In-app tooltip & hotspot tool
Point users at exactly the right thing. Anchor a tooltip to any element with full placement control, or drop a hotspot to draw the eye without getting in the way.
Use filters to focus on what matters.
Anchor anywhere
Attach a hint to any button, menu, or field, positioned just where it reads best.
Placement control
Top, bottom, left, or right — you choose where each tooltip sits.
Spotlight on demand
Use a hotspot to highlight something subtly until the user is ready.
Live in three steps.
Pick the element
Click what you want to point at.
Write the hint
Add your copy and choose placement.
Publish
It appears in context for the right users.
A hotspot that introduces a feature nobody finds.
Your analytics say almost nobody uses keyboard shortcuts, and the trigger is a small icon in the toolbar. A hotspot is the right amount of attention: visible, ignorable, informative on demand.
Drop the beacon
Create a hotspot step and pick the shortcuts icon. A soft pulsing beacon appears beside it — noticeable in the corner of the eye, silent otherwise.
Write the card
The card opens on click: "Every action here has a keyboard shortcut. Press ? to see them all." One button — Got it — with the don't-show-again action.
Scope the page
Under Behavior, set "only show on page" to /editor/* — the icon exists elsewhere, but the pitch only makes sense where people do real work.
Cap the exposure
Frequency: once. A hotspot that pulses forever becomes furniture; one clean exposure per user keeps the signal.
What to expect: Click actions in Reports show how many opened the card, and you can watch the shortcut panel's usage move in your own analytics. Quiet, measurable, zero interruption.
When not to use tooltips & hotspots.
No pattern fits every job. Here’s where we’d point you at something else — sometimes ours, sometimes not.
Urgent, must-see information
A tooltip is easy to miss by design. Maintenance windows, billing failures, and breaking changes belong in a modal or banner — surfaces that do not wait to be noticed.
Explaining five things on one screen
Five simultaneous beacons cancel each other out. Pick the one feature that matters this quarter; put the rest in a tour or leave them for the help hub.
Anchors that do not exist yet
If the element renders only for some plans or states, that is fine — set skip-if-missing. But if the element has no stable selector at all, fix that first; a tooltip on a moving target teaches nobody.
Long-form instruction
A tooltip card fits a sentence or two. If the explanation needs paragraphs, screenshots, and caveats, link the card to an article instead of cramming the essay into the pointer.
Tooltip or hotspot — which one when?
A tooltip opens itself; a hotspot waits to be clicked. Use tooltips inside tours where you control the moment, and hotspots for ambient discovery — a pulsing beacon users investigate on their own time.
Can I control exactly where the card sits?
Yes — placement is explicit (top, bottom, left, right), with an arrow toggle, and a spotlight option that highlights the target while dimming everything else. "Allow page interaction" lets users keep using the app with the step open.
What if the anchored element is inside a dropdown?
Turn on "open this element first" and point it at the menu trigger — Wakeline opens the menu before showing the step. It is the difference between guiding to a hidden action and describing one.
Do hotspots annoy users?
Not if you cap them. One beacon, on one feature, shown once per user, dismissible forever with don't-show-again. The pattern turns hostile only when teams run five at a time on every visit — frequency caps exist precisely for this.
Will the tooltip break when we redesign?
Steps anchor to selectors, so most changes survive. When an element genuinely disappears, the step's fallback (skip or wait) keeps the experience intact, and the funnel makes the breakage visible so you can re-pick in a minute.
See it on your own app.
Ship your first guide in minutes. Free to start — no credit card.