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.
A watch party can talk out loud from the moment it opens, and the Room is where that happens. Voice is on when the party starts and every microphone is muted, so nobody is heard until they choose to be. Everyone in the party hears it, anyone holding a mic seat can speak, and the video quietly steps back under whoever is talking. Nothing said in a party is recorded or stored.
Listening
You hear the room as you arrive. Open a party link while its voice is on and the sound is simply there: no button to find, and no permission prompt, because listening does not touch your microphone at all. Your own microphone stays off until you unmute it yourself.
Browsers hold sound back on a page you have not touched, which is why, once in a while, the Room shows one line asking for a tap. That happens most often when you reload the page, since a refresh gives the browser nothing to go on. One tap and the room is audible. On an iPhone, a call or another app taking the sound can do the same thing mid-party, and the same tap brings it back.
Voice has its own room in the Watch Along column: click Room in the rail. The column opens on People, and the roster strip at the top carries a chip that says what the Room is doing, so you can reach it from anywhere in the column. If you have left the Room, or your browser is holding the sound, the People room carries a pill that takes you straight there.
The Room stays live while you read the chat or the roster. Switching rooms never drops the call.
Hold the phone upright and voice has a card of its own in the Watch Along panel: swipe to Room, or tap its name in the slim row at the top. The whole card belongs to it: the speakers, your mic button, and the host's mic seats all get the full card. While your own mic is live, the Room tab says LIVE, so you can tell you are audible from any card. Nothing disconnects when you swipe away: the audio keeps flowing underneath.
Swipe to another card or panel and a Room pill takes the Room's place in the band between the video's timeline and the row of panel names, for as long as you are in the party. It says whether voice is on, whether you are connected, and, once you hold a seat, whether you are muted, and the face of whoever is talking shows beside the name. When your browser is holding the sound the pill says Tap for sound rather than Listening, and that tap brings the room back on its way to the Room card. Its microphone button mutes and unmutes from wherever you are reading. The first time you unmute from the pill you get the same one-time age question and the same headphones note the Room card gives. Without a seat the pill reads Listening once you are connected, and tapping it opens the Room card, where Ask to speak waits.
Turn the phone sideways and the Room sits between People and chat in the panel. When that panel is too short to hold the whole Room, it folds down to one row that reads Room and the number of people in the party. If you have a mic and are connected, its button rides on that row, so the one control worth keeping at hand stays at hand. Tap the row to open the Room back up. Nothing disconnects while it is folded either: the row is there so the chat and the You controls below it stay reachable.
While you listen you can see who is speaking, how many mics are live, and a leave button. Faces glow while their person talks, so you can follow the conversation without reading names.
Leave voice stops the sound without leaving the party, and it stays stopped: turning the phone, moving to another video with the party, and switching rooms all leave it alone. A Hear the room button waits where the speakers were, for whenever you want it back. Reloading the page is the one thing that starts you listening again, because a fresh page arrives the way any other arrival does.
Speaking
Speaking needs two things: a mic seat, and your browser's permission to use your microphone.
Once you hold a seat, an unmute button appears. The first time you tap it, your browser asks whether Vid Receipts may use your microphone. Allow it once and unmute works directly from then on. If your browser has the microphone blocked, the card says so plainly instead of asking again, and you can change it in your browser's site settings.
The first four people in a party, the host included, get a mic seat on arrival without anyone handing it to them. That count starts when voice does. If a host turns voice on after the party has been running, their own seat comes with the switch, and everyone else already inside asks for a seat or is handed one. Past the fourth, the Room gives you an Ask to speak button. Tapping it puts you on the host's list, and the button then reads Waiting for a mic; tap it again to take the request back. The host sees who is waiting, and nothing hides your request from the rest of the party, the same way nothing hides who already holds a seat. Asking is out loud, not a private note to the host. You can ask once every ten seconds in the same party. Taking a request back is immediate; the short wait still counts from when you last asked, including after a reload or leaving and rejoining. The button shows how long is left. The host answers with one tap and your request comes off the list. A mic taken away by a moderator or by the automated check clears a waiting request with it, and asking again while that mute stands is refused. There are up to ten seats in a party and the count is the same on every plan. Seats are not held for good either. When someone with one leaves the party, their seat goes back, and the next person to arrive can pick it up.
