Live ink presence for real-time collaboration

A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon an ink presence feature of a content creation application that when executed by a computing device, directs the computing device to:

• receive a user identifier for each user of a plurality of users participating in a collaboration session with a shared inking canvas;
• communicate with a directory service to obtain user information corresponding to each user identifier of the plurality of users;
• receive a new ink stroke to the shared inking canvas from a particular user of the plurality of users;
• determine a location in the shared inking canvas for displaying a presence indicator;
• and
• display the presence indicator at the location;
• wherein the presence indicator remains at the location until an ink point is received that is further than a threshold distance from the location.

A system comprising:

• one or more hardware processors;
• one or more storage media;
• a communication interface;
• a display;
• and
• a collaboration-enabled content creation application stored on at least one of the one or more storage media, that when executed by the one or more hardware processors direct the system to at least:
• receive, via the communication interface, a user identifier for each user of a plurality of users participating in a collaboration session with a shared inking canvas;
• communicate with a directory service, via the communication interface, to obtain user information corresponding to each user identifier of the plurality of users;
• identify a grouping of ink strokes in the shared inking canvas that are associated with a particular user of the plurality of users and that satisfy a criterion for the grouping;
• assign a presence identifier to the grouping of ink strokes;
• receive, via the communication interface, a new ink stroke to the shared inking canvas from the particular user;
• determine whether the new ink stroke is within a certain distance from previous ink strokes associated with the presence identifier;
• when the new ink stroke is not within the certain distance from the previous ink strokes, assign a new presence identifier the new ink stroke in the shared inking canvas, determine a location in the shared inking canvas for displaying a presence indicator, and display, via the display, the presence indicator at the location;
• and
• when the new ink stroke is within the certain distance from the previous ink strokes, change an existing location for a corresponding presence indicator according to a distance of the new ink stroke from the existing location for the corresponding presence indicator.