# Huddles
Source: https://freesbe.net/docs/huddles/
> Start voice and video calls in any channel or DM, share your screen, record, and keep the call in view while you work.
A huddle is a call that lives in a channel or DM. Anyone in the conversation can start one or
drop in, with up to 20 people at once.
## Start or join a huddle
- In a channel or DM, click **Huddle** at the top right. Your browser asks to use your microphone
the first time; click **Allow**.
- If a huddle is already going, the button says **Join**, and the conversation shows a huddle
icon in the sidebar.
- In a DM, starting a huddle rings the other people for 30 seconds. They see **is calling you**
with **Join** and **Decline**, on every device they're signed in on.
- In a channel, nobody is rung. People see the huddle icon and the **Join** button instead.
You need to be a member of a channel to start a huddle in it.
On your phone, join and start huddles in the Freesbe app. See
[Huddles in the mobile app](https://freesbe.net/docs/mobile-app/#huddles).
## Merge a call into yours
When someone calls you while you're already in a huddle, their call shows **Join**, **Merge** and
**Decline**:
- **Join** leaves the huddle you're in and takes the new call.
- **Merge** brings them into your call. From a DM or group DM, Freesbe opens the group DM of all of
you and everyone moves into its huddle on their own, so you keep talking without anyone hanging
up. From a channel's huddle, the people calling join you in that channel.
- **Decline** turns the new call down and leaves you where you are.
You stay muted if you were. A merged call can have up to 20 people. **Merge** isn't offered when the
caller can't see the channel you're in (a guest calling while you're in a public channel's
huddle, say), and in a private channel it works only if they're a member.
## Missed calls
When a huddle in a DM rings you and you don't pick up, Freesbe makes sure you know:
- **In the DM**, a red **Missed huddle from …** card with **Call back** takes the place of the
call. It makes the DM unread and counts on your badge, like a mention.
- **A notification** says **Missed huddle from …** once the ringing stops, and stays until you
deal with it. In Chrome and Edge it has **Call back** and **Message**; elsewhere, click it to
open the DM. On your phone, the ringing notification turns into a missed one, with
**Call back** and **Message** (see [the mobile app](https://freesbe.net/docs/mobile-app/#missed-calls)).
- **Activity** lists it with your mentions, and **Activity → Calls** keeps your call history.
The ringing stops after 30 seconds, or sooner when the caller hangs up. If you click **Decline**,
the call isn't missed: the DM just says you declined. The person who called sees
**You called … · no answer** with **Call again**; the same call tried again within the hour folds
into that one line, with the number of tries. In a group DM, only the people who didn't join
get the missed call.
Every line like this in a conversation, a call, a huddle that ended, a recording, someone
joining, carries a small mark coloured by kind: red for a call you missed or a recording in
progress, green for a huddle that happened, grey for the rest, and amber for something waiting
on you, such as a guest to let in.
Paused notifications and a DM set to **Nothing** keep the notification quiet, but the card is
still there when you look.
### Your calls
**Activity → Calls** lists the huddles in your DMs, newest first: the ones you missed in red, the
ones you took with how long they lasted, and the ones you made, with **No answer** when nobody
picked up. If you call from Freesbe with the [phone system](https://freesbe.net/docs/phone/), its calls are in the
same list. Click **Call back** or **Call** to call again, or a call to open the DM.
## During a huddle
The huddle bar in the sidebar shows who's talking and how long the call has run. When someone
joins, everyone else hears a soft chime, and a quieter one when someone leaves, in huddles of up
to 8 people. To turn it off, use **Play a sound when someone joins or leaves** in
[Preferences → Calls & audio → Audio](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#audio).
When the huddle ends for you, because you left, the huddle ended or your connection dropped, you
hear three soft notes stepping down, so you know you're out. It doesn't play when you go straight
into another huddle.
Its buttons:
- **Mute** / **Unmute** your microphone.
- **Turn on camera** to add video. People's cameras show in the huddle window; click one to show it
large.
- **Share screen** to show a window, tab or your whole screen. A shared screen takes the main spot. The
button stays lit while you share; click it again to stop. In the desktop app, a frame goes around
what you share so you can see what others see ([details](https://freesbe.net/docs/desktop-app/#see-what-youre-sharing)).
Others can [draw on it](#draw-on-a-shared-screen), and ask to
[control it](https://freesbe.net/docs/remote-control/) if your admin allows remote control.
