How Herae works

Your first night, start to finish

The whole flow in one place: install, connect, watch, and look back at what Herae caught.

1. Pin the icon. Click the puzzle-piece button in the toolbar, then the pin beside Herae. Almost every "it is not working" turns out to be a hidden icon.
2. Sign in. Open the popup and sign in with Google or an email address. Both computers need an account — a guest link works too if your partner has not got one.
3. Add each other. Send an invite link from the popup. They open it, and you appear in each other's contacts.
4. Open something to watch. Start a session from the popup. Herae opens its own window; that window is the one being synced, and your other tabs are untouched.
5. Start a call. A card offers it when your night starts — press "Start video call". (It is also in the message bubble, under the call controls.) The call starts straight away.
6. Take a photo booth strip. Press the 📸 button. Both screens count down 3-2-1, Herae takes four photos of the two of you, and the strip is saved to your memories by itself — private to you two until you share it.
7. Click the toolbar icon once (optional). That single click lets Herae film the tab smoothly for your video memories. Without it everything still works; the film in a memory is just less smooth.
8. Watch. Play, pause and seek as normal. Everything you do happens for both of you.
9. Look back. Press Finish Session, or just close the window. The review page opens with the moments Herae caught. Press "Keep all", or tick "Keep them for me after every night" and never think about it again.

If something is off

• My partner cannot join. Both sides must be signed in and connected before the session starts. Check the popup shows a live connection.
• We are on different pages. Navigation is shared, so whoever moves takes the other with them. If that has not happened, one side is disconnected.

Tips

• Do the toolbar click before the film starts, not during a good bit.

Best practice

• Sign in on both computers first. Joining halfway is possible but never as smooth.

Permissions, and why Herae asks

Herae asks for three things, each at the moment it is needed, and never in the background.

1. Start a video call. The browser asks for camera and microphone. Allow both — muting later is a button, not a permission.
2. Watch for the pointer. A hand appears pointing at your toolbar with "Click the Herae extension icon first".
3. Click the icon. Or press Alt+Shift+C, which counts as the same deliberate invocation. The call starts the moment you do.

How it works

• Camera and microphone are asked for by the browser the first time you start a call, and are opened once by the extension rather than once per site.
• Filming the tab needs a separate, deliberate click on the Herae toolbar icon. Chrome only grants that when you invoke the extension yourself — a button inside the page cannot do it, which is a rule of the browser rather than a choice of ours.
• That grant lasts for the whole site until you leave it, so it is once per site rather than once per moment.

If something is off

• The pointer is aiming at the wrong place. It aims at a fixed spot near the right of the toolbar, because an extension cannot read where its own icon sits. If yours is elsewhere, the icon is still the target.
• I clicked but nothing happened. The grant is per site and is lost when you navigate to a different one. Click again on the new site.
• I do not want to be filmed. Turn AI Moments off in Settings. Nothing is captured, no permission is requested, and calls start immediately.

Tips

• Alt+Shift+C does the same job without hunting for the icon.
• Doing it before the film starts means it never interrupts anything.

Best practice

• Grant it once at the start of the evening rather than being asked again on the next site.

The Herae extension

The extension is Herae itself — it lives in your browser toolbar and works on any site you already watch on.

How it works

• Click the Herae icon in the browser toolbar to open the popup. Everything starts there: signing in, your contacts, invites and settings.
• Once you are in a session, most controls move into the message bubble on the page itself, so you never have to go back to the toolbar mid-film.
• Herae opens its own window for watching together. That window is the one being synced; other tabs are untouched.

If something is off

• Nothing happens when I click the icon. The extension may have been reloaded while a session was open. Close the popup, reopen it, and sign in again if prompted.
• I cannot find the icon. Chrome hides new extensions behind the puzzle-piece button. Click it, then the pin next to Herae to keep the icon visible.
• It works on one site but not another. Pages served by the browser itself (chrome:// pages, the Web Store) cannot be captured or synced by any extension. Open the film on an ordinary site.

Tips

• Pin the icon. Almost every "Herae is not responding" report comes down to not being able to find it.
• The popup remembers where you left off, so closing it never loses a session.

