Rooms

Rooms are collaborative spaces where teams gather to discuss ideas, share updates, and make decisions. Each Room is a dedicated environment with its own chat, voice channels, and collection of Sparks.

What Are Rooms?

Think of a Room as a virtual meeting space that persists over time. Unlike a calendar meeting that ends when the call drops, a Room stays active. Conversations, Sparks, and shared context accumulate, creating a living record of your team’s work.

Rooms appear as tiles on your canvas. Click a Room to enter it and see all the Sparks, messages, and activity inside.

Room Anatomy

Every Room includes:

Identity

Title: A clear name that describes the Room’s purpose
Description: Additional context about what the Room is for
Color: A visual identifier that makes the Room easy to spot on the canvas
Icon: A symbol that represents the Room’s theme or purpose

These elements help teams quickly identify and navigate between Rooms.

Canvas Presence

Rooms exist as tiles on your personal canvas. Each tile shows:

Room name and icon
Color coding
Activity indicators (new messages, active participants)
Quick access to enter the Room

You can position Room tiles anywhere on your canvas, grouping related Rooms together or arranging them by priority.

Communication Channels

Rooms support multiple modes of real-time communication:

Text Chat

Every Room has a persistent chat powered by Agora Chat SDK. Messages are threaded, searchable, and preserved over time. Use chat for:

Asynchronous updates and questions
Sharing links and resources
Quick coordination
Documenting decisions

Voice and Video Calls

Rooms support live audio and video calls powered by Agora RTC SDK. Start a call when you need:

Real-time discussion
Screen sharing and demos
Face-to-face collaboration
Quick sync-ups

Calls are ephemeral, but you can summarize key points in chat or update Sparks to preserve decisions.

Organized Channels

Rooms can have multiple channels for different types of conversations:

General discussion
Announcements
Specific topics or workstreams
Social and off-topic

Channels keep conversations organized without requiring separate Rooms for every topic.

Sparks Collection

Rooms are where Sparks live. Every Spark you create exists within a specific Room. The Room provides:

A canvas where Sparks are positioned spatially
Context for understanding what each Spark is about
A shared space where team members can discuss and refine Sparks

Rooms and Sparks work together: Rooms provide the space, Sparks provide the structure.

Public vs. Private Rooms

Rooms can be configured as public or private:

Public Rooms

Public Rooms are visible to everyone in your organization. Anyone can:

See the Room on the canvas
Enter the Room and view Sparks
Participate in chat and calls
Create new Sparks

Use public Rooms for:

Company-wide announcements
Open brainstorming
Cross-team collaboration
Shared resources

Private Rooms

Private Rooms are visible only to invited members. Access is controlled by:

Explicit invitations
Membership lists
Permission settings

Use private Rooms for:

Sensitive discussions
Executive planning
Client projects
Small team coordination

You can change a Room’s visibility at any time, though moving from public to private requires careful consideration of who currently has access.

Creating and Managing Rooms

Creating a Room

To create a new Room:

Click the “New Room” button on your canvas
Choose a title and description
Select a color and icon
Set visibility (public or private)
Invite initial members (for private Rooms)

The Room appears immediately on your canvas and is ready to use.

Room Settings

Room owners and administrators can configure:

Basic information: Title, description, color, icon
Visibility: Public or private
Membership: Who can access the Room
Channels: Create, rename, or archive channels
Moderation: Content policies and reporting settings
Notifications: How members are alerted to activity

Settings can be updated at any time to adapt to changing needs.

Inviting Members

For private Rooms, you can invite members by:

Email: Send an invitation to any email address
Shareable link: Generate a link that grants access when clicked
Direct selection: Choose from existing team members

Invited members receive a notification and can enter the Room immediately.

Room Activity and Presence

Rooms show real-time activity indicators:

Active Participants

See who’s currently in the Room:

Profile pictures of active members
Presence indicators (online, away, offline)
Activity status (typing, in a call, viewing Sparks)

This helps you know when it’s a good time to start a conversation or join a call.

Recent Activity

Room tiles show recent activity:

Unread message counts
New Sparks created
Ongoing calls
Recent updates

These indicators help you prioritize which Rooms need your attention.

Notifications

Rooms can notify you of important events:

Direct mentions in chat
New Sparks created
Calls starting
Announcements

Configure notification preferences to stay informed without being overwhelmed.