- **Record the huddle**. See [Recordings](#recordings).
- **Transcribe** to get a transcript and notes without recording. See
[Transcribe a huddle](https://freesbe.net/docs/recordings-and-notes/#transcribe-a-huddle-without-recording-it).
- **Audio and video devices** picks the microphone, camera, your camera's
[background](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#video) (blur or a picture; also in the huddle
video's header, see [Keep the call in view](#keep-the-call-in-view)),
[noise cancellation](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#audio), the speaker for the call, and where
the ringtone and chimes play. **More audio settings** opens
[Preferences → Calls & audio → Audio](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#audio).
- **Reactions and raise hand** opens the reaction bar. See
[Reactions and raised hands](#reactions-and-raised-hands).
- **Pop out the huddle** (in a browser) opens the call in its own small window. The desktop app
does this on its own, so it has no such button. See [Keep the call in view](#keep-the-call-in-view).
- **Leave huddle** is the red hang-up button at the end of the row. The huddle ends when the last
person leaves.
### Everyone at the same volume
Voices are evened out, so a quiet microphone is turned up and a loud one down, and recordings get
the same even levels. To hear one person louder or quieter, click their face in the huddle bar
(hosts choose **Volume…**), or right-click their video, and drag the slider from 0% to 200%. Freesbe remembers it for that
person on this device. See [Everyone at the same volume](https://freesbe.net/docs/meetings/#everyone-at-the-same-volume)
in meetings.
### Reactions and raised hands
Click **Reactions and raise hand** in the huddle bar and tap an emoji: it floats up over your
face in the huddle bar for everyone in the huddle. When someone has their camera or screen on, it
also rises from the bottom corner of the huddle video with your name under it, and pops up on your
camera if it's on. Each emoji moves its own way, as [in meetings](https://freesbe.net/docs/meetings/#reactions-and-raised-hands). The round
button beside the emoji picks your skin tone for 👍 👏 and 👎. **Raise hand** puts a ✋ on your
face and tells the others you'd like to speak, with a soft chime; click **Lower hand** when you're
done. It works the
same as [in meetings](https://freesbe.net/docs/meetings/#reactions-and-raised-hands).
While you're alone in a huddle, waiting music plays just for you (it never goes into the call).
Pick **Lo-fi**, **Drift**, **Sunny**, **Classic**, **Bossa** or **Off** from the music button in the huddle
bar. The Android app plays it too: see [During a huddle](https://freesbe.net/docs/mobile-app/#during-a-huddle).
### Draw on a shared screen
While someone shares their screen, click **Draw** under it in the huddle video and draw over the
screen to point something out. Everyone in the huddle sees the line as you draw it, in your own
colour with your name next to it, and it fades away about 2 seconds after you let go. Click
**Stop drawing**, or press **Esc**, to use the screen as usual. It works the same as
[in meetings](https://freesbe.net/docs/meetings/#draw-on-a-shared-screen): everyone keeps their colour for the whole
huddle, several people can draw at once, and nothing is saved.
Whoever started the huddle, its co-hosts, and workspace owners and admins can click **Turn drawing
off for everyone** under the screen, and **Let everyone draw** to turn it back on. The next huddle
starts with drawing on.
## Keep the call in view
When you switch to another browser tab during a call, Freesbe opens a small floating window with
the call, so you can keep an eye on it. In the desktop app, the floating window stays on top of
your other apps when you minimize or hide Freesbe. Some browsers (Safari and Firefox, or Chrome
when automatic picture-in-picture is off for Freesbe) only open it from **Pop out the huddle**.
While the call floats, the huddle video inside Freesbe steps aside, so there's only ever one.
The floating window has the call's own controls: **Mute**, **Turn on camera**, **Share screen**,
**Reactions**, **Raise hand**, **Leave call**, and **More options** (⋯) with:
- **In-call messages**: the huddle's conversation beside the video. The video shrinks to one
small tile so the messages get the room, and what you send goes to the channel or DM the huddle
is in.
- **Backgrounds and effects**: blur or a picture behind you, as in
[Preferences → Video](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#video).
- **Transcribe the call**, when your workspace allows
[transcripts](https://freesbe.net/docs/recordings-and-notes/#transcribe-a-huddle-without-recording-it).
- **Back to the call** returns to Freesbe and closes the window.
