What live effects are
In a room full of people, a big moment is easy to feel: the applause, the cheer, the confetti cannon at the end of the keynote. In a video meeting the same moment usually falls flat. A few people unmute to clap, someone's audio lags, and the energy drains away into a grid of small faces.
Live effects give that moment back. Because your meeting runs inside your own room page, the page can draw on top of it. When the host fires an effect, confetti falls, sparkles drift, a rocket launches or applause rises, and every guest on the room page sees and hears it at the same moment. The effect plays over the meeting without blocking anything underneath, so nobody's controls are covered, and it follows the meeting into full-screen view if a guest has gone full screen.
How the host fires them
Effects live in the host control panel. Each one has a button, and the first five are mapped to keys 1–5, so a host or producer can fire them from the keyboard without hunting for the mouse mid-sentence. The standard effects pack, on the Generic Room and the Branded Room, includes confetti, sparkles, rockets, applause and sounds.
The panel is yours alone; guests cannot fire effects. That matters. It keeps the celebration intentional, and it means the effects mark the moments you choose rather than becoming background noise. On a larger event, give the panel to a producer and agree the cues in your run of show, so the speaker can stay in the moment while the room reacts.
A cue sheet by event
Effects work best when they are planned like lighting cues: few, deliberate and tied to a moment everyone understands. Some starting points:
- Business birthday or anniversary: confetti as the doors open, applause when the founder thanks the team, rockets at the final toast.
- Product launch: a short silence, the reveal, then rockets and applause the instant the new product appears on screen.
- Award ceremony or recognition: applause as each name is read, confetti for the final award.
- Sales kickoff: applause for each team as it is introduced, rockets when the year's theme is announced.
- Masterclass or group coaching: sparkles when a participant shares a win, applause at the close.
- Community call: confetti for members celebrating a milestone, a sound to mark the start of open questions.
- Fundraiser: applause and confetti each time a giving milestone is announced by the host.
Writing effects into your run of show
On any event with more than one speaker, effects belong in the run of show, the minute-by-minute plan that the host and producer both hold. Writing them down stops two things going wrong: an effect fired over a serious moment, and a big moment that passes without one because nobody remembered.
Add a column to your run of show called room cue, and note the effect beside the line it belongs to. A short example from a launch:
Corporate rooms can use the same discipline with a lighter touch. A quarterly business review might carry only one cue, applause when a team is recognised. A town hall might use none until the closing thank-you. The room is yours to pitch.
- Doors open: press Start the room, then confetti once the welcome line lands.
- Founder's story: no effects. Let it breathe.
- The reveal: rockets on the word today, applause straight after.
- First customer question: sparkles when the host thanks the guest by name.
- Close: applause as the host says thank you for being here, and nothing after, so the ending feels clean.
Using effects well
The difference between delightful and distracting is restraint. A few habits keep effects special.
- Fire on the beat, not over it. Let the speaker finish the sentence, then fire, so the effect punctuates rather than interrupts.
- Use fewer, bigger moments. Two or three planned cues in an hour feel like a celebration; constant effects feel like a screensaver.
- Tell guests to turn their sound on. Put a line in the waiting room message, because applause and sounds only play at each guest's own volume.
- Match the effect to the room. Applause and sparkles suit a board-level briefing; rockets and confetti suit a launch party.
- Rehearse once. Open the room on a second device and fire each effect, so you know how it looks and sounds before guests do.
Which tier includes it
The standard effects pack comes with the Generic Room, alongside the attendee list, capacity warnings and a CSV export of your guests, and the Branded Room keeps it alongside your brand kit, custom domain, offers rail and follow-up funnels. The free 30-day trial does not include effects; it keeps to the essentials of welcoming and capturing guests, so choose a plan before the event where you want the celebration.
If you want effects that are unmistakably yours, Custom Deluxe is the plan for it: a room fully branded to the business with its own Go Live command center, a logo burst, custom music and effects, and five custom party features, where you choose the effect, the image, such as your logo popping up, and the sound for each, such as a company jingle or a signature cheer. More custom party features can be added any time as an upgrade.
Honest limits
Effects are on the page, so they reach the people on the page. Every guest viewing your room page sees and hears them at once. Guests who joined with the regular meeting link in their desktop app are in the meeting but not on your page, so they do not see effects.
Effects are not part of your meeting platform's recording, because the platform never sees them; they are drawn over the meeting in each guest's browser. If you want them in a replay, screen-record the room page during the event. Sounds depend on each guest's speaker and volume, and a guest on a muted laptop will see the confetti but not hear the applause. None of this changes the meeting itself, which carries on underneath exactly as normal.