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If your presentation contains a quiz (scored) slide — such as Pick Answer, Short Answer, Match Pairs, Correct Order, or Categorise — AhaSlides automatically asks your audience to enter their names when you start presenting and reach that slide. This lets AhaSlides attribute each participant’s answers and scores to a name so you can show a meaningful leaderboard. Participants can type any name they like, so a nickname works if they’d rather not use their real one. They can’t leave the field empty, and there is no setting that turns the name prompt off on a quiz slide. If you want a session where nobody gives a name, use unscored slide types such as Poll or Word Cloud instead. For more on building scored quizzes, see How to make and run a quiz. The AhaSlides participant screen with the Enter your name field and Join the game button highlighted
AhaSlides only prompts for names automatically on quiz (scored) slides. For other slide types, or to gather more than just a name (for example email or organisation), use the audience info feature described in Collecting audience information.

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Do participants have to enter their name again if they leave the page?

Normally, no. When a participant enters their name, AhaSlides saves it in their browser for that presentation and restores it automatically when they come back — so switching tabs, locking their phone, or briefly leaving the page won’t make them type it again. They will be asked for their name again if that saved value is no longer there. The usual reasons are:
  • You reset the presentation’s results. Resetting clears each participant’s saved name and answers so your next audience starts fresh. See Resetting the results.
  • They came back on a different browser or device, or in a private/incognito window — the saved name lives in the browser they first joined from.
  • Their browser is blocking or clearing site data (private browsing, strict privacy settings, or a cleared cache).
  • More than 3 days have passed since they last interacted with that presentation.
If a participant is asked for their name every time they switch away from the page in a normal browser window, that points to a browser-storage restriction rather than normal behaviour — get in touch at hi@ahaslides.com and we’ll take a look.

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Why is my own name already filled in when I join my presentation?

The name box is pre-filled with the name you last entered in that browser, or with your account’s first name if you’re signed in to AhaSlides there. It’s only a suggestion — delete it and type any name you like before you join. Have a question? Contact our support team — if you’re logged in, use the chat bubble in the bottom-right of your dashboard; otherwise contact us here or email hi@ahaslides.com. Want to connect with other users? Join the AhaSlides community to share tips, request features, and see how others engage their audiences.