When watching a live event, you may be given the opportunity to participate in a live chat, a poll, or a Q&A session on the event page. Below will outline what to expect and how to use each of these features as a viewer. Keep in mind there is no guarantee you will always see these features used as they are enabled and controlled by the event's producer.
In this article:
Chat
If the event’s producer enabled chat, you would see a chat window to the right of the video player. If you are logged into a Vimeo account, you will automatically be logged into the chat and can start posting messages or emojis. You can also paste links in the chat option, these links will show up as hyperlinks and are clickable.
If you are not logged in and wish to participate, you must enter your name and accept Vimeo’s Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before selecting Join.
You can then type in your message or emojis and either press the Enter/Return key on your keyboard to send, or click the send button to the right to send your chat message, which may be up to 280 characters long. Your messages will appear on the right side of the chat window whereas others’ messages will appear alongside their names on the left side.
When the chat is open you can adjust how it’s displayed by clicking the ••• menu in the upper right corner. Minimize will show only a chat bubble icon next to the player, whereas Pop out will open the chat in a separate browser window.
If you choose Minimize, you can re-open the chat window by clicking the chat bubble icon.
Note that the event chat is moderated by the event’s producer, who has the ability to delete or block comments from anyone. Also, chat is available in lieu of commenting until the stream ends.
You can also participate in chat if you are watching on the Vimeo mobile app provided that you are logged into a Vimeo account.
- Once you locate the event in the app, open the event page and make sure you have the Chat tab toggled.
- You can then send messages and see all the other messages others have posted in real-time (unless the owner disabled chat, in which case you will see a message indicating that chat is disabled).
- Note that you will need to keep your device in portrait orientation as the chat will not be available in fullscreen/landscape mode.
Currently, some privacy settings on events will redirect you to the event's page on vimeo.com on a mobile browser rather than the app. While you would still be able to watch, unfortunately, chat is not supported on Vimeo's mobile site at this time. If this happens, you can either chat via desktop or see if the organization producing the event has embedded the stream and chat onto their own website, in which case a mobile browser is supported.
Q&A
If the nature of the event involves answering questions from viewers, the event producer may utilize our Q&A (Question and Answer) feature. When this feature is turned on, you and other viewers will see a “Have a question?” prompt; click Ask to participate.
You can type in your question in the text box at the top. Toggle on the Ask anonymously switch if you don’t want your name displayed next to the question.
You can see your question and all other questions below, either in the order in which they were asked (Recent) or in order of those with the most votes (Popular).
Note: The character limit for questions in a Live Q&A is a maximum of 240 characters or 3 lines.
An indicator below the chat box shows the number of characters remaining to the question-askers while typing the questions.
You can vote on any question by clicking the thumbs-up icon next to it.
When the producer is addressing a question, you may see it highlighted in the chat window.
You may also see it as a graphic overlay in the video player.
The producer can then archive any questions, which will cause them to disappear from the list.
To return to the regular live chat, click the X in the upper right corner of the Q&A window.
⚠️Note: It is currently not possible to see or participate in the Q&A when viewing via the Vimeo mobile app.
Poll
The event producer can use the Polls feature to either get a vote on a topic or quiz their audience. If they do this, you will see the poll question at the bottom of the chat window. Click Vote to participate.
The poll will take over the chat window with the question and 2-4 possible response options (depending on how the producer created it). Click on a response to choose one.
The producer may display the poll in a graphic in the player as well; this is mainly to raise awareness of the poll, as the options in the player cannot be clicked.
When the producer closes the poll and publishes the results, you will see the results in the polls window; they may also appear in a graphic overlay.
To return to the regular live chat, click the X in the upper right corner of the Polls window.
⚠️Note: It is currently not possible to see or participate in Polls when viewing via the Vimeo mobile app.