Build a live app on your canvas
Ask for a working app in plain words, use it with your team right beside the notes that inspired it, share it by link, and keep changing it without losing what people saved.
"Export is way too slow." "Text is tiny on mobile." "Please add dark mode." "Feedback is scattered everywhere." A product team has spent two weeks of customer interviews filling a freeform canvas with notes like these, and the last one is the most honest: the feedback is everywhere, and nobody can say which request came up five times and which came up once.
The usual fix is to copy every note into a spreadsheet somewhere else. That works for a week. Then new feedback lands on the canvas, the spreadsheet falls behind, and the team argues from two different lists. A live app closes that gap. You describe the tool you need, ALLO builds a working app, and it runs on the canvas right beside the notes that asked for it, where the whole team can add to it, vote on it, and later share it with people outside the workspace.
This guide follows that product team from the request to version 2 of their customer feedback board, and covers who can do what at each step.
The short version
On a freeform canvas, click Add Live App in the toolbar, describe the app you need, and send it. Answer any question the Lead asks, then let the build run while you keep working. Use the finished app with your team on the canvas, and click Publish in Share when someone outside needs the link. Ask for changes in the same chat, and every saved entry carries over to the next version.
In this 94-second overview, a launch plan and a mug photo become a preorder app. The creator then asks the app's chat to add a waitlist. The walkthrough below uses a customer feedback board to explain the steps.
Check that this canvas can hold one
Live apps run on freeform canvases only. Page canvases, slide canvases, and compact canvases do not have the tool, so if your notes are on a paged board, start a freeform one for the app. Page vs freeform whiteboard explains the difference between the two canvas types.
You also need edit access to the canvas. Without it, clicking the tool shows a no-permission message instead of the creation window. Canvas permissions covers how edit access is granted.
A live app fits when the result is something people use: a board they add to, a tracker they update, a dashboard they check. If you only want to ask what one note or file says, ask about a canvas item instead.
Ask for the app from the canvas
There are two ways in, and both open the same creation window.
- From the toolbar. Click Add Live App (the sparkles icon) in the first toolbar group, next to Select, Drawing, Upload files, and Comment. Its tooltip reads "Create a live app: a chat-built artifact that runs on the canvas."
- From a selection. Select the notes, text boxes, tables, images, or files the app should start from, then click Open in AI Studio in the inline toolbar. The window opens with your selection already attached.
The product team uses the toolbar, because their request fits in one sentence. When the app should start from specific notes or files, the second path saves typing their contents out again. Open in AI Studio does not appear when the selection includes a locked object, a placeholder, something still generating, or a blocked file.
In this clip, the toolbar tool opens the window and the request goes in with the interview notes still in view.
Clicking the tool creates nothing on its own. Nothing exists until you send a message or attach a file.
Write the request before anything starts
The empty window asks you to Assign a task or ask anything. Below the prompt, type chips set what you are making:
| Chip | What you get |
|---|---|
| Auto | A live app: a working app that runs on the canvas. |
| Document | A native canvas document. Create documents with AI Studio covers documents in depth. |
| Image | A native canvas image, with Image quality (Auto, Draft, Standard, High detail) and Aspect ratio options. See Create images with AI Studio. |
| Table | A native canvas table. See Create tables with AI Studio. |
| Audio | A native canvas audio object, with Audio format (Podcast, Explainer, Storytelling, Interview) and Length options. See Create audio with AI Studio. |
The chips show only while the type can still be chosen. For the feedback board, leave it on Auto.
If you are not sure how to phrase the request, open Try an idea. Choosing an idea fills the draft so you can edit it, and nothing starts until you send it.
Attach the files the app should work from with the paperclip (Attach), or drag them onto the chat. Spreadsheets (xlsx, xls, csv, tsv), documents (pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, md, txt, json, html), images, audio, and video are all accepted. Attached images become references for the build.
The team writes one sentence: a board for customer feedback, with a card for each piece of feedback and a way to vote. Press Enter to send.
Say what people will do with the app, not only what it should show. "Teammates add feedback and vote on it" gives the build a job to test. "A feedback board" leaves it guessing.
Let the build run while you keep working
Once you send, the conversation shows the work as it happens.
- The Lead asks first when something is unclear. Questions appear as choice rows or a short input card. The window shows Waiting for your input. Continue in the chat. until you answer. If you skip the question, the Lead picks a direction and tells you which one.
- How it went lists each stage with a done count, from planning through quality review and behavior testing.
