Beyond colored cursors, Kolab can show participants as living faces on the canvas — avatars that grow when a room is quiet, glow when someone's talking, and let you pin the people you want to keep an eye on.
Turning It On
Spatial avatars are an opt-in, space-wide feature — off by default. A facilitator or host turns on Spatial avatars (beta) from space settings or the share panel. It's labeled beta, but it's fully available today; any facilitator can switch it on for their space.
Faces That Respond
Dynamic Sizing
Avatars aren't a fixed size — two things adjust them automatically:
- How many people are visible - a sparse room gets bigger, more legible faces; a crowded one shrinks avatars so everyone still fits.
- Your zoom level - zooming out shrinks avatars a bit, zooming in grows them, within a modest range.
This is purely visual. It never changes anyone's actual position on the canvas.
Speaker Spotlight
When someone talks, a soft colored glow blooms behind their face in their own avatar color, and their avatar's rim tints to match:
- If you're close enough to actually hear them, you get a fuller, teal-ish bloom.
- If they're speaking elsewhere on the canvas, out of your earshot, you still see a dimmer version of the glow — a way to spot who's talking before you can hear them.
In small clusters, that glow is the whole cue. Once a lot of people are gathered and audible together, a speaking person's face also grows slightly, making them easier to pick out in a crowd.
Peek and Pin
Peek
Hover over someone else's avatar for about a second and their face gently enlarges with a soft lift and shadow — a quick way to get a better look at someone without committing to anything.
Pin
Click an avatar to lock it at a larger size with a steady violet glow. Click it again to unpin.
- You can pin up to 6 faces at once. Try for a 7th and Kolab nudges you to release one first.
- Pinning is private — only you see your own pins.
Being Featured
Featuring is separate from your own pin. A facilitator can feature someone for the whole room to see — via right-click on their avatar, or from the participant list. The featured person is enlarged for everyone with a steady violet ring, the same visual language as a personal pin, but set by a facilitator and visible to all. It's a useful way to spotlight whoever's presenting or leading an activity.
Finding Yourself
The existing Find Yourself button (bottom of the zoom controls) already recenters the canvas on you. Now it — and getting moved by a facilitator — also pulses a bold ring around your own avatar in your own color a few times, so you can't miss where you landed.
This beacon pulse works the same whether or not spatial avatar presence is turned on for the space — it's a small enhancement to the existing Find Yourself feature. See Navigating the Space for more on getting around the canvas.
In the Video Grid
Spatial avatars live on the canvas, but there's a related always-on enhancement in the video grid (Sidebar or Conference layout): when someone's camera is off, their placeholder circle glows brighter in sync with their voice while they talk. This works regardless of the spatial-presence toggle — it's on for every space.
Related Guides
- Presence & Cursors - Colored cursors and selection indicators
- Navigating the Space - Moving around the canvas and finding yourself