Flotilla
Knowledge Base

Using Voice and Video Calls

Using Flotilla By Jon Staab 4 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 — live audio, with video and screen sharing available once you’re in. They behave like any other Room type: they sit in the sidebar alongside the text Rooms, marked with a different icon. This article covers joining and using one as a member. If you’re setting up voice and video on a relay you run, see Enabling Voice and Video Calls on Your Relay instead. And if you just want the bigger picture of 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, so you know who you’re about to join. 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, so you don’t have to keep a call screen open just to stay connected. It shows whether you’re joining, connected, or disconnected, along with the Room and Space name, and it gives you a handful of 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 — handy when you plug in headphones or want to swap devices without leaving.
  • 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 — a screen share, a presenter, whoever’s talking — 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 choice (or a gap) on the relay’s side, not something wrong with your setup — there’s nothing to troubleshoot on your end. Some Spaces run entirely on text Rooms and never add voice.

Who Turns This On

Enabling calls is the Space owner’s job, not something a member configures. If they self-host their relay, the steps are in Enabling Voice and Video Calls on Your Relay. If their Space is on Coracle Hosting, video calling is a plan-gated toggle the owner enables in the hosting dashboard. Either way, if you think a Space should have voice but doesn’t, that’s a conversation to have with whoever runs it.

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