deskbird Intelligence: Live view – deskbird Help Center

Desks Professional and above or Dock Plus

Live view shows what is happening in one of your offices right now: how many people are on-site, which desks are in use, and whether a first aider, fire responder, evacuation assistant and key holder are in the building. It replaces walking the floor with one screen that updates every minute. Figures come from deskbird Dock and, if you use Visits, from visitor check-ins. Desk bookings and desk check-ins do not affect them.

Before you start
Where to find Live view
Live KPI cards
Map view and List view
Find people and areas
Check who is on-site for safety
What you see in each privacy mode
Limits and data notes
FAQs

1. Before you start

Plan: Live view is part of deskbird Intelligence, which is included in Desks Professional and above and is also available as a standalone subscription (Dock Plus). Office functions in Live view need a Desks plan; they are not part of Dock Plus. See Feature Availability.
Role: Global Admins and Office Admins can open the page. Office Admins see only the offices assigned to them. Custom roles do not give access to Live view, not even with the View office analytics permission.
deskbird Dock app: only people who have the deskbird Dock app running on their laptop can appear. See deskbird Dock: Overview & Setup.
Office detection: people are counted once deskbird Dock detects them on the office network. See Setting up office detection.
Desks mapped to monitors: desk status (in use or available) and the Desks in use card need desks with a mapped monitor. See Resource detection.
Published floor plan (optional): floors with a published floor plan can be shown as a map. Floors without one are shown as a list. See Floor plans.

💡 Tip: the more desks you map to monitors, the more of the office you see on the floor plan. People on the office network without a mapped desk are still counted in People in the office.

2. Where to find Live view

Go to Intelligence > Live view.
Choose the office in the dropdown at the top right of the page.
Choose a floor with the floor selector next to the search bar.

While the page is open, it updates every minute. Last update next to the office dropdown shows the time of the latest data. Use the refresh button next to it to load the newest data right away.

3. Live KPI cards

Four cards at the top of the page summarize the selected office. They always cover the whole office, even when you select a floor.

People in the office: everyone deskbird Dock detects in the office right now, including people on the office network who are not at a mapped desk, plus visitors who are checked in.
Desks in use: mapped desks in use, out of all mapped desks in the office (for example, 34/86). Meeting rooms are not counted.
Office occupancy: the people in the office (visitors included) compared with all desks in the office, mapped or not. The value is rounded and never goes above 100%. Portfolio overview uses the same ratio as a daily average and can go above 100%.
Office functions: how many first aiders, fire responders, evacuation assistants and key holders are on-site. See section 6.

4. Map view and List view

Switch between the two views with the Map view and List view buttons at the top right of the floor plan.

Map view: the published floor plan of the selected floor. Each area is outlined with its name, and each mapped desk shows whether it is in use or available. A desk in use shows the person's photo or initials (in User authenticated mode).
List view: a table of everyone detected on the selected floor, with the columns User, Office role (the person's office functions), Location and Detected via. Detected via shows how and since when the person is detected: Monitor (at a mapped desk), Network (office network only) or Check-in (visitors).

If a floor has no published floor plan, Map view is grayed out and the floor opens in List view.

In Map view, you also find:

N detected via network: people who are on the office network but not at a mapped desk, for example in a meeting room, a lounge or at a desk without a mapped monitor. They count toward People in the office but have no position on the floor plan.
Hide labels: hides the area names on the floor plan.
Full screen: shows the floor plan across the whole screen.

💡 Tip: when nobody is detected on a floor, List view shows No one is plugged in on followed by the floor name. Check the office and floor selection first, then the points in the FAQs.

5. Find people and areas

In Map view, the panel next to the floor plan has two tabs:

Areas: the selected floor with its desks in use and occupancy, followed by every area with its desks in use (for example, 9/22 desks in use), its occupancy and who is there.
People: everyone detected in the office, with the area and desk they are at and the time their current stay started. For a desk, this is when they plugged into its monitor. Checked-in visitors are listed with their check-in time. Expected visitors and visitors who have already left are not shown.

To narrow it down:

Type a name or an area in Search areas or people….
Use Filter to show only people with an office function (First aiders, Fire responders, Evacuation assistants, Key holders), or only desks with the status Available or In use. Each office function shows how many people are on-site.

