Turn on voice or camera in a party
Voice is on from the moment a party opens, and anyone in it hears the room on arrival, with no tap and no microphone prompt. Mics stay off until you unmute. The first four people to arrive after voice is on hold a mic seat; the host hands out the rest. Every speaker gets a volume slider that is yours alone, captions are transcribed on the speaker's own computer, and camera needs a private party, which is what Followers, Friends or A group gives you. Where camera is not available the Room keeps the control and names the next thing to do.
Voice belongs to the party, not to you: it is on from the moment the party opens, with every microphone muted, and anyone in the party hears the room as they arrive. Speaking is the part that needs permission, from the party and from your browser.
Listening
Hearing a live party never asks for anything. Open the link and the sound is there. No microphone prompt appears, because listening does not touch your microphone at all, and your own mic stays off until you unmute it.
Browsers hold sound back on a page nobody has touched yet, so after a page reload the Room may show one line asking for a tap. One tap and it is audible. On an iPhone, a call or another app taking the sound does the same thing mid-party, and the same tap brings it back.
The roster strip keeps a chip saying what the Room is doing, so you can reach it from anywhere in the panel, and the People room carries a pill to the Room if you have left it or the sound is waiting on that tap. Switching between People, Chat, and the Room never drops the audio.
Leave voice stops the sound without leaving the party, and it stays stopped through a rotation, a move to another video and every room switch. A Hear the room button waits for whenever you want it back, and reloading the page starts you listening again like any other arrival.
Speaking
Two things gate it, and they are different in kind:
- A mic seat. The first four people in the party, host included, get one on arrival, in the order they turn up. That starts when voice does: the host's seat comes with the switch, and anyone else already in the party when voice turns on asks for a seat or is handed one. Past the fourth, the host hands the rest out from the Room, up to ten in a party, and the count is the same on every plan. Without a seat there is no unmute button to press, but there is an Ask to speak button: tapping it puts you on the host's list, and tapping it again takes the request back. The host sees who is waiting, and nothing hides your request from the rest of the party. A guest without an account is never seated automatically, though a host can still give them a seat by name. A teen age band works the same way: no automatic seat, but a host can give one by name. What it still blocks is turning voice on for a party you host. If a host takes a mic back, or the automated check on what was said does, leaving and rejoining does not return it; only the host giving it back does.
- Your browser's microphone permission. The first time you unmute, your browser asks. Allow it once and unmute works directly afterwards. If the microphone is blocked, the Room says so plainly instead of asking again, and points you at your browser's site settings.
Voice comes on by itself in a private, unlisted or invite-only party, whatever your plan. On a public or discoverable party it takes a paid plan, because that party is a broadcast anyone can walk into: a free host's public party opens with voice off, and the Room says so rather than offering a button that would be refused. Joining, listening and speaking are free for everyone in every kind of party.
Making the Room sound right to you
Two controls exist because a party is not a broadcast, and both are yours alone:
- Per-speaker volume. Every remote speaker's tile carries its own slider, labeled Volume for that person, running from silent to half again as loud. Turn a quiet friend up and a loud one down. Nothing you do here reaches anyone else, and none of it is saved: the sliders start level again next time.
- The stage. The Room puts one large tile at the top that follows whoever has the floor. Pin anyone to hold them there, and unpin to go back to following the conversation. The pin is yours, so two people in the same party can be watching different faces.
Your own tile has no slider, because your mic mute already covers your own audio.
Captions
Captions are a per-viewer switch reading Show captions. It starts off and your choice is remembered, so once you turn it on it stays on.
The transcription happens on the speaking side, in the speaker's own browser, and only the resulting text is published to the party. No audio is sent anywhere to be captioned, nothing is recorded, and a line disappears from the party after about half a minute. That also sets an honest limit: it needs a computer whose browser can transcribe, which is why the switch carries the line Captions come from speakers using a computer whose browser supports them; an iPhone, iPad or Android device sends none rather than promising them for everyone. Transcribing on one of those takes the sound away from the video and stops it, and the video playing is worth more than the text. Talking, listening and reporting a speaker are the same there.
Camera, and how to get to it
Set Who can join to Followers, Friends or A group before you start the party. Camera rides on voice and is built for a private party, and those three are what make one, because each puts a door on the party that checks every arrival. Everyone makes it discoverable and Invite only leaves it unlisted; neither is private, so neither gets camera. The Who can join row says which choices carry camera in a line under the picker, so the choice is in front of you before you press start.
