Once you are talking in a call, you can turn on your camera or share a screen. Either one shows as a small bubble above your character's head to the people near you, and anyone watching a bubble can press it to see it large.
Cameras and screens ride the call, so start with Proximity Audio: walk into the Space and press Join Audio. The Camera and Share buttons appear in the call strip once you are in.
Calls are not switched on everywhere yet. Where they are off, there is no Join Audio button, so there are no cameras or screen sharing either.
Turn on your camera
Your browser asks for the camera the first time. Allow it, and the button turns on: the people near you now see you in a bubble above your character.
Your own bubble shows above your own head, mirrored, so you can see what others see; they see it the right way round. The camera stays on while you walk around alone, as it is your choice to make, but nothing is sent to anyone out of earshot. Leaving the call, Avatar mode or the tab turns it off.
If the button says Camera Blocked, your browser refused the camera. Allow it from the address bar, then press the button to try again.
Share your screen
Sharing a screen is an Editor's to do, so the Share button only appears for Editors.
Press Share in the call strip. Your browser's own picker opens: choose a whole screen, a window or a browser tab.
The people near you see it as a bubble above your head, beside your camera's when both are on. While you share, a bar at the top of the canvas says You are sharing your screen (just "Sharing your screen" on a phone).
Press Stop Sharing on that bar, or the share button in the strip, to stop. Stopping it from your browser's own control works too, as does leaving the call.
A shared screen carries no sound of its own: voices stay the call's only sound. It is tuned for reading text, so slides, documents and code come through clearly.
Bubbles, and who sees them
Cameras and screens follow the same rule as voices: you see the bubbles of the people you hear, and nobody else sees yours. In a room that is everyone in the same room, so a meeting's cameras and shared screens stay inside its walls; on the open floor it is the people in earshot. Walk away and a bubble goes; walk back and it returns.
- Off-screen bubbles are not shown. If someone in earshot is outside the part of the board you can see, their bubble waits until you scroll them into view.
- A hidden tab shows none. While your browser tab is hidden, cameras and screens pause and voices carry on. They come back when you return.
- Up to six cameras and two screens at once, the nearest. Anyone else you hear shows just their character.
When people stand close
People talking stand close together, so their bubbles would cover each other. They never do:
- Bubbles slide apart sideways into one row, in the same left-to-right order as their people, with a small gap between them. A crowded row stays centred on its group, and a bubble with room to spare stays right above its own head. Someone's camera and screen move together.
- A small tail in each person's colour points down from their bubbles to their head, so a bubble nudged aside still says whose it is.
- No jitter. Two people's bubbles swap sides only once they have clearly walked past each other, and the swap is a short slide, never a jump.
- Speech bubbles rise from above them, so what someone types never covers their video.
Maximise a bubble
Press any bubble to maximise it. It opens into a large panel over the canvas, with the person's name in a bar above the picture and a Restore button. The board stays live, softly dimmed behind it, and a maximised camera switches to a sharper picture for you alone.
Press Restore, press Esc, or click the dimmed board to put it back. One bubble is maximised at a time: maximising another restores the first. If its person walks out of earshot, turns it off or leaves, the panel closes by itself. On a phone the panel fills the width of the screen.
Who can do what
| What you can do | Editor | Participant | Viewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| See the bubbles of the people near you | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Maximise and restore a bubble | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Turn on a camera | Yes | Yes | No |
| Share a screen | Yes | No | No |
Guests on an Editor or Participant link can turn on a camera without signing in, just as they can speak. A Viewer link listens and watches.
Video Paused
Video and screen sharing can be paused while audio carries on. The camera and share buttons then give way to one calm Video Paused: a camera or share that was on stops, every bubble closes, and you keep talking as before.
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