- On the canvas, the card reads Building your live app…
Close the window and keep working on the canvas: the build keeps running. If you think of something while it runs, type it anyway. Send becomes Queue follow-up, and the request waits its turn instead of interrupting the build. To call off a build, click the stop button. The outcome reads Stopped, and no published version changes.
Sometimes a finished build waits for you instead of going live. The chat shows Needs your review with See the result, Fix it again, and Don't use it. See the result opens a preview that is not connected to real data, so nothing you enter there is saved. Choose Fix it again to send it back, or Don't use it to drop the result and keep the current version. When automatic fixes run out, Fix it again no longer appears; send a new request in the chat instead.
When the build finishes, the board appears on the canvas right beside the note that asked for it. Watch the bottom-right corner as it lands: the Live apps count appears there.
Use it together, and know who changes it
The board is now a working app on a shared canvas. Anyone who can open the canvas can use it: the designer adds "Text is tiny on mobile" as a card, an engineer votes on the export request, and both see each other's changes in the same app.
In this clip, two teammates add feedback and vote at the same time, and every card and vote lands in the one board.
Using the app and changing the app are different permissions. The window header shows Made by the creator, and only two kinds of people can chat with or change a live app:
| Person | What they can do |
|---|---|
| The creator | Chat, change the app, manage code, data, automation, and sharing, choose administrators, and manage keys in Secrets. |
| App administrators the creator adds | Manage the app's code, data, and automation. With Share conversations on, they also read past conversations and change the app in chat. |
| Other canvas members and guests | Use the app. They do not see the conversation or the code. |
The creator adds people under Admin → Overview → App administrators with Add administrator. Canvas edit access does not make someone an app administrator. That is deliberate: a teammate who rearranges sticky notes should not be able to rewrite the feedback board by accident.
What people can do with the app's data is a separate setting. In Admin → Data, each collection shows its Collection permissions. The owner and administrators always have full access. The row for Everyone else covers canvas members, guests, and visitors from a published link. The creator changes it with Change access:
- View and Add are on or off.
- Update and Delete are Off, Own only, or All.
Click Save to apply. When you turn on View, ALLO shows the exposure warning first, and you confirm with Share records. For the feedback board, a sensible setting turns on View and Add, sets Update to Own only, and leaves Delete Off.
All on Update or Delete lets anyone who can open the app change or delete any entry in that collection, including link visitors once it is published.
Once the app is published, View for Everyone else shows link visitors every record and file in that collection, including data the page does not display. Turning it off takes up to 2 minutes and cannot recall copies someone already downloaded. Check what each collection holds before you publish.
Publish it and send the link
The team wants interviewees to add feedback directly. A live app stays on the canvas until you publish it. Nothing goes out on its own.
- Open the live app and click the share icon to open Share.
- Click Publish. The panel shows "Share this version by link. Later edits stay private until you publish again."
- Click Copy link (or Open in a new tab to check it yourself) and send it.
By default, Anyone with the link can view is on. The link opens without signing in, and visitors can use the app but cannot change it or see the conversation. Turn the switch off and the link opens for canvas members only. The share icon appears for the creator and administrators with conversation access. Apps that look like phishing, impersonation, a scam, or spam cannot be shared by link.
Watch the full handoff: the board is published, the link is copied and sent, and the interviewee opens it in a browser with no ALLO account and adds an entry.
The interviewee could add an entry because the collection allows Add for Everyone else. Collection permissions apply to link visitors exactly as they do to canvas members.
The status in Share tells you where you stand: Published, Changes not published (an earlier version is live and your latest edits are not shared yet), or Not published. Unpublish closes the link. The canvas stays as it is.
Ask for the next version
A week later, the board is full and the team needs to know which cards are being handled. They ask for it in the same chat: add a status to each card.
Follow-ups go in the same conversation (Ask a follow-up…). Each completed change that produces a saved version gets a checkpoint (Checkpoint v1, Checkpoint v2, and so on), and the header shows the current Version with a Versions panel where you can Restore an earlier one.
In the clip, version 2 adds a status to every card and takes the same spot on the canvas, and every entry from version 1 is still there.
That is the rule worth remembering: data stays with the app when its code changes. The feedback, the votes, and the interviewee's entry all carry into version 2. The reverse is also true. Restoring older code does not bring back data that was deleted.
After version 2, check Share. It shows Changes not published until you click Publish again, so link visitors keep using version 1 in the meantime.
