Most Commonly Asked

ohyay is a virtual event platform that was founded in 2020 to allow anyone to create their own real-time, interactive virtual experiences. Since then, ohyay creators have built thousands of one-of-a-kind virtual events, including major conferences, live performances, auctions, escape rooms, and film festivals.

We are not currently charging for use of the platform. Feel free to create as many workspaces as you'd like, freely use them, and share them with as many people as you'd like.

If you'd like help building a custom workspace, email us at [email protected] and we can connect you with a creator in our community who provides services at an hourly rate.

Check out our beginner guide and beginner YouTube tutorials.

We also encourage you to join our Discord server and ask our team and community moderators questions in #beginner-help.

An ohyay workspace is a virtual meeting space. It provides the venue for users to interact, whether that be a group of friends hosting a private video chat, co-workers residing in a virtual office, or hundreds of guests participating in a large virtual conference.

Unlike a video conferencing call that starts and ends when the host comes and leaves, an ohyay workspace is a 24-7 space that allows users to visit at any time. Read more here.

A workspace is divided into rooms, and each room hosts activities for groups of users. Users can move themselves from room to room to join different video chat discussions and participate in activities with others.

ohyay allows you to customize how a room looks, where users appear, and what users can do. By filling your room with users, images, music, and other interactive elements, you can create rooms that enable many kinds of video chat activities. Read more here.

The currency capacity of ohyay is about ~500 users per workspace. If you'd like to spread more than 500 users across multiple workspaces, email us at [email protected] and we'll help you get set up.

We recommend a max of ~20 people on-screen in one room at one time. Any more than that starts to slow down users' computers. To host more than 20, you can use an Audience Mode element that rotates users on and off-screen.

Our largest event to date is Stanford's TreeHacks hackathon with ~1300 people over the course of a few days.

We collect your email address and your name. If the workspace is set to Allow Anonymous Users, then an email address is not required. You can read our data privacy policy here.

1. Ensure that you're in Director or Viewer Mode by clicking on the or the at the top of your screen.
2. Click on your video feed, drag it over another slot, and release.

Read more here.

The default emojis that appear in every ohyay room are ❤️😂🤯👍👎👋👏🙏.

Click on the emojis at the bottom of the screen and type messages into the “Send reaction” box. Click and hold on an emoji to make it bigger. Read more here.

You'll notice that some reactions even produce sound 😉⬇️

🥶 = sheesh
👏 = applause (hold down for cheering)
🦗 = cricket chirps (perfect for awkward silences)
🥁 = drum roll

If you’re familiar with presentation software, it might be helpful to think about the list of rooms in a workspace like a list of slides in a presentation. However, unlike a slide presentation, rooms can contain users. The left bar displays which users are online in this workspace, as well as what room they are in.

To open up the Rooms List:

1. Toggle the Rooms List by clicking on the map icon on the top left of your screen.
2. Move into another room by clicking on it in the Rooms List. You’ll see your thumbnail appear under the room name.

Read more here.

Click on the at the top of your screen. In your browser you should see ohyay’s editor.

At any given time, you can be in one of three modes in ohyay:

• Editor Mode: Only admins of the workspace can access Editor Mode, where they’ll have full access to edit any property in ohyay.
• Director Mode: In Director Mode, admins or director-only admins can access high-level controls or test out buttons.
• Viewer Mode: You’ll notice that when you enter Viewer Mode, all of your controls disappear. This is what your guests will see when they enter your workspace. One of the most important actions you will take while editing is to view the workspace as a guest in your space, rather than as an editor.

Read more about ohyay's interface in Edit Mode here.

Click on the in the top right corner of your screen. Follow Setting Up For Your Event to configure your camera, microphone, and profile as well as link your Bitmoji to ohyay.

You can change your profile image (which appears when you turn your camera off) to a Bitmoji of your choice and send Bitmojis as reactions.

