diff --git a/commons/src/commonMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModel.kt b/commons/src/commonMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModel.kt
index d317c3718..38555fbcb 100644
--- a/commons/src/commonMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModel.kt
+++ b/commons/src/commonMain/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModel.kt
@@ -149,6 +149,16 @@ class AudioRoomViewModel(
         MutableStateFlow<List<com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip53LiveActivities.chat.LiveActivitiesChatMessageEvent>>(emptyList())
     val chat: StateFlow<List<com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip53LiveActivities.chat.LiveActivitiesChatMessageEvent>> = _chat.asStateFlow()
 
+    /**
+     * Recent kind-7 reactions for the floating speaker-avatar overlay
+     * (#3). Keyed by target pubkey; room-wide reactions land under the
+     * empty-string key. Sliding 30 s window driven by the platform
+     * layer's tick (typically every 1 s).
+     */
+    private val reactionsAgg = RoomReactionsAggregator()
+    private val _recentReactions = MutableStateFlow<Map<String, List<RoomReaction>>>(emptyMap())
+    val recentReactions: StateFlow<Map<String, List<RoomReaction>>> = _recentReactions.asStateFlow()
+
     private var listener: NestsListener? = null
     private var connectJob: Job? = null
     private var stateObserverJob: Job? = null
@@ -279,6 +289,31 @@ class AudioRoomViewModel(
         _chat.value = chatById.values.sortedBy { it.createdAt }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Apply one kind-7 reaction event to the sliding-window aggregator.
+     * Caller passes [nowSec] (so tests can be deterministic) and the
+     * fixed 30-s window. Mirror of [evictReactions] for the per-tick
+     * cleanup.
+     */
+    fun onReactionEvent(
+        event: com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip25Reactions.ReactionEvent,
+        nowSec: Long,
+        windowSec: Long = REACTION_WINDOW_SEC,
+    ) {
+        if (closed) return
+        _recentReactions.value = reactionsAgg.apply(event, nowSec, windowSec)
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Drop reactions older than the staleness threshold. Platform
+     * layer drives this on a 1-s tick to update the floating overlay
+     * without per-component animation timers.
+     */
+    fun evictReactions(olderThanSec: Long) {
+        if (closed) return
+        _recentReactions.value = reactionsAgg.evictAndSnapshot(olderThanSec)
+    }
+
     /**
      * Whether this VM was constructed with capture + encoder factories. The
      * UI uses this to decide whether to render the talk button at all —
@@ -917,6 +952,14 @@ sealed class BroadcastUiState {
  */
 const val SPEAKING_TIMEOUT_MS: Long = 250L
 
+/**
+ * How long a kind-7 reaction stays in
+ * [AudioRoomViewModel.recentReactions] before the eviction sweep
+ * drops it. Matches the duration of the floating-up animation in the
+ * SpeakerReactionOverlay.
+ */
+const val REACTION_WINDOW_SEC: Long = 30L
+
 /** Max number of auto-reconnect attempts after a Failed listener state. */
 private const val MAX_AUTO_RETRIES = 3
 
diff --git a/commons/src/commonTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModelTest.kt b/commons/src/commonTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModelTest.kt
index d893f5eec..a604d7dcb 100644
--- a/commons/src/commonTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModelTest.kt
+++ b/commons/src/commonTest/kotlin/com/vitorpamplona/amethyst/commons/viewmodels/AudioRoomViewModelTest.kt
@@ -267,6 +267,37 @@ class AudioRoomViewModelTest {
             assertEquals(1, vm.chat.value.size)
         }
 
+    @Test
+    fun onReactionEventGroupsByTargetAndEvictsOnTick() =
+        runTest {
+            val vm = newViewModel { FakeNestsListener() }
+            val alice = "a".repeat(64)
+            val bob = "b".repeat(64)
+
+            fun rxn(
+                from: String,
+                to: String,
+                content: String,
+                createdAt: Long,
+            ) = com.vitorpamplona.quartz.nip25Reactions.ReactionEvent(
+                id = "0".repeat(64),
+                pubKey = from,
+                createdAt = createdAt,
+                tags = arrayOf(arrayOf("a", "30312:host:room"), arrayOf("p", to)),
+                content = content,
+                sig = "0".repeat(128),
+            )
+
+            // Two reactions land within the 30-s window.
+            vm.onReactionEvent(rxn(alice, bob, "🔥", 100L), nowSec = 100L)
+            vm.onReactionEvent(rxn(alice, bob, "👏", 105L), nowSec = 105L)
+            assertEquals(2, vm.recentReactions.value[bob]!!.size)
+
+            // Tick advances past the window — both reactions evicted.
+            vm.evictReactions(olderThanSec = 200L)
+            assertEquals(emptyMap(), vm.recentReactions.value)
+        }
+
     @Test
     fun publishingNowDerivesFromBroadcastStateAndMute() {
         // Idle / connecting / failed: never publishing.