6. Check who is on-site for safety

The Office functions card shows, for each office function, how many people who hold it are in the office right now. When nobody with a function is on-site, its count shows 0 and is highlighted in red, so you can see at a glance that, for example, no first aider is in the building.

For this card to work:

The office functions must be active for your company and filled in on user profiles, for the office in question. See Office functions. Users can add their own functions if you allow it; see Add an office function to your profile.
deskbird Dock must run in User authenticated mode, because the card needs to know who is on-site.
Your company needs a Desks plan. With deskbird Intelligence on its own (Dock Plus), the card, the office function filter and the office function badges are hidden.

⚠️ Important: Live view only knows about people deskbird Dock detects. A first aider who is in the office without the deskbird Dock app, or with their laptop off the office network, is not counted. Use the card as a quick check, not as your only safety record.

7. What you see in each privacy mode

Live view follows the privacy mode set under Admin > deskbird Intelligence > Privacy:

What Live view shows	User authenticated	Anonymous
KPI cards with counts and occupancy	✅	✅
Desk status on the floor plan	✅	✅
Names and photos of the people on-site	✅	❌
Office functions on-site	✅	❌

For what each mode means and how to switch, see Privacy modes and data handling for deskbird Dock.

8. Limits and data notes

Presence, not bookings: desk bookings and desk check-ins are not used. A booked desk that nobody sits at shows as available, and a person without a booking still counts.
Visitors: if your company uses Visits, visitors who are checked in count toward People in the office and Office occupancy. They are not part of Dock analytics or Portfolio overview, which use deskbird Dock data only.
Leaving takes up to 20 minutes to show: a person stays on-site in Live view for up to 20 minutes after deskbird Dock last detects them.
Who can appear: people show up only when deskbird Dock detects them on the office network or at a mapped monitor. Colleagues without the deskbird Dock app, or with their laptop off the office network, are not counted.
Desks only: Desks in use and Office occupancy are based on desks. Meeting rooms are not included.
Right now, not history: Live view shows the current state only and keeps no timeline of its own. For trends over days and weeks, use Occupancy analytics (deskbird Dock analytics) and deskbird Intelligence: Portfolio overview.

9. FAQs

Check these points:

Your company has deskbird Intelligence (Desks Professional and above, or a standalone subscription).
You are a Global Admin or an Office Admin. Custom roles do not give access.
If you are an Office Admin, you only see the offices assigned to you.

The deskbird Dock app is installed and running on their laptop.
Their laptop is connected to the office network that is set up in office detection.
You selected the right office and floor.
To appear at a desk on the floor plan, they must be plugged into a monitor that is mapped to that desk. Otherwise they are listed under N detected via network.
Wait for the next update (every minute) or use the refresh button.

A person stays on-site for up to 20 minutes after deskbird Dock last detects them, so short gaps (for example, a laptop going to sleep) don't make people disappear and reappear. After that, they drop out of Live view.

Each card counts something different, always for the whole office:

People in the office includes people who are only on the office network and not at a mapped desk, and checked-in visitors.
Desks in use counts only mapped desks.
Office occupancy compares the people in the office with all desks, mapped or not.

For example, 44 people, 34/86 desks in use and 42% occupancy fit together when 10 people are network-only and the office has about 105 desks in total.

deskbird Dock runs in Anonymous mode for your company. In this mode, Live view shows counts and desk status only, never names or photos, and the Office functions card stays empty. See section 7.

These people are on the office network but not at a desk with a mapped monitor, so Live view knows they are in the office but not where. They count toward People in the office, but not toward Desks in use.

That floor has no published floor plan, so it opens in List view. Upload and publish one under Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces to see the map. See Floor plans.

deskbird Dock runs in User authenticated mode.
Your company has a Desks plan. Office functions are not part of Dock Plus.
The office function is active for your company and assigned to that person for this office.
The person is detected by deskbird Dock (see the checklist above).

Desk bookings and desk check-ins don't. The figures are based on presence detected by deskbird Dock, plus checked-in visitors if your company uses Visits. A booked desk that nobody sits at shows as available, and a person who comes in without a booking still counts.

No. Desks in use and Office occupancy are based on desks only. People in meeting rooms who are on the office network still count toward People in the office.