1. Click on in the top right of your screen and then on Profile & Other Settings.
2. Click on the Bitmoji icon on the bottom right of your avatar selection.
3. Click on Continue with Snapchat and log into your Snapchat account.

Read more here.

1. Navigate to the Workspace Gallery, where you’ll find your recent workspaces as well as workspaces published by our team and community.
2. Click on the + thumbnail above Empty Workspace.

By default, your workspace will be empty and be called “Untitled.”

No, not currently. Feel free to create as many workspaces as you'd like. You can see all of the workspaces you've created on your homepage.

1. Navigate to the Workspace Gallery, where you’ll find your recent workspaces.
2. Click on a workspace thumbnail under the “workspace gallery” header.
3. Click on Import to copy the workspace for yourself and make it your own.

Read more here.

By default, your guests will see a list of rooms (and the users in the rooms) on the left side of the screen. The list is populated automatically based on the rooms in your space. Users can click on a room in the list to move between rooms.

Read more here.

1. Click on in the toolbar to ensure that you’re in Edit Mode.
2. Hover over the above the Admins Rooms List (the list of rooms in your workspace that is only visible to admins).
3. Select Empty Room.

Once you’ve added your room, you’ll see it appear in the Admins Rooms List on the left-hand side. It should be called (new room) by default. Read more here.

Importing rooms from our Room Gallery, a collection of rooms designed by our team and community, is a great way to fill your workspace with rooms.

1. Click on above the Admins Rooms List.
2. Select From Gallery.
3. Click on a room’s thumbnail image.
4. Click Import.

When you import a room, it will automatically be added to your workspace and ready to use. Read more here.

Click on the room's name in the Admin Rooms List (while in Edit Mode) and type in whatever you'd like. Read more here.

Click on the room's name in the Admin Rooms List (while in Edit Mode) and drag it up or down. Read more here.

Click on a room in the Admins Rooms List and hit the delete key or click on Room > Remove Room from the menu. Read more here.

You can copy and paste rooms within the same workspace and across workspaces by following these steps:

1. While in Edit Mode, click on the room in the Admin Rooms List and hit Command-C.
2. Hit Command-V to paste it in your Admin Rooms List.

Choose an image for your background by following these steps:

1. Click on the room in the Admins Rooms List (or part of the room canvas that doesn’t have an element) to ensure that the room is selected.
2. Click on Background > Choose image… from the toolbar. You’ll see that the Asset Library, a scrollable set of assets across your workspace, will pop up.
3. Select or upload an image to your Asset Library. You’ll see the image fill up your canvas.

Read more here.

We recommend a 1920 x 1080 resolution (16:9 aspect ratio). You can also upload a video as your background. Read more here.

A lot of users want to add music to their rooms to liven things up. ohyay currently supports YouTube music links and mp3 files (not yet Spotify).

To add a YouTube music link to your room:

1. Click on the room (or part of the room canvas that doesn’t have an element) to ensure that the room is selected.
2. Click on Music in the toolbar.
3. Copy and paste your YouTube link (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A) into the Music URL box.
4. Slide the toggle next to Autoplay. It may take a few seconds for the music to start playing.
5. Use the slider to adjust the music volume. We recommend leaving it around 10% or 20% if you want to have a conversation in the room.

At any time, you can pause your music by hitting the pause icon next to Music in the toolbar. Read more here.

The default emojis that appear in every ohyay room are ❤️😂🤯👍👎👋👏🙏 but you can customize them by following these steps:

1. Click on the room (or part of the room canvas that doesn’t have an element) to ensure that the room is selected.
2. Click on the Reactions dropdown in the toolbar (next to Music).
3. Upload new reaction emojis by clicking on the to the right of the box, opening up the emoji picker, and selecting emojis.

You can also click directly into the reactions box to delete and switch the order of the reaction emojis. Read more here.