Best practice

• Sign in on both computers before the film starts — invites and sync are much smoother than joining halfway through.

Playback sync

Keeps everyone on the same second of the same page, so play, pause and seek happen for everyone at once.

How it works

• When anyone plays, pauses or seeks, that action is sent to everyone else and applied immediately.
• Navigating to a new page takes everyone with you, so choosing the next episode is a shared action rather than an instruction you have to type out.
• Sync uses a logical ordering rather than wall-clock time, so two people whose computer clocks disagree still stay in step.

If something is off

• We have drifted apart. Seek once — the seek is broadcast and pulls everyone back together. Drift usually means one side buffered.
• My partner is not following my navigation. Both sides must be connected. Check the popup shows a live connection rather than "reconnecting".
• The site fights the sync. A few players override seeks with their own logic. Pause, seek, then play, which most players accept.

Tips

• Pausing is the fastest way to regroup — everyone stops on the same frame.
• Sync follows the Herae window. Playing something in a different window will not be shared.

Best practice

• Let one person drive during the opening minutes. Two people seeking at once is the most common cause of a jumpy start.

Video calls

See each other while you watch. The call floats over the film in a window you can move and resize.

1. Open the message bubble. It floats on the page you are watching; drag it anywhere.
2. Choose Video Call. The browser asks for camera and microphone the first time only.
3. Click the toolbar icon when the pointer appears. One click, then the call starts by itself.
4. Arrange the window. Drag the call window anywhere, resize it from its corner, or tuck it against an edge.

How it works

• Start a call from the message bubble on the page. Your camera and microphone are requested once, in a tab that opens for the purpose.
• Drag the call window anywhere; drag its corner to resize. It remembers where you put it.
• Click any face to make it large, with everyone else in a strip.

If something is off

• My camera is black. Another app may be holding it. Close Zoom, Teams or Meet and use "Audio & video settings" under the End Call button to reselect the camera.
• The wrong camera or microphone is being used. Open "Audio & video settings" beneath the End Call button and pick the right one. The change applies mid-call without rejoining.
• I was never asked for permission. Use "Request permissions again" in that same panel.

Tips

• The call window can be moved out over the edge of the screen if you want it nearly out of the way.
• Turning the camera off keeps the call — you stay on audio.

Best practice

• Put the call window in a corner away from subtitles.

Audio calls

Talk without being on camera — the lightest way to watch together, and the kindest on a slow connection.

How it works

• Choose audio when starting a call. Only the microphone is requested; the camera is never opened.
• Everyone appears as a tile with a headphone mark instead of a picture.
• You can switch a camera on later without restarting the call.

If something is off

• Nobody can hear me. Check the microphone button is not muted, then confirm the right input under "Audio & video settings".
• I hear an echo. Usually two devices in one room. Mute one, or use headphones.
• My voice cuts out. Herae reduces audio quality before dropping it entirely, so cutting out normally means the connection briefly failed. It recovers on its own.

Tips

• Audio calls use a fraction of the bandwidth of video, so they are the right choice when the film is already struggling.

Best practice

• Headphones. Nearly every audio problem on a movie night is the film playing into a microphone.

Push-to-talk

Stay muted by default and open the microphone only while you hold the key — for watching in a quiet house.

How it works

• Choose push-to-talk when starting a call. Your microphone stays closed until you hold the key.
• Everyone else hears you only while it is held, so background noise never reaches the room.

If something is off

• Nobody hears me even when holding. The page must have focus for the key to register. Click the film once, then try again.
• I want to stay unmuted. Switch to an ordinary audio call — push-to-talk is a mode, not a permanent setting.

Tips

• Best mode for late-night watching with someone else asleep in the house.

Best practice

• Say the person's name before you start talking — with push-to-talk the first half-second is easy to miss.

AI Moments

Notices the moments worth keeping while you watch — the laugh, the gasp, the two of you reacting to the same second — so nobody has to remember to press record.

