Maps – virtual office and community map (Karte)

A Map is a room type with a 2D map. Everybody in the map's call is an avatar (profile picture or initials) and walks around between zones such as a meeting corner, a coffee kitchen, private offices or a stage. You hear the people near you – the closer, the louder – so you can drop by, ask a quick question or close the door for a private talk. Companies use maps as a virtual office, communities as their meeting place with a stage, a lounge and a gaming corner.

Creating a map#

1. Click + next to the space name (you need the permission to create rooms).
2. Pick Map as the room type.
3. Choose a template – Office (meeting corner, private offices, quiet room, coffee kitchen), Community lounge (stage, lounge, gaming corner, chill zone, kitchen) Event hall (big stage with a hall, backstage, meeting corner, quiet room) or Village square (square with a well, campfire circle, four houses, meadow and a quiet corner – made for Werwolf evenings, see Minigames) – enter a name and click Create room.

How many maps a space can have and how many people fit on one map depends on the plan (Free: one map with up to 10 people).

Walking around#

Open the map and click Enter the map – this connects you to the map's call. You start at the starting point.

• Keyboard: click the map (or move to it with Tab), then walk with W A S D or the arrow keys. E or Enter uses an object next to you or knocks at the closed door you stand at, Esc stops walking.
• Mouse or touch: click or tap where you want to go.
• Zoom with the magnifier buttons. The faint circle around you shows how far you can hear.

Microphone, deafen, camera, screen sharing, devices and push-to-talk work exactly like in a voice room (bar below the map).

Who hears whom#

Cameras of people near you appear as small bubbles above their avatars.

Screen sharing on the map#

• See who is sharing – an avatar with a red ring and a LIVE label shares its screen. Top right on the map, the Live screens bar lists the shares of everybody you can hear right now and of everybody in your zone – people behind a closed door are not listed. The bar can be folded in.
• Watch – click Watch in the bar, or click the avatar: Watch screen is the first entry in its menu. The share opens big over the map. A share is only loaded once you watch it (or a TV next to you shows it).
• Keep walking while watching – the button with the small window shrinks the share into a corner of the map; you can walk on and still see it. Click the small window to show it big again; × closes it.
• When somebody starts sharing – a short notice "Name is sharing their screen" with Watch appears on the map, once per share and only for people you can hear or who are in your zone.
• Your own share – while you share, a small card shows your screen (a desktop app share: while Coviqo is visible), how many people watch and Stop sharing. Click the picture to see your share big.

Doors and knocking#

When you are in a private zone, the panel Here shows the door buttons Door open, Door closed and Do not disturb. With the door closed, only the people who were inside and the ones you let in can enter.

Walking into a closed zone stops at the door with Knock. The people inside get a message with Let in and Decline (anywhere in Coviqo). Do not disturb means nobody can knock. When the last person leaves a zone, its door returns to its default.

Knock right at the door: click or tap a door opening of a closed zone (the mouse shows "Knock at …"). You knock and walk up to the door. The people inside hear a short "knock-knock" from the direction of the door and see a fist at the door; you hear a quiet knock as confirmation. An open door is simply walked through, a door with Do not disturb only shows a hint. The knock sound follows your interface sounds (Settings → Audio & video); it stays silent while you are deafened, while your status is Busy or Focus, and for people you blocked – their knock then only waits in the Knocking list, where you can decline it. You can knock at the same zone at most every 10 seconds.

Walls and doors in the wall#

Private zones and whisper zones have solid walls: you can only get in and out through their door openings – the gaps in the wall. Click or tap a point behind a wall and you walk around through the door automatically; with the keyboard you slide along the wall. A closed door also closes its openings (knock as above). If you cannot get anywhere because all doors are closed, Coviqo tells you. Open areas and stages have no walls.

Whoever manages the map can switch off Walls block in the Map settings (gear icon) – then everybody walks through everywhere again. The map settings link to Room settings › Content (the room's tabs); there, a link Map settings below the map row leads back.

Walls have a little depth and a soft shadow; an open door shows a dashed threshold between two door posts, a closed door a bar across the gap (red for Do not disturb). Floors have quiet textures (wood, carpet, tiles …) and zone names sit on a light backdrop, so names and avatars stay easy to read in the light and the dark theme.

Fun features#

What is allowed on a map is switched on or off by the map's managers in Map settings under Fun features.

