Online or in-person Room: which one suits what you want to do?
Viatous, Rooms & Roomi · Équipe Viatous · 4 min
Reading together works brilliantly from a distance: everyone in their own armchair, book open, camera on or off. A walk along the canal, not so much. On Viatous, a Room can happen online or in person . Both have their strengths, and the right choice depends first on what you want to do.
Often, the activity decides
When you write what you want to do, Roomi reads your sentence and suggests the format that fits:
“run in the park” happens in person;
“revise English” happens online;
if your sentence doesn’t mention a format, Viatous goes with “Online”.
You can always change that choice in the form before starting the search. Only activities that only make sense in real life, like running in the park, don’t show a choice.
Online: simple, quick, no travel
An online Room brings together text, audio and video. The camera is optional , you control your microphone, and Roomi guides things right there in the call.
Its strengths:
Zero logistics : no place to find, no journey. You can start a Room “now” and begin a few minutes later.
More people available : distance doesn’t limit you, only the time, the language and the activity.
No identity verification required to take part.
You can extend : during the last 10 minutes, the group can decide together to add 30 minutes or an hour.
It’s ideal for reading, focusing, revising, practising a language, a quiz, talking about a film or a series, or creating side by side even from a distance: cooking the same recipe, drawing, knitting.
In person: the real world, with a framework
Change of scene. An in-person Room is a real outing: a walk, a run, a coffee, a museum, a restaurant. It always uses the digital Room before, during and after the meeting. Here’s how it works:
Your identity must be verified. It’s required to take part in person.
Viatous matches people near you , based on your city and how far you’re willing to travel. Everyone’s areas have to overlap.
Roomi suggests up to three public places , halfway between you and within everyone’s area, suited to the activity: a library or a café to focus, a park or a museum for an outing. The group votes, and anyone can suggest another place.
Nobody sees your address or your search area: only the suggested public places are shown.
On the day , you tap “I’ve arrived” on site (from one hour before), then mark when you leave the place, then when you’re safely home. Reminders help you.
You can also add a trusted contact and share the outing details with them from the Room. The Room also reminds you of the emergency number: 112 in France and across Europe. And during the activity there’s no call: you’re together, that’s the point.
Shortly before the meet-up, then at the planned time, a notification reminds you of the outing and the chosen place. And if you start an outing “now”, the suggested time allows for forming the group, choosing the place and getting there: nobody sets off without the others.
The review comes after you get home. No need to extend: an in-person Room stays open until everyone is back (up to six hours after the planned end), so there’s no stress if the walk runs long.
So, how do you choose?
There’s no wrong choice, only different moods. A few simple pointers:
Go online if you want to start right away, if you’re short on time, if the activity happens sitting down (reading, working, speaking a language), or if you’d like to ease into Viatous.
Go in person if the activity happens outdoors or somewhere specific (walking, running, visiting, eating out), if you want to get out of the house, or meet people in your city.
Try both : an online reading Room during the week, a walk at the weekend.
In your settings, in-person is a permission in your Preferences: on by default, you can switch it off if you’d rather stay online only. Then no in-person search or Room is offered to you. Your camera, on the other hand, is never a criterion: you’ll never be left out of a group for keeping it off.
Your move
Two example sentences, one for each format:
online: “I’d like to practise speaking Spanish for 20 minutes tonight.”
in person: “Go for an hour’s walk in the park on Saturday morning.”
Either way, your free Room for the week works the same, and Roomi is there to guide you. In the end, the only real question is: sofa tonight, or canal?
Browse online and in-person ideas on Discover , and read the rules for outings on the Safety page .