Share live: let someone read along and comment

Share live gives someone a link. They open it in a web browser, with no account, and read your book as it is now, as you change it. They can leave comments and reactions, and each one is saved in your project the moment it arrives. It suits a reader you want to hear from while you are still writing.

Start a session

Open a book and press Share live… beside Export. Choose:

• What to share: the whole book, or chosen chapters;
• How long to keep the link open: from 30 minutes to 8 hours, one hour unless you choose otherwise;
• whether guests can see each other’s comments (they cannot, unless you tick this; you can change it while the session is open);
• a note for your guests, if you like.

Press Start sharing and copy the link. Send the whole link, including the part after the #: that part is a key that never reaches our server.

While a session is open a small Sharing live bar shows at the bottom of the screen, and you can carry on writing, moving between chapters and pages. Press Manage to see who is connected (by the name each guest typed, up to five at once), copy the link again, or press End session.

The session ends when you press End, when the time you chose is up, or when you close the page. A guest sees a plain message, and the link stops working.

What a guest sees

The book as a reader copy would show it: the chapters you chose, a contents list and your note. They select some text and a box opens where they can write a comment or press a reaction (Loved this, Confusing, Slow here, Doesn’t ring true). They can edit or delete their own comments. As you type, the text on their screen changes. They cannot change anything in your book.

A guest needs only a recent web browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on a computer or a phone. They type a name when they join, so you know who is who.

Where the comments go

Into your project, in the same files a beta reader’s comments use (books/<book>/reviews/<chapter>/<guest’s name>.yml), so they show in the Comments tab of each chapter, anchored to the passage, with Resolve and Hide, and they never appear in an export. See Beta readers. A guest who comes back with the same name finds their earlier comments again.

Privacy

The two browsers connect directly and the text is encrypted all the way between them. Our server only passes a few short, sealed set-up messages, keeps them in memory for a few minutes at most, and never sees your text or the comments. Some networks, such as work or school ones, block direct connections. Where the server has a relay it carries the same encrypted data, and cannot read it; where it does not, a guest on such a network is told they cannot join. The privacy policy has the details.

Anyone who has the link while the session is open can read what you shared, so send it only to people you trust.