To see customizable elements you can add, check out our Elements Glossary or follow these steps:

1. Go to the in the toolbar.
2. Click on the .
3. Select All.

You can also explore elements by navigating the categories in the dropdown (e.g. Users, Buttons, Media, etc). Read more here.

Here are some of our most popular elements:

• Image: A visual asset from your asset library, computer, or Google Drive.
• Chat: A chat box that you can add instead of (or in addition to) the chat bar on the left-hand side.
• Question Board: Allow users to submit questions to a question board during a panel.
• Poll: Allow users to respond to a poll (by default, the options are “yes” and “no.”)

Read more here.

You'll want to add a user slot by following the steps below. In ohyay, user slots are frames that hold user video feeds. Without these slots, your guests will not appear on screen.

1. Hover over in the toolbar.
2. Click on . Your video feed will pop into it.

Read more here.

Multi-user slots or “grid chats” are a great way to accommodate an unspecified number of guests in your room. They automatically adjust based on how many guests join, similar to the grid format that you may be familiar with on other video conferencing platforms.

To add a multi-user slot, go to the in the toolbar, hover over it, and select the .

Read more here.

It's easier to see your edits if you drag test bots into slots. Test bots, like their name implies, are used for testing out what you’ve created in ohyay. You’ll notice that they look and act like real users: they have names, mute states, and even the ability to talk.

To add a few test bots, follow these steps:

1. Click on the room (or part of the room canvas that doesn’t have an element) to ensure that the room is selected.
2. Click on the icon in the toolbar a few times and watch the test bots populate the user slots in your room.

Users will be able to see the test bots in your workspace, so you’ll want to remove them after editing by clicking on the dropdown next to the robot icon and selecting Remove all test bots. Read more here.

You'll want to adjust the element's opacity by following the steps below:

1. Select the element by clicking on it.
2. Click on the icon.
3. Drag the slider to make the element blend more seamlessly into the background.

Read more here.

Click on your user slot, hold down the “d” key, and drag your user slot’s corners.

You can also deform your user slot by clicking on the icon in the toolbar. If at any time you want to start over, simply click reset.

Read more here.

You can round the corners of your user slots so that they look less grid-like by following these steps:

1. Click on your user slot.
2. Click on the icon in the toolbar.
3. Move the second slider (for corner radius) in the dialog to 40, and watch the corners of your user slot round.

You can also click on the circle icon in the dialog and choose Circular/Elliptical to make your user slot a complete circle. Read more here.

1. Click on the element.
2. Click on the icon.
3. Toggle Perspective Shadow or Drop Shadow.
4. Play with your user slot’s shadow by adjust X, Y, Blur, and Spread in the dialog.

Read more here.

Switch into Director Mode by clicking on the icon and holding alt/option. Director Mode is helpful for testing out elements such as buttons and chat boxes. Edit Mode is for editing those elements.

1. Open up your Workspace Settings, which apply to your entire workspace, by clicking on Workspace > Settings from the menu.
2. Click into the text box next to Title in the dialog.
3. Type in whatever you'd like.

1. Open up your Workspace Settings, which apply to your entire workspace, by clicking on Workspace > Settings from the menu.
2. Select Very Low next to User Video Quality.
3. Choose the video quality you want.

Note that higher video quality may slow down your guests' computers. We recommend increasing video quality of individual user slots rather than workspace-wide slots.

If most of your guests are in a specific region, you'll want to select that region in your Workspace Settings by following these steps:

1. Open up your Workspace Settings, which apply to your entire workspace, by clicking on Workspace > Settings from the menu.
2. Click on the dropdown Region and select US East, US West, EU West, or Singapore depending on where the majority of your guests are coming from.

Your workspace will blip for a second when you change the server, so it's best to do before your event starts.

Before you share your workspace with others, you might want to consider a few of our security options, such as setting a password for your workspace, only allowing in users with a certain email domain, and more.