Once you hold a mic seat, the camera button sits beside the mic whether or not you can use it yet. While something is still in the way it goes grey and one line beside it names the next thing to do, one thing at a time, in this order:
- Camera is turned on for parties. It can be switched off across the site, and then the line says so and there is nothing to do but wait.
- The party is private. Who can join is fixed when the party opens, so in an Everyone or Invite only party the only move left is a new one.
- The host has allowed camera for the party. Their Allow camera control sits at the bottom of the Room, and until the host presses it nobody publishes video, however well they meet the rest of this list. The host reads their own version of that line, about their own control.
- You hold a mic seat. Camera is voice plus video, so voice comes first.
- Your plan includes it.
- Your age, and the host's. An adult answer to the one-time age question satisfies this today, and it has to hold at both ends: live audio and video are blocked for accounts on a teen age band, yours or the host's. The product can be switched to require a verified adult account instead of an answer, and if that happens the question asks for verification.
Here is each of those as the Room draws it, with the desktop and phone forms side by side. The sentence under the buttons is the reason, and a button beside the sentence is the step:
Media off
Desktop dock form Camera is turned off for parties right now.
Phone card form, 320px Camera is turned off for parties right now.
Party not private, after start
Desktop dock form Camera is available in Followers, Friends and A group parties. Start a new party to choose one of those.
Phone card form, 320px Camera is available in Followers, Friends and A group parties. Start a new party to choose one of those.
Host has not allowed camera, seen by a speaker
Desktop dock form Ask the host to allow camera.
Phone card form, 320px Ask the host to allow camera.
Host has not allowed camera, seen by the host
Desktop dock form Allow camera for the party first.
Phone card form, 320px Allow camera for the party first.
Plan lacks camera
Age answer missing
Desktop dock form Camera needs an age on file.
Phone card form, 320px Camera needs an age on file.
Ready
Desktop dock form Phone card form, 320px Hidden, for a minor band or a failed verification
Desktop dock form Phone card form, 320px
Two states have no camera button rather than a grey one. Without a mic seat there is no mic button either, so Ask to speak stands where the row would be. And where camera can never be yours, on a teen age band or in an Everyone party, the control is not offered at all: an Everyone party runs on the connection built for a crowd, which carries no camera for anyone.
When someone does have their camera on, their video fills their tile and turning it off returns them to their avatar. Video goes straight between the people in the party. Nothing is recorded and nothing is stored, the same as voice.
Two quieter behaviors worth knowing: a viewer on a teen age band never sees incoming camera tiles at all, and a device reporting data saver, a slow connection, or very little memory does not automatically render other people's video either. The second one is yours to overrule: while someone else's camera is being held back, the Room says so and offers Show cameras anyway, which brings the tiles in for the rest of that party in this tab. Reloading the page starts them hidden again, and so does the next party. The teen age band is never overruled by it.
The one-time age question
The first time you unmute as a granted speaker, or turn camera on, you are asked for your birth month and year. It is asked once, it never hints at what any answer will do, and if you are old enough you carry straight on with what you were doing. Correct the age on your account covers changing your answer afterwards.
What's next
- The Room: voice, captions, and camera is the full feature article, including the stage roles and reporting a speaker.
- Host a private watch party covers setting the visibility camera needs.
Related
The Room: voice, captions, and camera
The Room is where a watch party talks out loud. You hear it as you arrive, with no tap and no microphone prompt, and every mic stays off until you unmute. Read live captions, follow the stage, and turn on your camera in a private party, where the control names what is still missing rather than hiding.
Host a private watch party
Set Who can join before you start. Invite only takes the party off the public surface and lets in anyone holding the link. Followers, Friends and A group go further: they check every arrival at the door, so even someone with the link is turned away unless they belong, and they are the three that carry camera. Everyone is the open party, and Invite only is what a fresh picker starts on.
Correct the age on your account
For ten minutes after your first answer, a Correct your answer button on the Age row reopens the question. After that, an answer that would make you older is refused and only support can change it, through the email link the same row shows. An answer that makes you younger is accepted at any time.
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Stay anonymous with masks
A mask is a throwaway name like Quiet Otter that the product picks for you. It belongs to that one watching session, carries no follower graph, and can never be followed. A persona is the opposite: a lasting identity with its own followers. Unmasking swaps one for the other.
Watch along in the browser extension
On youtube.com the extension's side panel carries the party beside the real player: a card showing who is watching with you, whether you are in sync, chat, and the Room. Tap the card's heading to fold it to one row with the party count, a Live tag, and your mic. Nothing disconnects.