In the Meeting: Share, Chat, and Whiteboard
Coming soon. Backbuild Meetings is a forthcoming part of the workspace. This guide teaches the in-meeting tools you will use when it arrives.
This guide teaches the live room: the video layout, the control bar, sharing your screen the way you intend, chatting and reacting, raising your hand, and the shared whiteboard that outlives the call. After this page you will run a working session, share cleanly, and collaborate without reaching for a second app.
The Room and Its Controls
After this section you will read the room at a glance. The live room shows a grid of video tiles, one per participant, with your own tile mirrored. When someone presents or shares their screen, that content moves to the main stage so everyone is looking at the same thing. The person speaking is highlighted so you can follow who has the floor.
The control bar along the bottom is your toolkit. From it you can mute and unmute your microphone, turn your camera on and off, share your screen, raise and lower your hand, send a reaction, open chat, open the participant roster, open the whiteboard, change the layout, and leave. A host sees the extra controls for locking the meeting and, when it becomes available, recording.
The status bar across the top shows the meeting title and a connection state (Connecting, Connected, or Reconnecting) so you always know whether you are live. When the meeting is locked, a lock indicator appears there.
Sharing Your Screen or a Single Window
After this section you will share exactly what you mean to, and nothing more. Press Share on the control bar and your browser asks what to share. This is where you choose between showing everything and showing one thing, which matters for privacy: sharing a single window keeps the rest of your screen, your notifications, and your other tabs out of view.
- Your entire screen shows everything on that display, including notifications. Use it when you are moving between several apps.
- A single window shows only that one application window, even when you click elsewhere. Use it for a focused demo of one app.
- A single browser tab shows just that tab. Use it to present one web page or document.
To stop sharing, press the share control again. When you share, your screen automatically becomes the main stage for everyone.
How do I share just one window instead of my whole screen? Press Share, then in your browser's picker choose the specific window or tab rather than the entire screen. Only that window is shown, so your other windows, tabs, and notifications stay private.
Why can I not share my screen in the desktop app? Screen sharing from the desktop app is coming soon. Share your screen from the web app for now.
Chat and Reactions
After this section you will contribute without talking over anyone. Open chat from the control bar to send and read text messages with everyone in the room, useful for a link, a question, or a note that does not need you to interrupt. Reactions are quick, non-verbal signals: pick one and it floats up over the video for a few seconds and then disappears on its own, so a round of applause or a thumbs up never derails the speaker.
Raising Your Hand
After this section you will signal to speak without cutting in. Raise your hand from the control bar to let the host and the room know you want to speak. Your raised hand shows in the roster so the host can bring you in at a natural break, and you lower it from the same control when you are done. It is a signal, not an interruption.
The Shared Whiteboard
After this section you will brainstorm on a shared canvas without a second tool. Open the whiteboard from the control bar and a shared board appears for the meeting. It is built on Backbuild Docs, so it is a real collaborative canvas everyone in the room can draw on together, not a throwaway scratch pad. The first time someone opens it, the board is created for the meeting; after that, opening it returns to the same board.
Does the whiteboard survive after the call, and where is it? Yes. The whiteboard is a Backbuild Docs board tied to the meeting, so the work you do on it is kept rather than lost when the call ends. You reach it again through the meeting, and because it is a Backbuild Docs object it lives in your workspace with your other documents. This is the answer to the usual worry that a meeting whiteboard disappears the moment everyone hangs up.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the connection state at the top mean? It tells you whether your own link to the meeting is healthy. Connected means you are live, Connecting means you are still joining, and Reconnecting means your connection dropped briefly and is being restored. If it stays on Reconnecting, check your network.
Is the meeting being recorded when I share my screen? No. Cloud recording is not part of the first release, so nothing you share is saved to a recording at launch. If recording becomes available later, a clear indicator will show to everyone while it is active. See Administration and Security for the honest posture.
Can I change the layout of the video tiles? Yes. Use the layout control on the control bar to switch between the grid of tiles and a spotlight that keeps one person or the shared screen large. A shared screen moves to the main stage automatically.
Can the meeting cut off in the middle if my organization runs out of usage credits? No. Credits gate entry to a meeting, never a meeting in progress. Everyone already connected stays connected until the meeting ends, even if the balance reaches zero mid-call; only new entries are refused until credits are added. The billing story is in Backbuild Meetings on your plan.