Room controls reference

Reference for the controls in a chat experience room's top bar and side panel, and what each one does to the conversation.

A chat experience room carries controls in a top bar above the conversation and in the side panel down the left. This page lists both, in the order they appear on screen. The message box under the thread holds controls of its own—the respond chip and the paperclip—covered in Choose who replies and Share files with the room.

The top bar

The top bar runs above the thread and names the experience the room was opened from. It carries these, from left to right:

Part	What it does
Back arrow	Returns to My Experiences and ends the conversation
The experience name	Names the chat experience this room was opened from
Pencil	Opens Rename experience, where you change the name. The room type, the purpose, and the briefing are untouched
Room type chip	The room type the experience was created with, for example Focus group
Room ID chip	Copies the room ID. See The room ID below
Character avatars	One avatar per character in the room, followed by the count: 1 character, or 4 characters in a room of four
Text only chip	The room's mode. Hovering it shows Room mode. The characters answer in writing
Previous sessions	Lists the sessions already recorded for this experience, newest first, and offers Open experience page. See Review a past session
Three-dots menu	Opens the room's actions, listed below

The bar drops what it has no room for as the window narrows. The room ID and the character count go first, and a people icon appears beside the back arrow to open the side panel over the thread. Narrower still, the room type chip, the avatars, and the Text only chip go as well, and Previous sessions shows as an icon alone.

The three-dots menu

The three-dots menu sits at the right of the top bar and holds these actions:

Item	What it does
Rename experience	Opens the same rename dialog as the pencil
Duplicate with a new brief	Opens the create dialog prefilled from this experience, with every field editable. See Why the brief cannot be changed
Export transcript	Downloads the conversation in this room as a Markdown file. See Export a transcript
Clear conversation	Ends the conversation and empties the room: the thread, the characters, and the Shared in room list

Clear conversation ends the conversation as soon as you select it. It does not ask you to confirm, and a conversation that has ended cannot be rejoined. The room stays open, emptied and waiting for characters, so the room you are looking at afterwards is a new one.

The room ID

The room ID is the short identifier in the top bar, beginning with rm_. Selecting the chip copies it and confirms with Room ID copied.

The ID belongs to the chat experience, so every room opened from that experience shows the same one. It is also shown in the list view of My Experiences, where you can copy it from the row.

The ID names the room inside your own account. A chat experience and the rooms opened from it are reachable only by the account that created them, so the ID does not give anyone else a way into the room.

Belonging to the experience, the ID cannot tell one session from another. Each session has an identifier of its own, and an exported transcript is named from it. See Export a transcript.

The side panel

The side panel holds the roster, your own row, the brief, and the files shared so far. On a narrow screen it opens over the thread from the people icon beside the back arrow, and an X in its header closes it again. From top to bottom it carries these:

Part	What it does
In this room	Names the section. The number of characters follows it once any are seated
The plus in the header	Opens the character picker. Present once the room has characters in it
A character's row	Names the character, its role, and where it came from: your workspace, or "Shared with you" for a character added by ID
The dots at the right of a character's row	Hold Remove from room
Add characters	Opens the character picker. Sits under the list of characters, and on the Add the participants card while the room is empty
Moderator or You	The section holding your own row. Moderator in a room of two or more characters, You in a one-character room
Your row	Your name with (you) after it, described as "You ask, they answer" or "Talking with ⟨name⟩", followed by your workspace when there is one to show
Room brief	The room type and the purpose set when the experience was created, the same in every session
Fixed at creation	The lock beside the brief. Hovering it explains why the brief cannot change and offers Duplicate with a new brief
Shared in room	The files attached during this conversation. Reads "Files you attach show up here for every character." until one is attached

The panel shows the same room type and purpose whatever the size of the room. In a one-character room, though, the briefing that character was given is written in wording of its own rather than from the room type. See How the room brief is written.

The plus, Add characters, and Remove from room are all disabled while a turn is running or while the room is opening. The reason is written under Add characters and inside the row menu, and the plus carries it when you hover. See Add or remove characters mid-conversation.

An empty room replaces the roster and your own row with a single Add the participants card, reading "Each character receives the room brief the moment they join."

Related pages

Add or remove characters mid-conversationChoose who replies