Content Moderation

Rooms include moderation tools to maintain productive, respectful spaces:

Reporting

Any Room member can report:

Inappropriate messages
Problematic Sparks
Disruptive behavior

Reports are reviewed by Room administrators and platform moderators.

Admin Actions

Room administrators can:

Hide or remove messages
Hide Sparks (see Sparks documentation)
Mute or remove disruptive members
Archive or lock channels

These actions are logged for transparency and accountability.

Appeals

Members can appeal moderation decisions. Appeals are reviewed by administrators, who can reverse actions if appropriate.

Room Workflows

Brainstorming Sessions

Use Rooms for structured brainstorming:

Create a Room for the brainstorming topic
Invite relevant team members
Use chat to share initial thoughts
Create Sparks for promising ideas
Use voice/video to discuss and refine
Position Sparks on the canvas to show relationships

The Room becomes a permanent record of the session, with all ideas preserved and organized.

Project Coordination

Use Rooms to coordinate ongoing projects:

Create a Room for the project
Set up channels for different workstreams
Create Sparks for key deliverables and decisions
Use chat for daily updates and questions
Use calls for weekly syncs and reviews
Update Sparks as the project evolves

The Room provides a single source of truth for project status and history.

Team Discussions

Use Rooms for recurring team discussions:

Create a Room for the team or topic
Use channels to organize different discussion threads
Create Sparks for decisions and action items
Use chat for asynchronous discussion
Use calls for real-time debate and alignment
Archive old channels as topics are resolved

The Room grows with your team, accumulating knowledge and context over time.

Best Practices

Name Rooms Clearly

Choose names that make the Room’s purpose obvious. “Product Ideas” is better than “Brainstorming.” “Q1 Planning” is better than “Planning Room.”

Use Colors Intentionally

Assign colors to help categorize Rooms:

Blue for product and engineering
Green for operations and finance
Purple for design and creative
Red for urgent or high-priority

Consistent color coding makes navigation faster.

Keep Rooms Focused

Don’t try to use one Room for everything. Create separate Rooms for distinct topics or projects. It’s easier to navigate multiple focused Rooms than one cluttered Room.

Archive Inactive Rooms

When a project ends or a topic is resolved, archive the Room. Archived Rooms are hidden from the canvas but remain accessible for reference.

Set Clear Expectations

Use the Room description to set expectations:

What the Room is for
Who should participate
How decisions are made
When to use chat vs. calls

Clear expectations reduce confusion and improve collaboration.

Moderate Proactively

Don’t wait for problems to escalate. Address disruptive behavior early, clarify norms, and use moderation tools to maintain a productive environment.

Technical Details

Data Model

Each Room includes:

Unique identifier
Title, description, color, icon
Visibility setting (public or private)
Membership list (for private Rooms)
Channel configuration
Moderation settings
Position on the canvas (x, y coordinates)
Timestamps (created, updated)

Real-Time Communication

Rooms use Agora SDKs for real-time features:

Agora Chat SDK: Text messaging with presence and typing indicators
Agora RTC SDK: Voice and video calls with screen sharing

These SDKs provide low-latency, high-quality communication with global reach.

Storage and Retrieval

Room data is stored in MongoDB. Chat messages and call metadata are stored separately for performance:

Room metadata: MongoDB
Chat messages: Agora Chat cloud storage
Call recordings (if enabled): Agora cloud storage

This separation ensures fast Room loading while preserving full communication history.

Integration with Other Features

Rooms integrate deeply with other Flowstate features:

Sparks

Sparks are created and stored within Rooms. The Room provides context for understanding what each Spark is about.

Offices

Office workspaces can have their own Rooms, separate from personal canvas Rooms. This keeps team discussions organized and private.

Stage

Rooms can host Stage broadcasts, turning a discussion space into a presentation venue.

Widgets

Widgets can be added to Rooms to extend functionality (transcription, polls, shared documents, etc.).

Future Enhancements

Planned improvements to Rooms include:

Threaded conversations for better chat organization
Pinned messages and Sparks for highlighting important content
Room templates for common use cases
Advanced search across all Room content
Integration with external tools (Slack, Teams, etc.)
Custom roles and permissions beyond public/private

Rooms are the foundation of collaboration in Flowstate. By providing persistent, organized spaces for discussion and decision-making, they help teams work together more effectively.