Migrated from the old AhaSlides community — Originally posted by AhaSlides Team on 17 April 2026 · 2 votes on the old forum · view the original
Last July, we took a swing: we retired backstage and launched remote control as a mobile-first way to run your presentations. Six months in, the data and your feedback have told us something important — remote control alone doesn’t cover every way people present. Missing controls, no live slide view, and a bit of latency were real dealbreakers for many of you. Some of you told us directly. A few switched back. We heard you.
Here’s what’s happening next:
- Backstage is returning, fully enhanced. Your control centre for running the show — presenter notes, Q&A moderation, live slide view, and all the stability you expect.
- Remote control stays, as a utility inside backstage. Still mobile-friendly, still no login, focused on what it does best: fast navigation and slide notes on the go.
One thing we learned: there’s no single right way to present. Some of you thrive away from the laptop. Others need everything in view. Backstage — with remote control inside it — is how we serve both.
Questions, thoughts, or the occasional gentle “told you so”? We’re at hi@ahaslides.com.
Originally posted by martin.girschick on 17 April 2026
It’s really nice to see backstage back in action - especially with much better slide preview!
A few notes:
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There doesn’t seem to be a slide bar for the preview slides, to you have to click several times left/right in order to get to all slides.
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This is especially annoying, because click and hold doesn’t continually scroll.
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And when using rapid click you might accidentally reveal the last slide, because there’s no “right” button there.
And please please stop sending mails with large attachments! The announcement weighed 18 MB which is way too much for mail!
Originally posted by martin.girschick on 25 April 2026
Another obvious shortcoming of the current implementation: The lower slide bar is not “in sync” with the actual presentation - the centred slide (or the one to the left) should always be the one currently presented. Currently it only keeps in sync, when the focus is on the lower slide bar.
Reply from Nathan Tran (AhaSlides team) on 30 April 2026
Hi Martin, thanks for pointing this out.
We’ve tested this on our side, but we haven’t been able to reproduce the issue. The slide bar appears to stay in sync with the currently presented slide during our tests.
Could you please share a short screen recording showing the behavior you’re experiencing via email? That would help us better understand the issue and investigate further.
Reply from Nathan Tran (AhaSlides team) on 30 April 2026
Hi Martin, thank you for your feedback. We’re glad to hear you’re enjoying the return of Backstage, especially the improved slide preview.
We appreciate your suggestions regarding navigation in the slide preview. The lack of a slide bar and the need to click repeatedly to move through the slide list can certainly be inconvenient, particularly in larger presentations. We also understand how the current navigation behavior could lead to accidentally revealing the next slide. I will share your feedback with our product team for consideration in future improvements.
As for the email attachments, thank you for pointing that out as well. We understand that large attachments can be cumbersome, and we’ll take this into account for future announcements.
Originally posted by martin.girschick on 7 May 2026
Sorry, I havent’ subscribed to this thread so only just so your answer. I’ve sent a link to hi@ahaslides showing the effect.
Originally posted by transocean.hse on 23 May 2026
Please reconsider the option to share a code that allows another person to act as a moderator. This feature was very useful for me during my presentations: I would lead the meeting while my moderator approved questions throughout the session.
I conduct my meetings using an air mouse with a keyboard, which helps me a lot and is actually even more practical than using the remote control function.
Reply from Nathan Tran (AhaSlides team) on 28 May 2026
Hi Transocean,
Your moderator can moderate questions using the remote control function (no login required). For more information, please check out our guide: https://help.ahaslides.com/portal/en/kb/articles/using-backstage-while-presenting-on-ahaslides
