RTC: Add session activity notifications by shekharnwagh · Pull Request #75790 · WordPress/gutenberg

shekharnwagh · 2026-02-20T19:29:14Z

What?

Depends on #75975

Adds snackbar notifications for real-time collaboration session activity: when a collaborator joins, leaves, or saves the post.

Why?

Collaborator avatars in the top bar show who's present, but they're easy to miss. There's no active notification when someone joins, leaves, or saves — you'd only notice by watching the avatars constantly.

How?

Adds a useCollaboratorNotifications hook that compares the current and previous collaborator lists to detect joins, leaves, and remote saves.
Broadcasts save events to other collaborators via a new lastSaveEvent field on the awareness state.
Detects leaves using the isConnected property transition rather than list removal, so the notification fires when the avatar greys out (not after the 5s cleanup delay).
Skips notifications during initial load to avoid spurious toasts for users already present.
Notification types can be toggled via the editor.collaborationNotifications WordPress filter.

Testing Instructions

Go to Settings > Writing > Enable real-time collaboration.
Open a post for editing in two different browser tabs (or two different browsers for different users).
Verify a "X has joined the post" snackbar appears in the first tab when the second tab opens the post.
Close the second tab. After ~30 seconds, verify a "X has left the post" snackbar appears in the first tab.
With both tabs open, save the post from the second tab. Verify a "Draft saved by X" snackbar appears in the first tab.
Publish the post from the second tab. Verify a "Post updated by X" snackbar appears in the first tab.
Verify no notification appears for your own saves.
Verify no duplicate notifications appear on page load for users already present.

Testing Instructions for Keyboard

No new interactive UI elements are added. Snackbar notifications are announced to screen readers automatically via the existing notice system.

Screenshots or screencast


Notification when a collaborator has left

github-actions · 2026-02-24T16:04:41Z

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If you're merging code through a pull request on GitHub, copy and paste the following into the bottom of the merge commit message.

Co-authored-by: shekharnwagh <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: chriszarate <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: ingeniumed <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: smithjw1 <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: maxschmeling <[email protected]>

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chriszarate · 2026-02-24T16:17:12Z

packages/editor/src/components/collaborators-presence/use-collaborator-notifications.ts

+ * @param postId   The ID of the post being edited.
+ * @param postType The post type of the post being edited.
+ */
+export function useCollaboratorNotifications(


We already track entity save events in the Y.Doc state map. We could listen and dispatch notices from PostAwarenessState

Did you explore this? Run into any issues?

Do you mean the lastSaveEvent state field we added here in this PR or did we used to have something for this already ?

I find it simpler to have all notifications dispatched from the same hook that detects changes, instead of spreading them out. This also avoids directly accessing the Y.Doc state map in useCollaboratorNotifications hook. Given this do you still think it might be better to do it in useBroadcastSaveEvent hook.

I'm saying we could access the Y.Doc state map in PostEditorAwareness and dispatch directly from there, no hook needed.

One of the issues that we encountered last time was that we were mixing UI elements (notices package) into core-data. Since the PostEditorAwareness is located within core-data, the solution should ideally fire the notification from outside core-data. I don't know if we have the convo on a PR on hand, but that's what I recall the last time we explored this.

That said, I do agree that we should re-used the existing keys in the state map that track all this already. We don't need to introduce new ones imo.

I've pushed a few commits to use the existing keys synced using YDoc. The useCollaboratorNotifications hook which dispatches notifications is in editor package so that should address not doing UI stuff in core-data.

ingeniumed · 2026-03-01T22:46:34Z

lib/compat/wordpress-7.0/class-wp-http-polling-sync-server.php

 		 * @var int
 		 */
-		const AWARENESS_TIMEOUT = 30;
+		const AWARENESS_TIMEOUT = 70;


Nothing that this'd need to be backported into 7.0 as a separate PR as well.

Opened a backport PR and linked in new PR #76065

ingeniumed · 2026-03-01T22:48:47Z

packages/editor/src/components/collaborators-presence/use-collaborator-notifications.ts

+ * notices if the same event is processed more than once.
+ */
+const NOTIFICATION_TYPE = {
+	POST_UPDATED: 'collab-post-updated',


I know this was how we kept it in the plugin, but we should match the key with the name.

