Real-time collaboration (Beta)

Real-time collaboration allows multiple people to edit the same post, page, or custom post type at the same time in the block editor, with live cursors, presence indicators, and automatic merging of everyone’s changes. On VIP, real-time collaboration runs over a dedicated WebSocket connection, so changes show up with low latency even with many simultaneous editors.

Real-time collaboration is currently in beta on WordPress VIP. Sites should expect ongoing changes to behavior and limitations while the feature stabilizes.

Prerequisites

• Real-time collaboration must be activated for the organization and application via the Integration Center in the VIP Dashboard.
• Real-time collaboration only works in the block editor. WordPress disables it automatically in the Site Editor.
• Custom post meta must be registered with show_in_rest set to true to sync between collaborators. Meta that is not REST-exposed is invisible to the block editor, and therefore invisible to real-time collaboration.

Limitations

Collaborator limits

Every open editing session—including a single person editing alone—counts against an application-wide limit on concurrent real-time collaboration sessions, because each session needs a connection to stay synchronized in case another collaborator joins. This means the limit applies across the whole application, not per post, and not only to posts with more than one editor.

The limit varies by VIP Support tier. Contact your VIP team to confirm the current limit for your application before rolling out real-time collaboration broadly, particularly for applications with a large number of concurrently active editors (for example, multisite networks with many independently staffed network sites).

Classic metaboxes

Real-time collaboration doesn’t work with plugins that render classic metaboxes—input fields that appear below the main editor rather than as block settings. This includes plugins like Yoast SEO when configured to use classic metaboxes, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) in legacy metabox mode, and custom code that registers its own metaboxes. WordPress falls back to its standard post-locking behavior on these posts, so only one person can edit at a time.

A site admin can mark a specific metabox as compatible without code changes from the plugin author, using the filter_block_editor_meta_boxes PHP hook to flag it __rtc_compatible_meta_box. See WordPress/gutenberg#76939 for the hook usage and more examples.

Undo and redo scope

Undo and redo only apply to a collaborator’s own changes during a real-time session. This is intentional—it prevents one collaborator from accidentally undoing another collaborator’s work. That can mean that if a collaborator updates something after you do, you can no longer undo your edit, because the content has already changed.

Sidebar fields backed by attachment data

The Image block’s sidebar settings (Alt text, Caption, Credit, and content-warning fields) source their displayed value from the attachment’s record, until a collaborator edits the field directly. That means collaborators can see different, stale values for the same field in the sidebar. Editing a field directly brings it into the synced block state going forward. Fields backed entirely by attachment metadata with no corresponding block attribute do not sync.

Roles and permissions

Real-time collaboration uses WordPress’s existing edit_post capability—anyone who can already edit a post can collaborate on it in real time. No additional roles or permissions are required.

Enabling real-time collaboration

Real-time collaboration is activated per application from the VIP Dashboard, the same way as other VIP integrations:

1. Open the App Integrations panel for the application.
2. Select Real-time collaboration to open its Configure Integration panel.
3. Set the Activate Integration toggle to Active.

No plugin installation or code changes are required. The integration bundles a version of the Gutenberg plugin. Including another copy of the Gutenberg plugin in the application can cause conflicts. Use the bundled version. VIP cannot support sites that run any other version.

Using real-time collaboration

Starting a collaborative session

Open any post or page that supports the block editor. If another collaborator is already editing it, their avatar appears in the editor toolbar within a few seconds. Selecting an avatar shows who else is currently editing.

No further action is required—collaboration starts automatically once 2 or more people have the same post open.

What collaborators see

While collaborating, the editor shows:

• Presence: avatars for everyone currently editing.
• Live edits: text and blocks added by a collaborator appear as they type.
• Cursors: other collaborators’ cursor positions.
• Save status: WordPress saves the merged state for every collaborator, not just the person who clicked Save.

Editing alone

If no one else is editing, real-time collaboration keeps running in the background without changing the editing experience. Changes still save normally.

Notes for developers extending the block editor

• Inputs in custom block or sidebar UI must be controlled by the underlying data store rather than by component-local state. An input whose value is copied into useState on mount stops responding to changes from other collaborators, even though the underlying data continues to sync correctly.
• A block attribute typed as an array (for example, a list of rows or items) is replaced atomically by default—2 collaborators editing different items in the same list can overwrite each other. Adding a query property to the attribute’s schema, describing the shape of each array element, allows real-time collaboration to merge individual items independently instead of replacing the whole array.

Troubleshooting

The collaborators indicator doesn’t appear

It can take up to 10 seconds for editors to discover each other. If it still doesn’t appear:

1. Confirm the internet connection is stable and refresh the page.
2. Confirm real-time collaboration is active for the application in the Configure Integration panel.
3. Check for an IP allow list or basic-auth gate in front of the environment. This is common on non-production environments.

Changes aren’t syncing

1. Confirm both collaborators have permission to edit the post.
2. Check the browser console for connection errors.
3. Temporarily disable other plugins to rule out a conflict, particularly plugins that add classic metaboxes (see Limitations, above).
4. If only a specific custom field or sidebar setting isn’t syncing, confirm its post meta is registered with show_in_rest set to true, and that any custom input reads its value from the data store rather than local component state (see Notes for developers, above).

Changes appear to have been lost

1. Open the document settings panel and select Revisions to review and restore an earlier version.
2. WordPress continues to autosave during real-time collaboration, so recent changes are very unlikely to be gone permanently—check the post’s revision history before concluding otherwise.

Reporting an issue

Report real-time collaboration issues, including security concerns, to VIP Support. Include:

• A description of the problem and steps to reproduce it.
• What was expected versus what happened.
• The application, environment, and approximate time of the issue.
• Browser console errors, if any.