1. Turn it on from the 🎥 button. AI Moments is off until you choose it. Tap the 🎥 button beside the chat bubble, then AI Moments. A red dot means it is on; tap again to turn it off.
2. Start a video call. Automatic moments only run during a call — that is the only time there is a face to read.
3. Click the toolbar icon if the arrow points to it. One click lets Herae film the tab smoothly for your clips. Without it the film behind you records as a slideshow; your faces are captured either way.
4. Forget about it. Nothing appears mid-film. Herae watches for reactions and holds what it finds.
5. Press Finish Session. The review page opens with what it caught, and nothing is uploaded until you keep something.

How it works

• Everything runs on your own computer. Your camera frames are analysed locally and never leave the device — no video is uploaded for this, ever.
• It watches for real reactions rather than faces: laughing, crying, jumping, cheering, the moment you both react at once.
• A brief peak becomes a photograph. A reaction that genuinely moves becomes a short clip. Sitting still with a pleasant expression becomes neither.
• At the end of the session you are shown what it found. Nothing is saved unless you keep it.

If something is off

• It found nothing. Quiet nights genuinely produce nothing, and that is correct behaviour. It also needs a call running with your camera on — there is nothing to watch otherwise.
• The shared screen looks like a slideshow. Chrome only lets Herae film the tab after you invoke the extension on it. Press the shortcut shown in the message bubble, or click the Herae extension icon in the browser toolbar, once per session.
• The film is a black rectangle. Netflix, Disney+, Prime and other protected services hand the browser a black frame by design, and no extension can capture it. Herae uses the film's artwork instead so the memory still says what you were watching.
• It picked a strange look. The look follows the reaction it detected. You can change it on any moment before keeping it.
• It read one of my reactions wrong. After a few nights, some moments carry a small 👍 and 👎 on the review page. Tapping 👎 lets you say what it actually was, and Herae adjusts to your face. It asks less and less, and stops once it has your reactions right. Everything it learns stays on this device — you can turn it off, or start it again, under Settings → AI Moments.

Tips

• The whole session is analysed, so there is nothing to press and nothing to miss.
• Turning AI Moments off in settings unloads the model entirely — it then uses no resources at all.

Best practice

• Leave it on for a first watch and off for a rewatch — first reactions are the ones worth keeping.

Manual Moments

Capture something deliberately, when you know the moment matters and do not want to leave it to chance.

1. Press the camera or the video button. They sit under the message bubble on the page. Photo is instant; video records a short clip.
2. Pick a look. The preview updates as you choose, so you see what you are saving.
3. Add a caption and choose who sees it. Private by default. A caption takes a second now and is searchable later.
4. Save. It appears in your memories straight away, and in your partner's if you shared it.

How it works

• Press the record button in the message bubble. Herae composites everyone's faces with what is on screen into a single picture or clip.
• Recording stops on its own after 44 seconds, or when you press Stop & Save.
• You choose the look, who can see it, and an optional caption before it is saved.

If something is off

• I am asked to allow recording. Chrome requires the extension to be invoked on the tab before it can film it. Once granted, the same permission covers AI Moments too, and it lasts the session.
• The clip is a single frozen frame. That was a bug in earlier versions and is fixed — update the extension.
• I cannot change the look afterwards. For a photograph you can, instantly. For a clip the look is baked into every frame as it records, so a different look needs a fresh take.

Tips

• The recording indicator is deliberately visible — everyone in the call can see a recording is happening.
• Manual and AI Moments share the same permission. Granting it once enables both.

Best practice

• Shorter is better. A ten-second clip gets rewatched; a forty-second one rarely does.

The review page

The end-of-session page where you decide what becomes a memory and what disappears.

1. Finish the session. The review page opens by itself when the night ends.
2. Look through what Herae caught. Each moment shows when it happened and what it thought it was.
3. Keep or discard. Only what you keep is uploaded. The rest never leaves your computer.
4. Add captions to the ones you love. They are what make a memory findable a year later.

How it works

• When a session ends you are shown everything that was captured, best first.
• Keep the ones you want. Anything not kept is discarded permanently when you leave the page.
• Kept moments go to your Saved Moments on the website, with the privacy you chose.

If something is off

• The page did not open. It can be turned off in settings. It also will not open if the site address has never been configured.
• A moment says "invalid partner". Fixed in current versions — the partner is recorded at capture time now.
• I closed it by accident. Unkept moments are gone. This is deliberate: nothing is stored anywhere until you choose to keep it.

