Sessionwire has two kinds of chat. Studio Chat is for the people in your Session right now. Sessionchat is for messaging your Connections any time.

Studio Chat

In a Session, click Studio Chat at the bottom of your Studio. A panel opens on the right with everyone in the Session.

• To message everyone, leave the recipient set to Everyone.
• To message one person privately, choose them from the recipient list.
• Type in the message box and press Return to send.

Studio Chat messages only last for the Session. To keep them, click Download Chat at the bottom of the panel. It saves the public chat and your own private messages.

Audience members can use Studio Chat too, so it's how they talk to the room.

As the Host, you can also manage people from here: click ... next to someone's name to Make Audience, Make Moderator or Kick them.

Sessionchat

Sessionchat is messaging with your Connections, whether or not you're in a Session. Open it from Sessionchat in the left sidebar. A number shows when you have unread messages.

Choose a Connection to open your conversation with them. You can also start group chats from the Groups tab in your Connections list. Sessionchat is free for every member.

If someone messages you while you're offline, Sessionwire can email you. Turn this on or off under Settings > Notifications > Missed Messages.

Send files

During a Session

Drag a file onto the video of the person you want to send it to. They're asked whether to take it:

• A Guest who's signed in to Sessionwire can choose Decline, Save to Vault or Accept Transfer.
• A Guest who isn't signed in can choose Decline or Accept Transfer.

Any other time

Open your conversation in Sessionchat, click the paperclip, and choose the file.

Why can't I drag audio straight from my DAW?

Sessionwire takes files you drag in from Finder or File Explorer. In most DAWs, dragging a clip or region doesn't hand over an audio file. It carries the DAW's own clip information, such as which part of a recording to play and the edits on it, which only that DAW understands. So when you drop it on Sessionwire, there's no file to send.

Ableton Live is the exception we know of: it hands over a real audio file when you drag a clip out, so you can drop a Live clip straight onto someone's video. A clip you've only just recorded may need the Live Set saved first.

In any other DAW:

1. Bounce or export the audio to a file.
2. Find the file in Finder or File Explorer.
3. Drag it onto the person's video, or attach it in Sessionchat.

Size limits

Files go straight from one computer to the other, encrypted, in the app or a browser.

Everyone can send files, including free Members. During a Session, the size limit depends on the Host's plan:

• In a Basic Host's Studio, each file can be up to 100MB.
• In a Studio or free trial Host's Studio, there's no size limit.

A common way to work is for the performer to record on their side, then send the files when the Session is done. See Record someone with the Receive plugin.

To keep files somewhere you can come back to, upload them to your Vault. See Your Vault.