The floating window fits the people to its size. With two or three people, whoever is talking
gets the big tile and the others sit in a strip beside or under them. With more, they fill a grid
that suits the window: two across and many rows in a tall window, three or four across in a wide
one. The person talking is outlined and always stays in view. When there are more people than
fit, the last tile says how many others there are.
While someone shares their screen, the floating window shows the screen on top with
**"Name is presenting"** above it, the people in a grid under it, and the controls at the bottom.
It grows tall when the share starts, unless you've already resized it. Make the window wide and
the people move to a column on the right of the screen; when there are more people than fit, the
last tile says how many others there are. **More options → Hide people** (or **N**) shows just
the screen, and **Show people** brings them back.
You can also drag the huddle video around inside Freesbe, make it bigger or smaller, or hide it.
Made bigger, the video covers only the conversation, so the sidebar stays free: pick any channel
or DM and the video shrinks back to its corner while you read and reply. Press Esc or
**Make smaller** to shrink it yourself.
With your camera on, **Backgrounds and effects** in the huddle video's header changes your
[background](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#video) while the huddle goes on: pick a blur, a picture
or **No effect** and your camera changes straight away.
Made bigger with someone sharing, the huddle lays out like a meeting: the screen fills the space
and cameras sit beside it. **Layout** in the huddle video's header, **Hide people** and full screen
(F) work as in [meetings](https://freesbe.net/docs/meetings/#make-the-shared-screen-bigger). When two
people share, each screen gets a tab above it, and **Show both** puts them side by side.
## Open another workspace during a huddle
If you're in more than one workspace, you can open another one from the rail on the left while
you're in a huddle. The call carries on: the huddle bar stays at the bottom of the sidebar, still
with its controls, and says which workspace the huddle is in. Click the huddle's name to go back to
its conversation in that workspace.
The [mobile app](https://freesbe.net/docs/mobile-app/) works the same: switch workspaces from the workspace switcher
and the call carries on. The bubble to return to the huddle stays on every screen, and the call
screen says which workspace the huddle is in.
While you're in another workspace, the floating call window doesn't show **In-call messages**. Go
back to the huddle's workspace to read and reply.
Starting or joining a huddle in the workspace you're looking at moves you to that huddle, as it
would within one workspace.
## Move a huddle to another device
Started a huddle on your phone and just sat down at your computer? Open Freesbe there and the
sidebar shows **You're in this huddle on your phone** with **Join here**. Click it and the call
moves over without anyone noticing a drop: the others keep hearing you, and your phone hangs up on
its own. It works the same in any direction between the desktop app, a browser and the
[mobile app](https://freesbe.net/docs/mobile-app/#move-a-call-to-your-phone).
You're only ever in a huddle on one device at a time, so joining from a second device always moves
the call rather than adding you twice.
## Recordings
Anyone from the workspace in a huddle can record it, unless an admin has turned recording off or
allows only hosts and co-hosts. Whoever started the huddle is its host, and can make others
co-hosts from the menu on their face. See
[Who can start and stop recordings](https://freesbe.net/docs/recordings-and-notes/#who-can-start-and-stop-recordings).
- Everyone in the huddle hears a tone and sees a **REC** indicator, and the channel gets a line
saying who started recording. People who haven't joined see a red dot on the huddle button.
- The recording mixes everyone's audio and combines cameras and screen shares into one video.
- By default, the person recording, the huddle's host and co-hosts, and owners and admins can stop
it. It also stops when the person recording leaves, and after 4 hours.
- When it stops, the recording is posted in the conversation by the person who recorded it. They
and admins can delete it.
- A minute or two later, notes follow as a reply in the recording's thread: a summary, decisions
and action items. **Notes and transcript** under the video opens the full transcript, with who
said what. See [Recordings, transcripts and notes](https://freesbe.net/docs/recordings-and-notes/).
Recordings are uploaded every few seconds while they run, so a crash or a dropped connection keeps
what was already recorded. Admins can also have recordings deleted automatically after 30, 90 or
365 days. See [the Admin Center](https://freesbe.net/docs/admin-center/), under **Meetings → Recordings**.
## When video is off
If the workspace has used its monthly video allowance, **Turn on camera** and **Share screen**
are off until the workspace's
[billing date](https://freesbe.net/docs/usage-limits/#your-billing-date), and anyone sharing at the time sees why. Voice keeps working. See
[Usage limits](https://freesbe.net/docs/usage-limits/).
