Auto-Progress & Looping

Auto-progress advances your demo automatically, so viewers do not have to click through every step.

You can turn it on for the whole demo, set how fast steps advance, loop the demo, or override the delay on a single step. These controls live in the Playback dropdown of the editor toolbar.

Auto-progressing a demo

Open the Playback dropdown and toggle on Auto-progress demo. Every step now advances automatically after a delay based on how much text is in the annotation.

Speed

Set a Speed between 100 and 300 words per minute (WPM). The default is 200. Think of it as a reading speed applied to each step’s annotation: HowdyGo divides the word count by the WPM to work out the delay, so steps with more text wait longer before advancing. Move the slider higher for shorter delays across the demo, lower if your audience needs more time to read.

Looping the demo

Turn on Loop the demo to send viewers back to step 1 when the demo reaches the call-to-action, instead of stopping. This is the right setting for ambient embeds on a landing page, or for trade-show kiosks and event booths where you want a demo playing in the background.

Overriding delay on a step

If one step needs a specific delay, open the Playback dropdown on that step and click Override. An input appears so you can type the delay in seconds (for example, 2.5s). Click the reset icon to remove the override.

An override on a single step beats the global delay. It also auto-progresses that step even when Auto-progress demo is off, which is useful when you want one timed beat in an otherwise manual demo.

Steps that do not auto-progress

If a step asks the viewer to fill out a form or choose between multiple buttons or options, it never auto-progresses, regardless of the global toggle or any override. Those steps wait for the viewer to make a choice. The play/pause control is disabled on them too.

Viewer controls

When auto-progress is enabled, viewers get a play/pause button. On desktop it sits in the player toolbar; on mobile it appears between the previous and next arrows in the annotation nav. It stops and resumes auto-progression for the viewer.

If you embed demos on your site, the player control API lets you pause and resume auto-progress from your own buttons or page logic.

Howdy AI can suggest auto-progress on transitional steps for you.
Animated steps are another option when a step needs motion rather than just a delay.
Per-step delays also drive the transition speeds when exporting demos as GIFs and videos.
Step progression analytics show where viewers skip ahead, which is useful when tuning your delays.