Tips

• Thumbnails are stills, never autoplaying videos — the page stays calm with a dozen moments on it.
• Click any moment to see it full size before deciding.

Best practice

• Keep two or three. A night that yields twenty saved moments is one nobody will ever scroll through.

Themes and looks

The visual treatment applied to a moment — how the faces and the film are arranged and coloured.

1. Open a moment you are saving. The composer shows a preview of the moment.
2. Try the looks. The preview redraws as you pick, so nothing is chosen blind.
3. Save. The look is baked into the file, so it travels with the moment wherever you send it.

How it works

• Every moment can use any look. Pick one before saving.
• AI Moments choose a look from the reaction they detected, so a scare and a laugh do not come out looking the same.
• A photograph re-renders instantly when you change the look. A clip has the look baked in as it records.

If something is off

• Everything comes out generic. This happens when a reaction was ambiguous. Current versions also use the film's genre as a tiebreaker, which makes it much rarer.
• The look changed halfway through a clip. Fixed — the look is locked for the whole clip now.

Tips

• The look is part of the memory, not decoration — a horror night that looks like a horror night reads correctly a year later.

Best practice

• Let AI Moments pick, then override only when it is clearly wrong. It is right more often than it feels.

How detection works

What Herae is actually measuring when it decides something is worth keeping — and what it does with it.

How it works

• A face model runs on your own machine and produces numbers describing expression: how open the mouth is, how raised the brows are, where the head is pointing.
• Those numbers are combined over time. Rhythm separates laughter from a gasp; sharpness separates surprise from dread; repetition separates a real reaction from a twitch.
• Photographs come from peaks — the single strongest instant. Clips require genuine movement, which is why a long still smile never becomes a video.
• When both people react at the same second, that counts for much more than either reaction alone.

If something is off

• It captured me doing nothing. Earlier versions scored movement rather than emotion, so yawns and shifting in a seat qualified. Current versions reject those.
• It missed an obvious reaction. Reactions are spaced out deliberately so one long laugh does not become six entries. A very poorly lit face is also genuinely hard to read.

Tips

• Nothing derived from your camera is uploaded. Detection is entirely local, and the analysis never leaves the machine.
• Only what you explicitly keep is ever sent anywhere.

Best practice

• A lamp behind the screen rather than behind you makes a large difference to what can be detected — and to how the photographs look.

Invites

How you get someone else into a session.

How it works

• Create an invite from the popup and send the link however you like.
• Opening the link puts them straight into the session — no account required to join.
• A pending invite survives a browser restart, so a link sent last night still works this evening.

If something is off

• The link does nothing. They need the extension installed. The invite page explains this and links to it.
• The invite expired. Invites are time-limited by design. Make a new one.

Tips

• Sharing shows as Herae.app so the recipient knows what the link is.

Best practice

• Send the invite before you sit down, not once the film has started.

Guest join

Lets someone watch with you without making an account first.

How it works

• Open an invite link as a guest and you are in — pick a name and you are watching.
• Guests can watch, talk and appear in moments exactly like anyone else.
• Moments captured while they were there are kept for them if they later make an account.

If something is off

• My guest appears twice. Fixed in current versions — rejoining reuses the same identity.
• A guest lost their moments. Guest sessions are temporary. Creating an account before the session ends keeps everything.

Tips

• Guest mode is the fastest way to show someone what Herae is.

Best practice

• Suggest an account at the end of the night rather than the start — after there is something worth keeping.

Turning a guest into an account

Keeps everything a guest was part of when they decide to stay.

How it works

• From the review page or the site, a guest can create an account — with Google or with a username.
• Usernames are checked for availability as you type.
• Everything from the guest session transfers to the new account, and you land on your Saved Moments.

If something is off

• The username is taken. Pick another; the field tells you as you type.
• I made an account but my moments are missing. They transfer only if the account is created from the guest session itself, not from a fresh signup later.

Tips

• Signing in on the extension and the site happens together — one step, not two.

Best practice

• Convert before closing the review page.

Profile and contacts

Who you are in Herae, and who you watch with.