Someone watching without an account is never given a seat automatically, though a host can still hand them one by name. A teen age band is the same on this point: no seat on arrival, but a host can hand one out by name. What it still blocks is turning voice on for a party you host. And a seat a host has taken back does not return by leaving and rejoining; only the host giving it back returns it.
Voice starts 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 a public party is a broadcast anyone can walk into: a free host's public party opens with voice off and a line in the Room saying so, and everything else about the party works as usual. Joining, listening and speaking are free for everyone, whatever the party.
The video steps back while people talk
While someone is speaking, the video's volume drops so you can hear them, then returns to exactly where you had it when they stop. Turning the volume down never stops the video. If your phone hands the sound over to your microphone and the video stops with it, the party starts it again and holds that stop back from everyone else while it does. If your browser refuses to start it, the pause reaches the party like any other pause. A pause you make yourself still reaches everyone, right away.
Live captions
Turn captions on to read along while people talk. You choose for yourself and your choice is remembered, so captions stay on the next time.
Captions come from the speaker's own browser turning their speech into text, which means they appear for the speakers on a computer whose browser can do that. Speaking from an iPhone, iPad or Android device sends no captions: transcribing there takes the sound away from the video and stops it, so we leave the video playing instead. Everything else about speaking works the same, and anyone can still report what they hear. Nothing anyone says is recorded or stored, and a line disappears after about half a minute. In public parties captions pass the same automated safety check as chat, and a removed line reads as removed.
The stage
The Room puts one large tile at the top that follows whoever is talking, so you can see who has the floor at a glance. Pin anyone to keep them there, then unpin to go back to following the conversation.
Every speaker tile has its own volume, so you can turn a quiet friend up or a loud one down just for yourself. It changes nothing for anyone else. A host can also put someone on stage or make them a describer, each marked with a plain label.
Camera in a private party
In a private party, a speaker can turn their camera on so a small group can see each other while they watch. A party is private when you set Who can join to Followers, Friends or A group before you start it, which is the same choice that puts a door on the party. The picker carries that fact in a line of its own, so you read it before you start rather than afterwards.
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 is greyed and one line beside it names the next thing to do, and the order is fixed, so two people in the same party read the same reason for the same state. These are the ones a speaker meets:
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.
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.
The waiting room for a booked party
Desktop dock form Camera comes with the party.
Phone card form, 320px Camera comes with the party.
Ready
Desktop dock form Phone card form, 320px
Without a mic seat there is no camera button, because there is no mic button either: Ask to speak stands where that row would be. And where camera can never be yours, on a teen age band or in an Everyone party, there is no control and no line, because there would be nothing you could do about it.
The waiting room for a booked party carries the same line and no control at all, which is the fourth state above: you can hear each other in there, and camera arrives with the party itself.
When someone turns their camera on, their video fills their tile with a clear "Camera is on" note. Turning it off returns to their avatar. Video goes straight between the people in the party and is never recorded or stored, the same as voice.
The one-time age check
The first time you unmute as a speaker, or turn your camera on, we ask for your birth month and year. We ask once and remember the answer. If you are old enough, you carry straight on with what you were doing.
Live hosting and camera stay off for younger teens, and camera is for adults. There is no age question anywhere else on the site, and nothing changes for people who have already answered.
Reporting a speaker
If someone crosses a line out loud, you can report them from the party. Pick a reason, add a note if you want, and you get an on-screen reference to keep. Automatic checks also run on what speakers say in public parties, and a speaker who trips them is muted. Reports are reviewed, and you will not get a personal reply.
When voice ends
Voice lives for the length of the party. When the host turns it off, or the party ends, the audio layer goes with it. There is no recording, no transcript kept, and no trace of the Room on your account.
Related
Last updated on
Party chat
Chat and react with everyone in a watch party, stay private while you do it, and report anything that crosses a line.
The waiting room for a booked party
A party booked for later opens a waiting room fifteen minutes before it starts. See who is there, what is lined up, talk in the chat, hear the room, and know exactly what happens when the party begins or does not.