt can apply to a particular app family or creation flow; it is not proof that every live app requires Coordinator access.

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Wait for creation to finish - Visual Space creates the draft in the meeting activity, closes the browser, and opens the new live-app feed. If creation fails, remain in the browser and use the visible error before trying again.

The draft is real work in its owning app. Ending its meeting feed later does not delete the draft, so the group can continue with it after the call if its normal access allows that.

Confirm The Shared Feed

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Look for the selected workspace - After a successful open or creation, the live app replaces the picker and becomes the selected meeting feed. Starting from Grid moves the workspace into Stage so it has useful room.

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Check the feed list - In Grid, the app appears as its own feed card. In Stage, the app occupies the main surface and the other feeds remain in the carousel. Its title or app-specific tools may appear in the meeting's top and tool areas.

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Confirm room availability - Ask another participant to check their Grid or carousel. The feed should be available to the room, but it does not automatically force every participant to select it or use the same layout.

If someone cannot use the content inside the feed, check the underlying item's normal access. A visible meeting feed is not a replacement for access to its source work.

!Existing Whiteboard workspace open as the selected live-app feed on an activity meeting stage

A successful open replaces the picker with the real app workspace while the meeting's room and call controls remain around it.

Work With The App In Meeting Layouts

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Use Grid for awareness - Keep the live app alongside cameras, audio participants, screen shares, and other active apps when you want to see the whole room.

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Select the app for Stage - Choose its feed card from Grid or the carousel to make it the main workspace while the remaining feeds stay close by.

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Use Focus for room - Switch to Focus when the selected app needs the largest practical surface. Return to Stage or Grid when you want the participant strip or the full feed collection again.

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Use the app's own controls - Work with the title, document actions, editing tools, or project controls that appear for the selected live app. These controls change with the active feed and move out of the way when you select an unrelated feed.

Each participant controls their own selected feed and layout. One person can keep the live app in Focus while another watches Grid, and neither choice changes what everyone else sees.

Switch Between Active Apps And Files

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Select another feed - Choose a participant, screen share, or live-app card from Grid or the carousel. This changes only your view; it does not end the live app you left.

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Return through Live Apps - Open the picker and choose an app family marked as active. Visual Space closes the picker and returns you to that app's existing feed.

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Start another app type - Choose an inactive family, then open existing work or create a supported draft. Several different app types can remain active in the same meeting.

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Change work inside a supported feed - Whiteboards, Canvas, and Frames can open their own document or project chooser. Select another compatible item there to update that active feed without ending it and starting over.

Switching the selected feed, changing layout, and ending an app are separate actions. Moving away from a workspace leaves it available until someone uses an available close action or the meeting ends.

End The App And Verify Cleanup

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Select the app to end - Return to its feed so you can confirm that you are closing the intended workspace rather than merely switching views.

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Use the available close control - For an app you started, hover its feed card and use the close control. On a touch device, long-press the card to open the same Close app action. An active app can also expose Close app from its picker context menu when that action is available to you.

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Confirm shared removal - The app feed disappears from the meeting for everyone. If it was your selected feed, your stage returns to Grid instead of leaving a missing workspace selected.

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Confirm the call continues - Closing the app does not hang up the meeting. Cameras, audio, screen shares, and other active live apps remain available.

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Keep the source work - Reopen the owning app later if you need the article, poll, board, Canvas document, or Frames project. Close app removes the meeting feed; it does not delete the existing item or draft.

!Active Whiteboards entry in the meeting Live Apps picker with its Close app menu open

Close app is a deliberate shared-ending action on an active family, not the same as selecting another feed or layout.

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Finish the meeting normally - A participant leaving does not by itself end the live apps for people still in the room. When the activity meeting finishes, every live app still active in that room ends with it and its feed is removed.

Resolve Common Problems

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Live Apps is unavailable - Confirm that this is an activity meeting rather than a direct-message call. Live apps do not appear in direct-message calls.

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An app family opens an access prompt - Follow the message for that app or return to another choice. Some types and creation paths need Coordinator or owning-app access, while existing work continues to use its normal rules.

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The expected item is missing - Check that you selected the right app family, activity area, and folder, and that the item is a compatible type you can normally access.

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Choosing a type returns to old work - The active marker means that app family already has a meeting feed. Select it to resume, use its own chooser where supported, or end it before starting that type again.

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The app vanished from your stage - Check whether its shared feed was ended or the meeting itself finished. The source item should still remain in its owning app.