How it works

• Set a display name and a picture from the popup or the site; both appear on your moments.
• Contacts show who is online, so you can see at a glance whether tonight is possible.
• Removing a contact asks twice, and separately asks whether to remove things you made together.

If something is off

• Everyone shows as offline. Presence needs a live connection. If the popup says reconnecting, wait for it to settle.
• My picture did not update. Reopen the popup — it refreshes on open.

Tips

• Shared data involving a third person is never deleted by removing one contact.

Best practice

• Use a recognisable picture — it is what appears on every memory you are in.

Saved Moments website

Where everything you kept lives, and where you look back at it.

How it works

• Everything you keep appears there, newest first, with who was there and what you were watching.
• Open any moment full size, share it, or change who can see it.
• Signing in on the extension signs you in on the site.

If something is off

• A moment is missing. Only moments you explicitly kept are saved. Anything left on the review page is gone.
• I cannot change privacy. Privacy is per moment — open it and change it there.

Tips

• Sharing a moment shows it as Herae.app.

Best practice

• Revisit at the end of a month rather than the end of a night. It reads much better with a little distance.

Watchlists

What you are planning to watch together, so choosing is not a twenty-minute negotiation.

How it works

• Add films from the catalogue to a shared list.
• Both of you see the same list and can add to it any time.
• Suggestions take account of what you have both actually watched.

If something is off

• A film is not in the catalogue. The catalogue is large but not complete. You can still watch anything — the watchlist is a planning aid, not a restriction.
• My partner cannot see the list. Shared lists require you both to be contacts.

Tips

• Add things as you hear about them, not when you sit down.

Best practice

• Keep it short. A list of eighty films is the same as no list.

Notifications

Tells you when something needs you — an invite, someone coming online, a session starting.

How it works

• Notifications appear in the browser and inside Herae itself.
• Categories can be turned on and off independently: sessions, invites, partner activity, announcements.
• Accepting or declining an invite works directly from the notification.

If something is off

• I get none at all. Check the master toggle in settings first, then the browser's own permission for Herae.
• Too many. Turn off individual categories rather than the master switch — the master switch also hides things you probably want.
• Duplicates. Repeats of the same event are collapsed. Two genuinely different events can still arrive together.

Tips

• Preferences follow your account rather than the machine.

Best practice

• Keep invites on and announcements off.

Sharing

Getting a moment out of Herae and to someone else.

How it works

• Share from any moment on the site — to another app where your device supports it, or as a copyable link.
• Clips are recorded in a format that plays everywhere, including iPhones.
• Shared items identify themselves as Herae.app.

If something is off

• Share does nothing. Some browsers only allow sharing directly from a tap. Use Copy link instead.
• The video will not play for them. Very old devices may not play it. Sending the still is a reliable fallback.

Tips

• Sharing never changes who can see the original.

Best practice

• Check the privacy setting before sharing something with more than one person in it.

Settings

Everything you can change about how Herae behaves.

How it works

• Open settings from the popup. Changes apply immediately and follow your account.
• AI Moments can be switched off entirely, which unloads the model and uses no resources.
• Notification categories, the review page, and connection behaviour are all here.

If something is off

• A setting did not stick. Settings need you signed in. If the popup shows reconnecting, the change may not have reached the server.
• I cannot find a setting. Some live in the message bubble instead, because they only matter during a session.

Tips

• Turning AI Moments off is a real off — nothing runs in the background.

Best practice

• Leave the defaults for the first few sessions.

Troubleshooting

The handful of things that account for nearly every problem.

How it works

• Confirm the popup shows a live connection. Most symptoms — offline contacts, failing sync, missing moments — are one disconnection underneath.
• Confirm you are signed in on both machines.
• Confirm the film is on an ordinary website. Browser-internal pages cannot be synced or captured by any extension.

If something is off

• Both of us show as offline. A disconnection. It reconnects on its own; if it does not, reopen the popup.
• "Not connected to Herae" with everything working. Reopen the popup to refresh its view of the connection.
• The shared screen is a slideshow. Herae has not been granted capture of the tab. Press the shortcut in the message bubble, or click the Herae extension icon in the browser toolbar, once per session.
• The film records as black. Protected services hand the browser a black frame by design. Herae substitutes the artwork so the memory still means something.
• Camera or microphone is wrong. Use "Audio & video settings" under the End Call button — no need to leave the call.

