EN
Demo

Sharing a collection with a link or QR code

Every collection can have a share link and a QR code. Anyone with the link can open the collection and read its ideas, even if they aren’t a member of your hive. You can also let them submit ideas without signing in.

Who can do this: collection managers and Admins.

  1. Open the collection and select the Manage tab.
  2. Click Share in the sidebar.
  3. In the Link & QR-code card, turn on Activate link.

The link appears straight away, with a copy button. Below it is a QR code that opens the same link. Click Download to save the QR code as an image, for example for a poster or a slide.

Note: Admins decide whether collections can be shared outside your organisation, with the External sharing switch in Menu > Admin > Hive > Access > Public access. It is on by default. When it is off, you can’t share collections outside your organisation with a link or QR code. See Hive settings: access, sign-in and the login page.

Visitors see the collection’s cover, title and description, and the ideas any member could see. They can open an idea to read it.

They don’t see:

  • hidden ideas, or ideas in a hidden step or a hidden Inbox;
  • comments, and they can’t comment or react;
  • anything else in your hive.

Opening the link never makes someone a member or guest of your hive.

Let people contribute without signing in

By default, people need to sign in as a member of your hive to submit an idea through the link. To let anyone with the link submit:

  1. Make sure Access is set to Everyone with access. See Collection settings explained.
  2. In the Link & QR-code card, turn on Allow contributing without signing in.
  3. Click Save in the Unsaved changes bar.

How ideas are stored:

Who submits through the link How the idea is saved
A member of your hive who is signed in Under their own name, unless contributor privacy settings hide it
Anyone else (not signed in, or not a member) Anonymously, with no name linked to it

Note: Allow contributing without signing in only works when Access is Everyone with access. If the collection is set to Managers or Closed, nobody can submit through the link without signing in.

The form on the share link doesn’t include file upload questions. See Submitting an idea through a share link.

Show login button

Show login button is on by default. It shows a Sign in button on the shared page. Turn it off if you don’t want visitors to see that button. Click Save after changing it.

  1. In the Link & QR-code card, turn off Activate link.
  2. Confirm with Deactivate link.

The link and QR code stop working at once. If you switch the link on again later, Hives creates a brand-new link and QR code. The old ones never work again, so replace any printed QR codes.

To replace a link that has been shared too widely, turn the link off and on again.

Share the collection with members instead

Members of your hive don’t need the share link. Put the collection on a page they can see, and send them the collection’s normal address from your browser. See Choosing who can see a collection.

Common questions

Does the share link work if the collection’s page is unpublished? Yes. An active share link works whatever page the collection is on.

Will old QR codes from before the October 2026 update still work? Yes, as long as you haven’t switched the link off since.

Can link visitors see who submitted ideas? They see names only where members could see them, never email addresses. On collections that hide contributor names or save ideas anonymously, they see no names.