How to see who viewed your Google Slides presentation
Google's Activity dashboard shows viewers only inside work or school accounts. For a deck you send to an investor or a client, export it and share a tracked link that shows each reader by email and time per slide.
The short answer
Google Slides can show who viewed a file through its Activity dashboard, but only for files owned by a work or school account, and only for viewers who are signed in and have not turned their view history off. A personal Gmail file shows no viewers at all. A link shared with anyone shows no names.
To see who opened a deck you send outside your company, download it as a PDF or PowerPoint file and share it as an ArtifactSend link. Each reader shows by email, with time on every slide.
What the Activity dashboard shows, and when it shows nothing
- It works only for files owned by a Google work or school account. If the file is not owned by one, no one can see the view history.
- It shows people who were signed in when they viewed the file.
- Any viewer can turn off their view history for one file or for all files. Their views then never show.
- It shows who viewed and when. It does not show time per slide, how far they read or which slides they skipped.
So the dashboard is useful inside your own team. For an investor at another firm, or a client on another domain, it usually shows nothing.
Google Slides, Drive link and tracked link compared
| What you want to know | Activity dashboard | Drive link, anyone with the link | ArtifactSend link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who opened it, by name | Signed-in work or school viewers only | No | Yes, by verified email |
| Viewers outside your company | Rarely | No | Yes |
| Time on each slide | No | No | Yes |
| Which slide they stopped on | No | No | Yes |
| Alert on first open | No | No | Yes |
| Turn the link off after sending | Change sharing | Change sharing | Yes, or set an expiry |
Google Docs Editors Help, checked November 1, 2026.
How to track who opened your Google Slides deck
- In Google Slides, open File, then Download, and choose PDF or Microsoft PowerPoint.
- Go to artifactsend.com, sign in and drop the file in.
- Choose a reader door. Email code proves the reader owns the email. Google sign-in is the fastest for readers.
- Optional: make one link per investor or client, so each report is about one person.
- Turn on the first-open alert and send the link.
When you change the deck, download it again and drop the new file onto the same link. Readers always see the latest version.
What to read in the report
- Opened and read every slide: they are interested. Follow up within a day.
- Opened, then stopped at one slide: that slide raised a question. Answer it in your follow-up.
- Came back two or three times: they are sharing it inside their firm or preparing a meeting.
- Never opened after three days: send a short nudge, or a new link with a different first line.
Cost
Links, readers, reader doors and slide analytics are free and unlimited, with no card. AI features cost cents by use.