Rewards helps people recognize useful work without making every kind of appreciation feel the same. Use an Award for a quick, visible response to a contribution. Use a Medal when a person's lasting impact deserves formal recognition from a space.
Two Ways To Recognize A Contribution
Awards and Medals complement each other, but they answer different needs.
Choose an Award when the contribution and its context should remain the focus. Choose a Medal when the person's broader contribution should be remembered beyond one item or moment.
An Award keeps the recognized contribution and its public context at the center.
A Medal keeps the recognized person and issuing space at the center.
Awards For Everyday Appreciation
Awards give more weight and personality to appreciation than an ordinary reaction. You choose an illustrated style, select a quantity within your available balance, and confirm the result. The Award artwork and count then remain with the supported item or activity, and people can open an Award to see who gave it.
Awards appear across several kinds of collaboration:
Direct Messages do not offer Awards. Use emoji reactions there instead. For how these choices work in conversation, see Emoji Reactions and Awards.
Your Award balance belongs to your account. Giving Awards lowers it; receiving Awards does not add to it. Starter Awards, monthly Abo Awards, and one-time packs can contribute to the displayed total. Award Top-Ups explains those sources in detail.
Medals For Lasting Recognition
Medals are deliberately scarce. They cannot be bought and do not use anyone's Award balance. Instead, each space has a shared allowance of five Medals per UTC month. The space owner and members with Give medals permission draw from that same allowance, so it is not a separate allocation for each giver.
When you are authorized in more than one joined space, the Medal picker shows the eligible issuing spaces and their remaining allowances. You select the space and recognition category, then prepare a certificate for the recipient. Every certificate includes a required reason of up to 280 characters and can be reviewed before the Medal is given.
A Medal becomes part of the recipient's lasting recognition history. It is not a reaction to a single post, message, or activity, and it cannot be converted into Awards. The shared allowance renews with the next UTC month; Medal certificates already given remain in the recipient's history.
Balances, Histories, And Profiles
The account views separate what you can give from what you have received or gifted.
In My awards, Awards available is your current spendable total. The Received and Gifted tabs show attributable history, grouped to help you return to supported content. Received history currently covers posts, articles, goals, events, and shared-chat messages, but not meeting or whiteboard Awards.
In My medals, those tabs preserve individual Medal events across spaces. The Medals available summary instead combines the remaining allowances from joined spaces where you may give Medals; it is not personal inventory.
Medals also have a public, space-aware home. A signed-in viewer can see the Medal types a member earned in the current space context and open their certificates. Awards do not form an equivalent profile showcase because they remain connected to their original item or live moment. Profiles explains how recognition fits alongside identity and private account areas.
Who Can Give Recognition
Seeing recognition and giving it are separate permissions. Existing Awards can remain visible wherever you can see the surrounding content, even when you cannot add a new one.
To give an Award in a space area, you must be signed in, able to access that area, and either own the space or have Add awards permission there. Activity meetings also require both people to be participants, and you cannot Award yourself. Direct Message calls do not offer Awards.
To give a Medal on behalf of a space, you must be the space owner or have Give medals permission in that space. You also need at least one Medal left in its shared monthly allowance. The public giving actions are designed for recognizing another member, not yourself.
Common Questions
Should I give an Award or a Medal?
Give an Award when you want to appreciate a particular item or live contribution. Give a Medal when a person's meaningful, lasting contribution deserves recognition from a space and a certificate explaining why.
Does receiving an Award increase my available balance?
No. Received recognition and spendable balance are separate. My awards shows both, but receiving an Award does not give you another Award to spend.
Can I buy Medals or move Awards into a Medal allowance?
No. Medal allowances belong to spaces, renew monthly, and cannot be purchased. Awards use a separate personal balance.
Can I take back an Award or Medal after giving it?
No. Visual Space does not currently offer an undo or revoke action for sent Awards or granted Medals. Review the Award style and quantity or the Medal certificate carefully before confirming.
Continue With A Recognition Guide
Read Awards or Medals for a closer look at each recognition mode. When you are ready to act, follow the guide to give an Award, review Awards and your balance, give a Medal, or review Medals and certificates.