Sometimes a follow-up is really a different thing. Ask for a one-page summary of the feedback, and ALLO asks where it belongs, marking the option it recommends:
- Making it in this object replaces this object with the new result. The previous version stays restorable in version history.
- New object keeps this object and its conversation intact. Only this request moves to a new object, so reattach any files it needs.
For the feedback board, choose New object: the board keeps running, and the summary becomes its own object. A document, table, image, or audio object cannot become a web app, so a request like that goes to a new object.
Manage data, keys, and schedules in Admin
People who can manage the app see Preview, Code, and Admin tabs. Code is read-only and shows the Run log, Activity, and Files. Admin is where you run the app day to day, and Manage a live app in Admin walks through every section. In short:
- Data. Edit entries, Add from CSV file, and watch Record usage: every app holds up to 10,000 records, while files attached to records count toward your workspace storage. See Watch the record limit in Data.
- Changes from chat. When you ask the AI (model) to change or delete a saved entry, nothing changes until you choose Apply on its review row, and Discard drops it. See Review the AI's changes.
- Secrets. Only the creator manages the app's keys, the AI (model) never sees their values, and Show values needs no password. See Keep keys safe in Secrets.
- Automation. Re-run the app task repeats your last request and uses AI credits, while Refresh data only pulls fresh data for free. See Schedule work in Automation.
- Sharing. The published version, the app's address, and the link-preview description. See Publish versions and set the link in Sharing.
Make a copy (from the object's context menu) copies the app to a canvas you can edit, and copies start with empty data. Delete app forever in the Data settings deletes every copy and everything it saved, and cannot be undone.
Find every live app on a canvas
Once a canvas holds more than one live app, use the Live apps button at the bottom right. It shows how many there are and opens a searchable list ("Search by name or data source"), with the most recently updated first. Select a row to open that app, or Show on canvas to jump to where it sits. The command palette lists them too.
Pay for builds with AI credits
Builds use your workspace AI credits, charged by what each build actually uses. Building or changing an app usually takes 300-700 credits. Images, narration and music the app makes add their own credits, and a chat answer that changes nothing takes far fewer. A failed build charges nothing. A build needs a minimum credit balance to start, and scheduled Re-run the app task runs use credits each time.
The chat does not show a price for each turn. Spending lands in the shared workspace balance: open Workspace settings and select Usage to see it, and workspace admins can select View history for workspace-wide AI credit activity. Admins buy more through AI credit billing.
What can go wrong
You can't find Add Live App. Check these:
- The canvas is a page or slide canvas. Live apps work on freeform canvases only.
- You don't have edit access to the canvas.
- You're on a phone browser. The toolbar there has no Add Live App, but selecting objects and using Open in AI Studio works.
The build is stuck on "Waiting for your input. Continue in the chat." The Lead asked a question. Open the live app and answer it in the chat.
The result says "Needs your review." The build finished but is not live yet. Open See the result to check it, then choose Fix it again or Don't use it. If Fix it again is missing, automatic fixes are used up, so describe the fix in a new message.
You see "Run stopped with an issue." The run failed and charged nothing. Click Retry this request. Your draft and request are saved, and your last working version is unchanged. When an AI result is not right helps when retries keep failing.
You see "Some media could not be completed." Check each item's label:
- Provider busy. Try again. Nothing was charged for that item. Try that item again.
- Not confirmed. The result could not be confirmed. ALLO does not buy it again automatically.
You see "You're out of AI credits." Admins get Buy credits. Everyone else needs to ask a workspace owner or admin to add credits. See Understand AI credits.
A teammate can't open the conversation or change the app. Only the creator and the app administrators they add can. Ask the creator to add your teammate under Admin → Overview → App administrators, with Share conversations on if they need the chat.
Link visitors can't add entries. The collection does not allow it. The creator opens Admin → Data, clicks Change access, turns on Add for Everyone else, and clicks Save.
You see "App record limit reached." The app has reached its record limit of 10,000 records, or the change you tried would pass it. The creator and app administrators click Contact us in the notice to request a higher limit; everyone else asks an app administrator. Manage a live app in Admin explains the limit.
Attaching a file fails. "Your workspace admin blocked this file type" means an admin restricted that type. "Workspace storage is full" means you need to delete files or add storage, see storage limits.
If none of these match, contact support with the canvas link and the exact message you see.
Related guides
- Page canvases and freeform whiteboards
- Canvas permissions
- Ask about a canvas item
- Understand AI credits
- When an AI result is not right
- Fix storage limits
- Buy and manage AI credits