• Jukebox – an object on the map. When Music plays in the room, it plays from the jukebox: the closer you are, the louder – also on a stage or in a private room; behind closed doors you don't hear it. For audio files of the space you also hear whether the jukebox is to your left or right; YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud only get quieter or louder. With several jukeboxes you hear the nearest one. The music is controlled in the music bar as always.
• Snowballs – click a person (or right-click, long-press on a phone) and choose Throw a snowball, or press F for the nearest person. The snowball flies over and lands as snow on the avatar – nothing else happens. At most one snowball per second. If you don't want to play, switch on Don't let people throw snowballs at me under Settings → Privacy → Maps; people you blocked (or who blocked you) cannot throw at you.
• Pull over – with the permission Pull people over: a person's menu → Pull over. A grappling hook flies over and the person glides to a free spot next to you – never through a wall and never into a zone they may not enter. As with moving people in voice rooms the role order applies (you cannot pull the owner or people with a higher role). Every pull is recorded in the audit log.
• Puddles – walk into one and you stick for a few seconds (1–10 s, per puddle); a hint counts down. Afterwards the same puddle leaves you alone for a moment so you can walk out. Optionally moderators don't get stuck.
• Turbo fields – walking over one makes you faster for a few seconds.
• Placing puddles and turbo fields – right-click a free spot on the map (on a phone: press and hold) and choose Place a puddle here or Place a turbo field here. Who may do that is set in Map settings → Who may place puddles: Moderation (default) or Everyone. Placed objects disappear after a few minutes (default 5, adjustable), don't change the saved map and can't be put on walls, in doorways, on people or into rooms you may not enter. Each person can have 3 at a time, a map 30. Hover over one to see who placed it; the person who placed it and moderators remove it with right-click → Remove.
• Mopping up puddles – anyone on the map can get rid of a placed puddle: click it (or right-click, on a phone tap it; with the keyboard stand next to it and press E / Enter) and choose Mop it up. If you're too far away, your avatar walks over first. Everyone sees a little broom sweep the puddle away (with reduced motion it just fades). Stuck in a puddle yourself? You can't mop while stuck – but if someone else mops your puddle, you're free at once. Puddles that are part of the saved map (editor) and turbo fields can't be mopped.

With "reduce motion" switched on in your system there are no animations: the snow shows briefly without moving, pulled people stand at their new spot right away.

Together and atmosphere#

These features are switched on or off by the map's managers in Map settings too (groups Together and Atmosphere). You use them in the Together panel next to the map.

• Table conversations – click a table to sit down at a free seat. At the table you hear each other at full volume; everybody else only hears a quiet murmur. When all seats are taken you can't join.
• Volume – click a person (right-click, or press and hold on a phone): the menu starts with a volume slider for their voice and, while they share their screen, one for the screen share audio – only for you, on top of the distance.
• Follow – a person's menu → Follow: your avatar walks behind them, through doors as well. As soon as you walk yourself, it stops. The person you follow sees it and can end it with Stop; Settings → Privacy → Maps has Don't let anyone follow me.
• Speech bubbles – type a short text into Say something… (up to 120 characters). It appears above your head for a few seconds – only for the people who would hear you right now. Speech bubbles are not stored and don't end up in the chat. Report an inappropriate bubble from the person's menu.
• Emotes and status – wave, clap, dance and more appear above your head for a moment. As a status you can show Away, Busy or a short text of your own. On a dance floor the avatars dance to the music when music is playing and the floor gently changes colour with the beat (any area can be a dance floor, private rooms too; with "reduce motion" the floor only shows a still tint).
• TVs – when you stand near a screen, it shows the screen share of a person in that area. When you walk away, it is no longer loaded.
• Pinboard – opens the room's whiteboard.
• Portals – walk onto a portal (or click it, or press E next to it) and it takes you to another spot on the same map, to another portal or to another map (for example another floor, also next to a portal there). You arrive next to the target portal, not in it, and portals leave you alone for two seconds. Closed doors apply to portals too.
• Megaphone – with the permission Use the megaphone, stand at a megaphone and choose Megaphone on: for one minute the whole map hears you (except behind closed doors).
• Games – at a table you can roll a die, flip a coin or challenge someone at the table to rock, paper, scissors (the person's menu). Everybody at the table sees the result. Moderators can start a snowball fight: every hit counts, and there is a scoreboard at the end.
• Bots as figures – a bot of the space can stand on the map as a figure. Clicking it opens the conversation with it.
• Sound zones – areas can have quiet background sounds (campfire, rain, café, office, forest, waves). Set the volume or mute them in the panel.
• Time of day, weather and decorations – the map gets darker in the evening and at night, it snows in winter and sometimes rains otherwise, and there are seasonal decorations. When it snows, snowballs may be allowed.