Do you mean update the key to COLLAB_POST_UPDATED or update the value to align with key ?

My point was more to just align them.

The collab prefix was added to make it clear that this notification was to do with RTC mode only. So IMO, I think COLLAB_POST_UPDATED makes more sense than just POST_UPDATED since we don't handle notifications in non-RTC mode.

ingeniumed · 2026-03-01T22:54:06Z

packages/editor/src/components/collaborators-presence/use-collaborator-notifications.ts

+					continue;
+				}
+
+				notify(


Could the content be generated from within the notify method? The collaborator id and name could be passed in as arguments, or just the entire collaborator object even.

Its tricky for post updated notification as that needs additional data like if its first publish and current status to generate notification content - https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/75790/changes#diff-ec598d4eb0aacc0ff99f30afd0f8e524f4ac9e242cf69e9045bf6aeaf4c3b291R239-R243. So this seems easier to me for now, but open to being convinced otherwise.

ingeniumed · 2026-03-01T22:55:59Z

packages/editor/src/components/collaborators-presence/use-collaborator-notifications.ts

+
+	const notificationsConfig = useMemo(
+		() =>
+			applyFilters(


Is this the best way to configure notifications? Is this inline within how Gutenberg does it? I think there'd need to be a UI (similar to their preferences) to turn this on/off and have it follow the same preferences storage system.

Would it be similar to move the notifications config to a separate PR, and have this be focused on introducing it?

I was going off this comment from the issue -

We've also seen a desire to default some of these to "on" until users turn them off. I don't think we need UI, but perhaps a filter to set the default for an application.

@smithjw1 Any thoughts on dropping the filter and then adding the UI in a follow up PR while keeping all the notifications ON for now ?

No objections.

I've removed the filter and made it on by default for all notifications.

ingeniumed · 2026-03-02T00:50:34Z

packages/core-data/src/hooks/use-post-editor-awareness-state.ts

 		.isCurrentCollaboratorDisconnected;
 }
+
+export interface PostSaveEvent {


Could this go in the types?

Updated. Not adding commit as that changes on rebases but can check in #76065

ingeniumed · 2026-03-02T01:03:27Z

packages/core-data/src/hooks/use-post-editor-awareness-state.ts

+ * @param postId   The ID of the post.
+ * @param postType The type of the post.
+ */
+export function useLastPostSave(


This function at the moment isn't called setup on the Awareness instance.

The other functions in this hook go through a single common method usePostEditorAwarenessState that ensures the awareness instance is properly setup, before accessing anything on it. useLastPostSave benefits from being called after useActiveCollaborators which ensures that the PostEditorAwareness state is setup. If that changes, there's going to be a problem because the setUp function on the awareness instance isn't being called in this method.

It'd be worth exploring how this could go through the common shared hook (might require some refactoring) to ensure this is avoided.

Good catch on the missing setUp(). I've added that call in useLastPostSave now, so it no longer depends on useActiveCollaborators being invoked first. Since setUp() is idempotent, calling it from both hooks is safe.

I looked into routing this through usePostEditorAwarenessState. useLastPostSave subscribes to the Y.Doc state map where markEntityAsSaved writes savedAt/savedBy. The usePostEditorAwarenessState hook is used to subscribe to the awareness, so I'll rather keep them separate.

ingeniumed · 2026-03-02T01:05:37Z

packages/core-data/src/hooks/use-post-editor-awareness-state.ts

+		// syncs historical state on page load or peer reconnect.
+		const setupTime = Date.now();
+
+		const observer = ( event: Y.YMapEvent< unknown > ) => {


There's may be more properties down the line that we might be interested in, it'd be worth exploring how this bit could be redone to make that easier.

Right now savedAt is the only YDoc state map property we observe, so the observer is straightforward. When we need to watch additional properties, we could revisit this.

Did you have anything specific in mind ?

