Sidekick Interactive Audience features — Live Polls, Live Responses, Live Trivia, etc. — let your students participate from their phones. It all runs through one session: students scan a QR code once, and they’re connected for the whole event, following along automatically as you switch between features. No app download, no accounts, just a web page.
Starting a Session
- Make sure your Mac is online — live sessions need internet so phones can connect.
- In the right sidebar on the bottom, find INTERACTIVE AUDIENCE FEATURES and click Start INTERACTIVE AUDIENCE Session. (Going live with any Live feature starts a session automatically, too.)
- Click the QR toggle to put a full-screen Scan to Join code on the display, or the copy link button to share the join URL in a group chat.
Students scan, their browser opens, and they’re in. They can also input the code provided to join. The session stays live as you move from Live Polls to Live Trivia to Live Responses — one scan covers the whole night. When no activity is running, their phones show “Waiting for next activity…” — tell students to keep that page open.
While the Session is Live
The sidebar shows a green Live indicator, a running timer, and the audience gauge — how many unique people have joined against your plan’s audience limit. The gauge turns orange as you approach the limit and red when you’re full; once full, new joiners see a “session is full” message (everyone already in stays connected). Each person counts once for the whole session, no matter how many games they play.
Names and Moderation
Most features need no name at all — polls, rankings, and Read the Room are anonymous taps. Games with winners (Live Trivia, Live Pick Me, and others) ask each player to enter a name when joining. Every typed name passes through content moderation before it can appear on your screen — inappropriate names are rejected and the student is asked to pick another. Many of those games also offer a Random Names Only setting if you’d rather skip typed names entirely.
Connection Issues
Phones reconnect automatically after a dropped signal or an accidental refresh — players rejoin with their name and place intact. A “Reconnecting…” banner shows on their screen while it happens.
Ending a Session
Click the red stop button in the sidebar. Sidekick confirms — “This will disconnect all audience members and end any active games” — then disconnects everyone and shuts down the session. Students’ phones show that the session has ended.
Two things worth knowing:
- Ending an individual game (from that feature’s controls) does not end the session — students stay connected, waiting for your next activity.
- Sessions expire on their own after 4 hours, so a forgotten session won’t run all week.
Each new session gets a fresh QR code, so next week is a new scan.