With "reduce motion" there is no snow or rain animation and no dancing.

The panel next to the map can be collapsed with the arrow button at its top – the map then uses the whole width. Your choice is remembered on this device.

Boards, notes and meetings on the map#

Some objects do something: a Whiteboard, Pinboard or Note opens the linked board or note of the room, a Library opens the room's Files (if the room has files and you may see them), a Meeting point starts a meeting with the people in the zone. Start a meeting in the Here panel does the same from anywhere. Objects you can use get a ring when you point at them or stand next to them; click or tap them, or press E / Enter next to them. A Table walks you to a free seat, a Portal takes you on when you stand at it, a Megaphone switches on (with the permission), a Bot opens a conversation.

How to start the jukebox: click the Jukebox (a small ▶ means nothing is playing) – or press E / Enter next to it. If nothing is playing you can start music – as with Music in any voice room and with the same permissions. If music is playing, the jukebox controls open right there: what's playing (title, source, progress), Play / Pause, Restart track, Next track (without control rights: vote to skip), your own volume, Add tracks, Open queue and – for the starter and moderators – End for everybody. Controls you may not use stay greyed out with the reason below them. Space plays / pauses while the controls are open.

Joining while music plays: with Listen to music automatically (on by default, per device – switch in the jukebox controls and in the music bar's … menu) you hear the music right away when you enter the map, as long as it's an audio file of the space or you've already agreed to YouTube / Vimeo / SoundCloud. Otherwise the map shows Music is playing – Listen at the bottom left; one click and you're in. If your browser blocked playback, click anywhere or use Start playback.

How to use the TV: walk up to a TV (from further away, a click walks you there) and click it. Choose Share screen to show your screen on it, or Watch … full size when somebody in its area is sharing. A small ▶ means nobody is sharing yet.

List view#

List shows the same as text: every zone with its type, door and the people in it, Walk there, Knock and the objects you can use (boards, notes, jukebox, TV and more). Screen readers announce when you enter a zone, when somebody knocks and the answer to your own knock.

Editing a map#

With the permission Edit maps, Edit opens the editor: pick a template, set the map size, the hearing range and the starting point, add zones (name, type, default door, number of places, doors in the wall with side, distance and width) and objects (label, linked board or note, jukebox with its range, puddle with its sticking time, turbo field). You can also click a door opening of the selected zone on the map and drag it along the wall. Drag zones and objects on the map; the selected zone has small handles on its corners and edges to resize it (it stops at neighbouring zones, and doors stay where they are on the wall). The Dance floor switch works for every zone type, and Restore default next to the hearing range sets it back to 160 (full volume up to 45). A portal leads to a point on this map (type it or use Pick on the map and click the spot), to another portal of this map (with Link the way back the other portal leads back here) or to another map – there to its starting point or to one of its portals. A dashed line in the editor shows where a portal leads.

Floors and furniture: every zone has a Floor – wood, carpet, light tiles, concrete, grass or stone. Without a choice it follows the zone type (private rooms and whisper zones carpet, the stage wood, open areas light tiles); Floor of the open area sets the floor between the zones. Besides sofa, desk, plant and coffee machine there are Armchair, Rug, Shelf, Lamp and Bar counter in the object list (each with its icon). Decoration can be turned with the two arrow buttons (or Rotate in its menu) and made smaller or bigger with Size (%) (50–300 %). Large pieces can Block the way: nobody walks through them any more – like walls, only while Walls block is on. Everything else stays walk-through.

Right-click a zone or object (on touch: press and hold) for quick actions: Rename, Duplicate, Change type, Make dance floor, Add door here, Rotate (decoration), Bring to front / Send to back (objects), Properties and Delete (with Undo). With the map focused you can also use the keyboard: arrow keys move the selected item by 8 (with Shift by 1), Ctrl+arrow keys resize the zone, Ctrl+D duplicates, Delete removes it and Shift+F10 opens its menu.

Save checks the map (zones inside the map, no overlap, starting point outside private zones).

Moderation#

Click an avatar (or right-click, long-press, or … in the people list): Pull over (when switched on), Move to the starting point (also takes back "let in"), Mute for everyone and Remove from the map – with the same permissions as in voice rooms.

Privacy#

Your position is only kept while you are on the map (the last position, to show you to the others and to mix the sound) and is deleted when you leave. There is no movement history. Maps cannot be end-to-end encrypted yet.