Collaborators had no way to know when others joined, left, or saved the post. This adds snackbar notices for all four events, broadcast via a new `lastSaveEvent` field on the Yjs awareness state. Notification types can be toggled via the `editor.collaborationNotifications` WordPress filter.

Replace custom awareness-based save broadcasting with the existing CRDT state map already written by markEntityAsSaved in @wordpress/sync.

The notification always showed "Draft saved by X" because post status was read from the local Redux store, which lags behind the Y.Doc. Fix by reading status from the Y.Doc record map (updated in the same transaction as the save marker) and distinguishing three cases: "Post published", "Post updated", and "Draft saved".

The 30 s awareness timeout matched the background-tab polling interval exactly, causing awareness entries to expire between polls and triggering false "X has left" notifications that resolved on the next poll cycle. Increase to 70 s to comfortably exceed the polling interval. The value accounts for Chrome's intensive throttling which can delay background tab timers to ~60 s

shekharnwagh · 2026-03-03T08:13:53Z

Re-opened the PR here - #76065

shekharnwagh · 2026-03-03T12:14:58Z

@ingeniumed I've addressed or replied to your review comments. FYI the PR was moved here - #76065

github-actions bot added [Package] Core data /packages/core-data [Package] Editor /packages/editor labels Feb 20, 2026

shekharnwagh force-pushed the add/session-activity-notifications branch from 4bf3ffe to d3119e6 Compare February 23, 2026 19:10

shekharnwagh self-assigned this Feb 24, 2026

shekharnwagh force-pushed the add/session-activity-notifications branch from d3119e6 to d6646ec Compare February 24, 2026 13:36

shekharnwagh requested review from chriszarate, ingeniumed and maxschmeling February 24, 2026 13:50

shekharnwagh added [Feature] Real-time Collaboration Phase 3 of the Gutenberg roadmap around real-time collaboration [Type] Feature New feature to highlight in changelogs. labels Feb 24, 2026

shekharnwagh force-pushed the add/session-activity-notifications branch 2 times, most recently from 5b9ff52 to 18e7c87 Compare February 24, 2026 13:59

shekharnwagh marked this pull request as ready for review February 24, 2026 16:04

shekharnwagh requested a review from nerrad as a code owner February 24, 2026 16:04

chriszarate reviewed Feb 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

shekharnwagh force-pushed the add/session-activity-notifications branch 3 times, most recently from ffe0f12 to 353dee6 Compare February 27, 2026 18:20

shekharnwagh changed the base branch from trunk to fix/sync-stale-crdt-doc-on-save February 27, 2026 18:22

shekharnwagh requested a review from chriszarate February 27, 2026 18:27

shekharnwagh requested a review from spacedmonkey as a code owner March 1, 2026 10:52

ingeniumed reviewed Mar 2, 2026

View reviewed changes

shekharnwagh force-pushed the fix/sync-stale-crdt-doc-on-save branch from fdd556a to 0e59564 Compare March 2, 2026 17:47

shekharnwagh added 5 commits March 2, 2026 23:17

RTC: Fix collaboration presence E2E test

81ea25f

RTC: Use CRDT state map for save notifications

cfbc366

Replace custom awareness-based save broadcasting with the existing CRDT state map already written by markEntityAsSaved in @wordpress/sync.

shekharnwagh force-pushed the add/session-activity-notifications branch from 516abab to ad398fb Compare March 2, 2026 17:47

shekharnwagh added 2 commits March 3, 2026 00:28

RTC: Remove filter for notification config

b48ad4d

RTC: Move PostSaveEvent interface to shared awareness types

697ac5f

chriszarate deleted the branch WordPress:fix/sync-stale-crdt-doc-on-save March 2, 2026 23:36

chriszarate closed this Mar 2, 2026

shekharnwagh mentioned this pull request Mar 3, 2026

RTC: Add session activity notifications #76065

Merged

ellatrix removed the Backport to WP 7.0 Beta/RC Pull request that needs to be backported to the WordPress major release that's currently in beta label Mar 3, 2026

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shekharnwagh commented Feb 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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shekharnwagh commented Mar 3, 2026

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shekharnwagh commented Feb 20, 2026 •

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