Tips

• Almost nothing here needs a reinstall. Reconnecting or reopening the popup resolves the large majority.

Best practice

• Grant tab capture at the start of the night rather than when you first want to record something.

Recording quality

What decides whether a memory looks and sounds like the night, rather than like a slideshow with no sound.

1. Grant the tab click once. Without it the film behind you is a slideshow. Your faces are captured either way.
2. Get some light on your face. The engine rejects frames it cannot read, so a dark room means fewer moments rather than worse ones.
3. Leave the call unmuted if you want to hear it. A muted microphone is recorded as silence — deliberately, so unmuting mid-clip is audible immediately.

How it works

• Every recording — automatic or manual — is composed through one pipeline, so a manual moment and an AI one have identical quality.
• The picture is your cameras composited over what you are watching. The tab is filmed at full smoothness once the toolbar grant is in place, and at about two frames a second without it.
• The sound is the room: your microphone, every voice on the call, and the film's own audio, summed into one track. Muting yourself records silence rather than removing you.

If something is off

• The film behind us is jerky. The toolbar grant is missing for this site. Click the Herae icon once and the next recording is smooth.
• There is no sound. Check nobody is muted, and that the film itself is not muted in its own player.
• The picture is dark or soft. Recording quality follows your camera. More light helps far more than any setting.
• Recording made everything slow. Herae steps down its own capture rate when the machine is busy, so playback is protected in preference to the memory.

Tips

• The grant lasts for the whole site, so one click covers a whole evening on the same service.
• A manual moment uses the same renderer as an automatic one — there is no "better" button.

Best practice

• Do the toolbar click before the film starts. Quality is decided at capture, and cannot be improved afterwards.

The memories site

Everything you keep lives on the memories site, where you can look back at it, share it, or take it away.

1. Finish the session. The review page opens by itself with what Herae caught.
2. Keep what you want. Anything you do not keep is discarded and never leaves your computer.
3. Open the site any time. From the popup, or by signing in directly. Your nights are waiting there.

How it works

• The site and the extension share one account, so signing in to either signs you in to both.
• Nights are grouped as sessions rather than a single stream of files, so a memory arrives with the evening it belongs to.
• Anything you keep can be downloaded in full quality. Deleting is permanent and, for a shared moment, removes it for both of you — the other person is told, rather than finding a gap.

If something is off

• A moment is missing. Only moments you explicitly kept are uploaded. Anything left on the review page is gone by design.
• I am signed in on the site but not the extension. Signing in on either mirrors into the other. If it has not, sign out and back in once.
• My partner deleted something we shared. Shared memories belong to both of you, so either can remove them. You are notified when it happens.

Tips

• Captions are searchable later, and take a second to write while you still remember why it was funny.

Best practice

• Keep fewer, better moments. Ten you love beat a hundred you scroll past.

Questions people actually ask

The short answers, including the ones about privacy that people are right to ask.

If something is off

• Is my camera being watched?. No. Face detection runs entirely on your own computer — camera frames are never uploaded, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you keep a moment.
• Is my screen being recorded all the time?. No. Filming happens only during a session, only after you click the toolbar icon, and only for the seconds around a moment.
• Who can see my moments?. Whoever you choose when you save one: just you, your contacts, or public. It defaults to just you.
• Does the other person see my ads?. No. While an advert is playing your position is not sent, so nobody is dragged into your break.
• Can I use it without a camera?. Yes. Sync, chat and manual moments all work; only automatic moments need a camera.
• Does it work on any site?. Almost. Pages the browser itself serves — chrome:// pages, the Web Store — cannot be synced by any extension.
• Do we both need accounts?. One of you can join as a guest from a link, and turn that into a real account afterwards without losing the night.
• Will it slow my computer down?. It steps its own work down when the machine is busy, so playback is protected in preference to the memory.
• Can I turn the AI off?. It is off unless you turn it on. Tap the 🎥 button, then AI Moments, to switch it on or off. When it is off nothing is captured and no permission is asked for.

Tips

• If a question is not here, the Troubleshooting article covers what to do when something is actually broken.