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·2 min read

Updated · By BeatSlide

Hold an Image in BeatSlide: What Pauses and What Keeps Playing

Quick answer

Press and hold the slideshow image to freeze image advancement; release to allow normal advancement again. The metronome continues playing during the hold.

Use the hold gesture

On desktop, press and keep the mouse button down over the active slideshow. Release it to let the next eligible beat or timer event advance the image. On a touchscreen, keep your finger on the image and lift it to release.

The image is not draggable in the active slideshow. The page suppresses image selection and touch callouts where the browser permits. Reordering happens in the image manager, not by dragging the fullscreen photo.

If your browser still shows its own image menu, release the gesture and return to the app. Browser and device behavior can differ; this guide does not guarantee every operating-system gesture is blocked.

What the gesture does not do

Holding does not mute the sound, stop the tempo, reset random progress or show a hold-duration countdown. The internal beat and timer continue; image changes missed during a hold are not played back as a rapid catch-up sequence.

With beat sync, release allows a later beat to advance the slide. With a fixed timer, release allows a later timer event to advance. Releasing is not necessarily an immediate slide change and does not create a new full timer interval.

ControlEnds the session?Stops sound?Holds image advancement?
Hold imageNoNoYes, while held
ReleaseNoNoNo
StopYesYesEnds active slideshow
Automatic random pauseNoTemporarilyBeat sync stops; fixed timer may continue behind overlay

When you need quiet

Press Stop rather than holding the image. During normal playback, move or tap to reveal controls if they have faded. During an automatic random pause, Stop remains available at the top right of the overlay.

A random pause shows a countdown in seconds and automatically resumes afterward unless you stop. This is separate from your hold gesture; its duration comes from the chosen difficulty preset.

A simple control check

Load two permitted images. Choose fixed BPM and Sync to beat, then Start. Hold when an image appears: the beat should keep sounding while the image stays visible. Release and allow another beat to arrive. Press Stop to end playback.

Repeat with Fixed timer if you want to understand the independent timing. Use this check to learn the controls before relying on a gesture during a session. Do not treat a visual hold as an emergency audio-stop control.

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