# Invite links and QR codes > Let a group join a workspace with one link, QR code or short join code – as volunteers or viewers, free. Share it to WhatsApp, print a QR page, see who joined and end the link at any time. Source: https://contals.com/docs/en/team/invite-links/ Last updated: 2026-10-19 An invite link lets a whole group join a workspace – at a meeting, on a notice board, on a slide at the parents’ evening. Everyone joins with their own account and confirms their own e-mail address; nobody is added by someone else. The role is set in advance and is always a free one: volunteer or viewer. ## Create a link 1. Open the workspace settings: your avatar (top right) → workspace → **Invite links**. Only owners and admins see this section. 2. Under **People who join become**, choose **Volunteers – work on cards, free** or **Viewers – read the boards, free**. 3. Choose how long **The link works for** (1, 7, 14 or 30 days) and **For up to** how many people (10, 25, 50, 100 or 250). 4. Click **Create link**. The link and its QR code are shown **only now**: Contals keeps just a fingerprint of the link, never the link itself. Below the link you see its **Join code** – ten letters and digits such as `K7M-4PQ2-XAB` – for people who cannot click the link or scan the QR code; it is shown only now, too. Send the link with **Share**, copy it with **Copy link**, or open the **Printable QR page** right away. ## Share the link **Share** opens your phone’s share menu with a short message in your language: the link, and the code with the address to type it at. Pick a WhatsApp group, Signal, a mail or any other app on your phone. On a computer without a share menu, **Share** opens a row below the button instead: the message to read, **Copy message**, **WhatsApp** (opens WhatsApp with the message, in the app or on the web) and **E-mail** (opens your mail program with the message). Send it to the group only – anyone with the link or the code can join until the link ends. ## The printable QR page The page shows your organization’s and workspace’s names, the QR code and next to it, in large type, the address to type – `app.contals.com/join` – with the join code, the role, the end date and three short steps for newcomers. Click **Print** – menus and buttons are left out on paper. The page only works in the tab where you created the link; later or in another tab, create a new link to print a code. ## Joining through a link Whoever opens the link sees which workspace invites them and as what. - **Signed in:** click **Join {workspace}** – done. - **No account yet:** fill in **Create your free account** on the same page – name, e-mail address, password and the age confirmation – and click **Create account and join**. After confirming the e-mail address the person is in the workspace. People who join this way get no organization of their own. - **Has an account, signed out:** **I have an account – sign in**, then join. - **With Google, Microsoft or another provider:** the same page offers them (and **Continue with SSO**); a new account made this way joins the workspace right away, an existing one comes back to the page and joins. If the organization requires [two-factor sign-in](/docs/en/settings/two-factor/), the page says so; the person sets it up once after joining. If an address belongs to an organization with [single sign-on](/docs/en/settings/sign-in/), the page says *Your organization requires single sign-on for this address* and the person signs in with SSO first. ## Join with a code Got a code on a poster or in a message? It works like the link: 1. Open **app.contals.com/join** in the browser of your phone or computer. 2. Enter the code under **Join code** – upper or lower case, with or without dashes. An O counts as a zero, an I or an L as a one. 3. Click **Continue**. The same join page opens as with the link: sign in and join, or create an account there. A code belongs to its link: the same role, end date and number of places. When the link ends, its code stops working too – the page then says *This code does not work.* A new link gets a new code. ## What people who join see Volunteers and viewers see the boards shared with the workspace – never a private board. Under the role, the section lists **Boards volunteers will see** (or viewers), and the private boards you can open under **Private – only their members see them**. **Share these boards with the workspace** opens them to everyone in the workspace at once, right there; each change is logged like a change in the board's settings. A volunteer who joins before any board is shared sees *No board is shared with you yet – ask …* with the name of the person who invited them. ## Who joined, and ending a link Each link in the list shows its role, how many people joined out of how many places and until when it works. **Who joined** lists the people with the date they joined. **End link** stops the link at once; people who joined stay members. Someone you do not know? Remove them in the member list above – they cannot come back through the same link. ## Limits and safety - At most 5 links work at the same time, and 20 can be created per workspace and day. - A link ends on its end date, when all places are taken, or when you end it. It also stops working when the person who created it is no longer an owner or admin of the workspace. - Anyone with the link can join until it ends: share it with the group only, choose a short time and few places, and end it when everyone is in. - The join code is short so that people can type it. Contals keeps only a keyed fingerprint of it, a code only works while its link works, and after many attempts from the same network the page asks to wait a minute. - Joining needs a confirmed e-mail address, and is not possible while the organization is read-only. - Creating, ending and using a link are recorded in the [audit log](/docs/en/settings/audit-log/). - A link is deleted 90 days after the end date it was created with; the people who joined stay members. For single people, an [invitation by e-mail](/docs/en/team/invitations/) is usually the better choice: it works for every role and only for the invited address.