What guests can see and do in Hives
A guest is someone who has access to specific things in a hive, rather than the whole hive. If your role in a hive is Guest, this page explains what you can see and do. Not sure what your role is? It is shown on your profile.
How you take part as a guest
Your role in a hive is set by its Admins. As a guest, you sign in to the hive in the usual way, using the email address the hive knows you by. See How to sign in to Hives.
You then see only what has been shared with you, usually a page in the hive that names you.
What you can see
As a guest you only see what has been shared with you. That can be:
- a page that names you, with the collections and surveys on it,
- the ideas in those collections that everyone is allowed to see.
A collection is a place where people share ideas around one question or challenge. An idea is one contribution to it. Some collections call them feedback, posts, insights, solutions or suggestions instead.
You don’t see the hive’s Home page, its announcements, its other pages or its list of members.
What you can do
| As a guest you can | As a guest you can’t |
|---|---|
| Open and read the collection, page or survey shared with you | Like, vote or comment on ideas |
| Submit ideas to a collection shared with you, under your own name, when the collection is open to contributions | Choose a group |
| Answer a survey shared with you | See other collections, pages or people in the hive |
| Change your own name and profile picture | Use the hive’s search |
The like, vote and comment buttons aren’t shown to guests. If you’d like to take part fully, for example to comment on ideas and vote for them, ask the hive’s Admins to make you a member. Only Admins can change someone’s role.
Answering a survey
- Open the survey from the page shared with you.
- Click Start.
- Answer each question and click Next. On the last question, click Done.
Your answers are anonymous. Nobody, not even the hive’s Admins, can see who answered what. If you stop halfway, you can come back later and carry on. Once you’ve clicked Done, the survey shows “Already submitted” if you open it again. See Answering a survey.
Finding it again later
Bookmark the page, collection or survey in your browser. It takes you back to the right place. You may need to sign in again, as each sign-in lasts 30 days.
Share links are different
Some collections and surveys are also shared with a link. You don’t need to be a guest or a member to open a share link, and you may not need to sign in at all. See Submitting an idea through a share link and Sharing a survey.
Common questions
Is a guest the same as a Microsoft guest account? No. A guest in Hives is about what you can see in one hive. A Microsoft guest account is a sign-in account from another organisation, and Hives doesn’t accept those. Sign in with your own work account or the email code instead.
Why can’t I see the rest of the hive? Guests only see what was shared with them. This keeps the rest of the organisation’s ideas private.
I get “You don’t have access to this hive”. Sign in with exactly the email address the hive knows you by. See Trouble signing in.