Nearo Rooms let you run a live one-to-one session using your personal Room link, so guests can join from any device without an account.
How Rooms work for hosts
Every teacher and admin account in Nearo has a dedicated Room that belongs to them.
Your Room link stays the same and can be shared with anyone you want to meet with. Guests can join from a computer, tablet, Chromebook, or phone using a web browser — no Nearo account or app required.
Guests on a Mac or Windows computer can also join from the Nearo desktop app instead of a browser. They still do not need a Nearo account, and joining this way lets them share their own screen.
Guests can ask to join at any time, but they wait until you open your Room and admit them.
Opening your Room
To start your Room and make it available for guests:
Open the Nearo desktop app and sign in. Nearo opens to the home screen.
On the home screen, find the My room card at the top of the page and click the blue Open my room button at the bottom of the card.
Your Room opens in the meeting window, and you can admit guests.
🔔 If you are in a call, the button reads End call first. End the call, then open your Room.
Adjusting your video and audio before admitting a guest
When you open your Room, you can adjust your video or audio before you admit a guest, so you are ready before the session starts. Your own video tile is on the left of the Room window. In a narrow window, it moves to the top, with the Room details underneath, and you can scroll down to see the rest. The Controls bar, a dark gray strip, runs along the bottom of the window.
In the Controls bar, click the Mic button at the left to mute or unmute yourself, or click the small arrow next to it to choose a microphone or speaker.
Click the Camera button, next to Mic, to turn your video on or off, or click the small arrow next to it to choose a camera.
Admit your guest when you are ready.
ℹ️ Share Screen stays grayed out until a guest is in the Room.
Checking your setup while you wait
Your Room window checks your camera, microphone, speakers, browser or device, and connection while you wait for a guest.
In your Room window, find the line in the right column, under your Room link. It reads "Checking your setup…", then "Your setup looks good." or a sentence about the first thing to fix.
Click See more to see every check and the sentence to fix under each problem, and click Check again after you fix something.
Click Play test sound to check that you can hear, then click I heard it or I didn't hear it.
The check runs again each time a session ends and you are back in your Room, and it stops when you admit a guest.
ℹ️ The setup check never stops anyone from joining. For what each message means, see What should I do if the Nearo setup check says something needs attention?
Preparing a notebook while you wait
You can open a notebook before anyone arrives, so your materials are ready when your guest joins.
Click the Notebooks icon in the Controls bar, right after Share Screen, to open a notebook in your Room window.
While nobody is admitted, opening the notebook turns your camera off and mutes your microphone. You can still turn them back on yourself with the camera and microphone buttons.
Closing the notebook while you are alone, or admitting a guest, turns your camera and microphone back on if Nearo was the one that turned them off.
When you admit a guest, the open notebook carries into the session in the same window.
Sharing your Room link
You can invite someone to join your Room by sharing your Room link.
Copy your Room link from any of three places. On the home screen of the Nearo desktop app, click the copy icon in the row under My room link in the My room card. In your open Room window, click the copy button under your link. On the Dashboard in your browser, click Copy room link in the Invite someone to your Nearo room card, which is at the top of the page under the welcome heading.
Paste it into an email, text message, or any messaging tool and send it to your guest.
💡 Your Room link does not change, so you can share the same one with students or guests repeatedly.
💡 Both the Nearo desktop app and Dashboard include ready-to-send invitation text for students, families, and guests. See Sharing a Room invitation from Nearo.
Admitting a guest
When a guest asks to join your Room, they wait until you let them in. Nearo plays a chime and shows a notification whenever the app is open and signed in, and a blue number badge next to My room link shows how many people are waiting.
Open your Room if it is not already open. Anyone waiting appears right away.
Waiting guests are listed under your link in the Room window (under WAITING TO JOIN) and in the My room card on the home screen. You can also click Participants in the Controls bar, the last button in its left group, to see who is waiting; the panel opens above the button. The Room window lists the first few waiting guests. When more are waiting, a row reading "N more waiting" appears; click See all to open the Participants panel with everyone.
Select Admit next to a guest in the My room card or the Participants panel to let them in, or use the round green button next to their name in the Room window. The session starts right away.
Select Decline (or the round red button in the Room window) to remove them from the waiting list.
ℹ️ Only one guest can be in your Room at a time. While a session is running, other guests keep waiting until it ends.
💡 For more guest controls — switching between guests, ending a guest's session, and closing your Room — see Managing guests in a Nearo Room.
What you can do in a Room
As the host, you have access to all standard session features:
Audio and video with your guest
Share your screen so the guest can see what you are working on
Share your computer's audio along with your screen
Allow your guest to control your screen using remote control
🔔 In a Room, a guest who joined from the web can see and control your screen but cannot share their own. A guest who joined from the Nearo desktop app can share their screen.
Ending a session and closing your Room
Your Room stays open between sessions, so you can admit the next guest without reopening it.
To end the session with a guest but keep your Room open, click the red End Call button at the right end of the Controls bar.
To close your Room, click Close Room in the My room card on the home screen, or click the red Leave Room button at the right end of the Controls bar when no guest is in the Room. Closing the Room window also closes your Room. If a guest is in your Room, Nearo first asks "End session?" Select OK to end the session and close your Room, or Cancel to stay in the session.
Closing your Room ends any session in progress, and anyone still waiting is told that you have left.
ℹ️ Sessions have no time limit. If you are alone in your open Room for about 10 minutes, Nearo asks "Are you still there?" Select OK to stay; otherwise Nearo closes the Room after 2 minutes. Typing or drawing in a notebook in your empty Room counts as being there.
ℹ️ Two hours after a session connects, you and a guest who joined from the Nearo desktop app are both asked "Are you still there?" Select OK to keep going, and Nearo asks again two hours later. If you select Cancel, or the question is not answered within 2 minutes, the session ends. A guest on the web is not asked.