The Connected Superpower turns your app into a database-backed activity that students and the teacher share live. When a student submits a response, your dashboard sees it. When you push something to the screen, everyone sees it. No accounts, no logins, no app store.
What you can build
- Live polls and word clouds, students submit, you reveal.
- Collaborative writing, students take turns adding sentences to a shared story.
- Submission boxes, students drop in their work, you review from a teacher dashboard built into the app.
- Live games, leaderboards, buzzers, group puzzles, trivia.
- Meme makers, students build it, you pick the best and push to every screen.
- Question and idea collectors, student submit responses and the teacher can choose which ones to display
For a step-by-step walkthrough and prompt tips, see Building an app with the Connected Superpower.
Two views, one app
Every Connected Superpowered app has a guest view (what students see) and a teacher view (what you see). You describe both to your AI chatbot, the chatbot writes them as a single HTML file, and the Teacher Hive shows the right one to each viewer.
The brown teacher bar
When you open your app's URL signed in to Teacher Hive, a brown bar appears along the bottom of the screen. Students never see it. It's how you steer the activity in real time:
- Guest View / Teacher View toggle, flip between what students see and your private dashboard.
- App Info, link to the app's info page.
- QR, a join code and URL you can project for the class.
- Data, see every saved field. Includes Download JSON to back up a finished session, Upload JSON to restore one later, and Clear All Data to wipe everything and start fresh.
- Name Tags, show each student their screen name on their own device so you can tell who's who in the room. Appears for apps that use live data. See Name Tags below.
- Sign Out, leaves you on the app as a regular guest.
How guests stay anonymous
Teacher Hive gives each guest an anonymous nickname like "BraveOtter" or "QuietRiver." No login, no real names. Same nickname for the whole session; regenerates the next time they open the app. Students never need to type a name. Read more about the no-PII rule.
Name Tags
Because guests are anonymous, your teacher view shows screen names like "BraveOtter," not real names. In an in-person class that leaves one question: which student is BraveOtter? Name Tags answers it without collecting a single name.
Name Tags shows up in the brown Teacher bar for apps that use live data (polls, games, shared boards, submission boxes). Open it to see everyone currently connected, each listed by screen name in their own color. Tap a name to flash it full screen on that student's device; tap Show all name tags to do the whole class at once. Glance around the room and match each screen name to a face. Tap a showing name again, or Stop showing, to clear it; it also clears on its own after a few minutes.
Use it to:
- See who's here. A quick read of which students are connected and active right now.
- Match a response to a student. When an answer or leaderboard entry stands out, show its screen name and find the student who has it on their screen.
- Form groups on the fly. Show all name tags and group students by what's on their screens.
- Get to the right desk. Spot a screen name in your dashboard that needs attention, show it, and walk straight over.
- Freeze student screens. Students cannot interact with your app while their name tag is showing.
Nothing is stored or shared. The screen name is random, and the match to a real student happens only in your room, by eye.
Usage limits
Connected Superpowered apps share your Hive Superpowers Usage budget with AI calls and uploads. Pro accounts get a generous monthly cap; Builder accounts get a smaller one. Read about Hive Superpowers Usage for the math and what happens at the cap.
Copying and sharing
An app with the Connected Superpower can be marked copyable. Other Builders and Pro teachers can make their own copy, get a separate URL, and run the activity with their own students. Their data stays separate from yours.
How versions work for copyable apps with the Connected Superpower
Every copyable app with the Connected Superpower has a version number that ticks up each time the author saves a code change. You'll see it on the app's Info page and on your My Apps card.
When you make a copy:
- Your copy is a snapshot of the app at that moment.
- It keeps the version it had when you copied it.
- It stays at that version, even after the author updates the original.
This is on purpose. An author's update can't disrupt your app's data mid-activity.
If the author has shipped a newer version, the hover tooltip on your copy's version pill will say so. To use the newer version, make a fresh copy. Your old copy keeps working as it is, with all its data.
What it is not
Apps with the Connected Superpower are great for in-class activities, exit tickets, group brainstorms, quick polls, and low-stakes games. They are not the right tool for:
- Gradebook tracking over time. Data is per-instance, not per-student over time.
- Real-identity logins. Guests are anonymous on purpose.
- High-stakes assessments. There is no audit trail of which student did what.
For those, a Google Form, your LMS, or a dedicated grading tool is the right call.
A note about previews
When your app uses a Superpower, the preview in your AI chatbot (Claude's Canvas, ChatGPT's Canvas, Gemini's Canvas) won't show the Superpower working. The Superpower only connects when the app is hosted on Teacher Hive. Paste the code into the Add App form and test it on Teacher Hive.