## Call quality
Freesbe keeps an eye on how well everyone's sound gets through during a call.
- **A weak connection shows on someone's face.** If someone's audio reaches you choppy or with
gaps, a small signal icon shows next to their name on their video, or on their face in the
huddle bar. Point at it to read what it means. When the icon is on your own face, the call is
losing some of your sound on the way out, so others may hear you cut out. Moving closer to
your Wi-Fi, plugging in a cable or closing big downloads usually helps. The icon goes away by
itself once the sound gets through cleanly again.
- **A weak connection keeps the sound first.** If your connection stays weak for more than a few
seconds, Freesbe stops bringing in other people's cameras (their pictures show instead), sends
your own camera smaller and your sound a little leaner, so voices keep getting through. Shared
screens keep showing. A note in the huddle bar says so; click **Show video anyway** to bring the
cameras back for the rest of the call. Once your connection has been fine for half a minute,
everything comes back by itself.
- **Each video comes in at the size you see it.** Cameras are sent in a few sizes at once, and
you get the one that fits where it shows: the person talking, someone you pinned or a video
in full screen comes in sharp, small tiles in the grid come in smaller, and while the call is
in a window you can't see, videos come in at their smallest. A group video call uses a lot
less data that way, on your side and everyone else's. When you make a tile bigger, it sharpens
in a moment.
- **Sometimes we ask how the call sounded.** After about one call in five that lasted a minute
or more, a small card asks **How did the call sound?** Click **Good**, or **Not great** and pick
what was wrong: **Echo**, **Background noise**, **Choppy or cut out**, **Too quiet** or
**Delay**. It goes away by itself if you ignore it.
When you leave a call, your app sends Freesbe a short note about how the sound travelled: how
much audio went missing or had to be patched over, how long it took to arrive, and which app and
kind of connection you used. It never includes anything that was said or shown. We use it to
find and fix what makes calls sound bad.
## If you can't hear or be heard
- Check the microphone and speaker in **Audio and video devices**, or test them in
[Preferences → Calls & audio → Audio](https://freesbe.net/docs/profile-and-preferences/#audio).
- If Freesbe shows **There's a problem with your microphone**, allow microphone access in your
browser or system settings, then click **Try again**.
- On a Mac using the desktop app, allow Freesbe under **System Settings → Privacy & Security →
Microphone** (and **Camera** and **Screen & System Audio Recording** for video and screen sharing).
- On strict office networks, calls go through a relay automatically. If you still can't connect,
ask your IT team to allow WebRTC traffic.
- Calls fix themselves when they can. If someone's sound stops reaching you, Freesbe asks for it
again after a few seconds. If you're talking but your microphone sends the others silence,
Freesbe notices within about 10 seconds and repairs it: with Advanced AI noise cancellation on, it
switches to **Standard** for the rest of the call and tells you so (your setting stays as you
chose it). If someone's sound arrives but doesn't play, Freesbe plays it the plain way instead. If your network changes in the middle of a call, for example a VPN
turning on or off, the call reconnects and makes sure the others get your new audio. The
Freesbe app on your phone does the same when it moves between Wi-Fi and mobile data. A camera
or shared screen that doesn't come through is asked for again too, a little later each time,
until it shows.
- If the connection drops for a moment, the call shows **Reconnecting** and keeps trying for up to
30 seconds, so you stay in the meeting without having to leave and join again. If the
connection to the call server stops working, a meeting starts it over by itself within about
20 seconds. A camera or shared screen stops then: turn it on again.
- A signal icon on someone's face or video means their connection is weak, not that something
is wrong on your side. See [Call quality](#call-quality).
- Still stuck? Open **Audio and video devices** and click **Copy call details**. It copies what
your app is sending and receiving: whose audio arrives, how much, how much sound your
microphone sent, which noise cancellation is on, and any errors from the call server. It also
lists the cameras and screens showing on your device, any it's still waiting for, and whether
your device is the one recording. Paste it into a message to whoever is helping you, ideally from the person who can't
hear and the person who isn't heard.
- Freesbe support can also see these details without anyone copying them: your app saves them
when you leave a huddle or meeting, and when it repairs your sound, with people shown by an id
rather than their name and nothing about what was said. They're kept for 90 days.
See also [People can't hear me, or I can't hear them](https://freesbe.net/knowledge/cant-hear-or-be-heard/) in the knowledge base.
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