To set a password:

1. Open up your Workspace Settings by going to Workspace > Settings from the menu.
2. Toggle the slider next to Require Password.
3. Type in the password of your choice.
4. Click Save.

Read more here.

There are three main ways to chat in ohyay: via a Chat Bar, text reactions, and a Chat element. We recommend that you offer 1-2 of these options in every room.

By default, the chat bar on the left-hand side of the screen allows you to message all users in your room, all users in your workspace, and any user 1:1.

Text reactions are also turned on by default in every room. You can write a message in the text box and send it up before it disappears after a few seconds.

Finally, you can can insert a chat element by following these steps:

1. Go to the in the toolbar.
2. Click on the .
3. Hover over Interaction and click on Chat.

Hosting others in your workspace

No. As long as your guests have the event link and permission to enter, they can hang out in your workspace without you.

Unlike a video conferencing call that starts and ends when the host comes and leaves, an ohyay workspace is a 24-7 space that allows users to visit at any time. Read more here.

Side Conversations are smaller-group conversations in a room where users can hear the rest of the room at a lower volume.

To start a side conversation, follow these steps:

1. Hover over another user or test bot and you’ll see a chat icon appear.
2. Click on the chat icon to start a side conversation with that user, who will receive a message saying, “[Your Name] is inviting you to a side conversation” and will have the option to either decline or join the conversation.

Our Following feature enables you to pull a user into rooms with you and give them a “tour” of your workspace.

To ask another user to follow you:

1. Hover over another user or test bot and you’ll see a walking person icon appear.
2. Click on it to ask a user to follow you into different rooms. They will have the option to either accept or deny the request.

Click on Users > All Users In Room Follow from the menu. This is a great way to give a group tour of your workspace.

There are a few possible explanations:

• There isn’t a user slot to host your video feed. Add a user slot by clicking on in the toolbar. Make sure it's positioned on-screen.
• You're meant to be an observer of the room. Sometimes events are intentionally configured so that only a few people, such as speakers, appear on-screen.

By default, every ohyay workspace can hold 500 users. When a workspace hits capacity, you'll see a message indicating that the space is full. Guests can click to try to enter again, and if someone leaves, will be able to enter.

In Edit Mode, right-click on the user's video. Hover over More User Actions and select Ban User.

If just want to kick them out of the user slot, you can drag them from the slot to the bottom left in Director or Viewer Mode. A garbage can will appear when you start dragging.

Right click on the user's video and select Mute Camera from the dropdown. You can also turn off their mic by selecting Mute Mic.

No, you can host people in your workspace as soon as you create it. Everything in ohyay auto-saves immediately.

If you would like to make your workspace or room available to our community, click on Workspace > Publish Workspace or Room > Publish Room in the menu.

The two main ways to share your workspace are: (1) copying and pasting the URL at the top of your screen or (2) setting a vanity URL.

To set a vanity URL:

1. Open up your Workspace Settings by going to Workspace > Settings from the menu.
2. Click on the edit icon next to Vanity URL.
3. Enter your custom URL path. If your path isn’t already taken, you’ll see a green check mark appear.
4. Click Save.
5. Copy and paste the Vanity URL in the dialog.

In your invite, you can say something like: *Click on this link (https://ohyay.co/s/birthday-party) to join the virtual event.

Read more here.

Navigate to the room and copy its URL at the top of your screen. When you send your guests that URL, they should be able to navigate to that specific room.

One of the most fun parts of ohyay is live editing with others and bringing a workspace to life together.

You can add someone as admin of your workspace by following these steps:

1. Open up your Workspace Settings, which apply to your entire workspace, by clicking on Workspace > Settings from the menu. In the dialog that appears, you can do things like set a capacity limit and region for your workspace.
2. Click on the next to Manage Admins.
3. Add the email of the user you want to add as an admin.

Whenever an admin makes a change, everyone in the workspace will see it immediately. If you would like to give a user access to the main controls of your space, but not full edit access, you can add them as Director Only. Read more here.