Flotilla
Knowledge Base

Using Voice and Video Calls

Using Flotilla By Jon Staab 3 min read

How to join and take part in a space's voice rooms and video calls: previewing participants, picking your mic, muting, screen sharing, and pinning a video tile.

Using Voice and Video Calls

Part of our guide to running an online community you actually own.

Some Rooms in a Space are voice Rooms rather than text Rooms, with live audio, video, and screen sharing available once you’re in. They sit in the sidebar alongside the text Rooms, marked with a different icon. If you’re setting up voice and video on a relay you run, see Enabling Voice and Video Calls on Your Relay instead. For how Rooms fit into a Space, see Spaces and Rooms Explained.

Joining a Voice Room

Click a voice Room and a “Join voice room?” dialog appears before you’re connected. If people are already in the call, their profile circles show at the top. Below that, pick a microphone from the dropdown (it defaults to your system’s default mic), or check “Join without microphone” if you only want to listen — you can unmute later. “Join voice” connects you; “Don’t join” backs out.

Once You’re In

Once you join, a small call widget appears and stays visible as you browse the rest of the Space. It shows whether you’re joining, connected, or disconnected, along with the Room and Space name, and gives you these controls:

  • Mute/unmute your microphone.
  • Turn your camera on or off.
  • Share your screen — available in the browser and on desktop, though not in the native mobile apps.
  • Call settings, a gear icon that opens a dialog for switching your microphone, speaker, or camera mid-call.
  • Leave the room, which disconnects you.

There’s also a chat toggle, so you can read and post in the Room’s text chat without leaving the call.

Adding Video

Turning your camera on (or sharing your screen) adds a video tile for you, and you’ll see tiles for anyone else doing the same. With one or two tiles active, they show full-size, stacked. Once there are more than two, Flotilla switches to a grid so everyone fits.

To focus on one person, click the pin icon in the corner of their tile to spotlight it. The spotlighted tile takes over the main view, and everyone else shrinks into a strip alongside it. Click the pin again (it now reads “Exit spotlight”) to return to the grid.

If a Space Doesn’t Have Voice Rooms

Voice and video calls only work on a relay that’s been set up to support them. If a Space you’re in has no voice Rooms at all, that’s a setting on the relay’s side rather than a problem with your setup. Some Spaces run entirely on text Rooms.

Who Turns This On

Enabling calls is the Space owner’s job. If they self-host their relay, the steps are in Enabling Voice and Video Calls on Your Relay. If Flotilla hosts their Space, video calling is a plan-gated toggle the owner enables in its hosting settings. If you think a Space should have voice but doesn’t, ask whoever runs it.

If you get stuck, reach out to the community for help.