Using Connect app in-call controls

The tables below show the actions that can be performed while a call is in progress. They show the actions available through the client's buttons, menus and keyboard shortcuts, followed by the actions that can be performed using text-based commands.

These tables include all features available to the Connect desktop app, the Connect web app and the Connect mobile apps for Android and iOS, although not all features are available to all clients.

Buttons, menus and keyboard shortcuts

What How Keyboard shortcut

Enter Host PIN (if joined as Guest)

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Enter Host PIN.  

Change your camera, microphone or speakers during a call

  1. From the top of the side panel, select Control .
  2. Select Select media devices.
  3. Select the camera, microphone or speakers/headset, and then choose a new one from the list of available options.
 

Enable background effects

You can select in the self-view window to enable the selected background effect (blur or replacement), or to remove the effect.

Note that background blur is available:

  • on the Connect desktop app
  • on the previous web app (Webapp2) via Chrome or Edge browsers
  • on Pexip Connect for Web (Webapp3) via Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers.

Background replacement is available:

  • on the Connect desktop app
  • on Pexip Connect for Web (Webapp3) via Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers.

When these features are used in a browser, it must be on desktop devices with hardware acceleration enabled. Both features incur a significant local processing overhead which could affect the performance of your device.

 

Pin a minimized version of the client / video window to your screen

   

Connect desktop app

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Open minimized view.

The Connect app window will shrink and be pinned on top of all your other application windows, and you can drag it to a suitable location.

To return the window to its previous size, select Open maximized view.

Connect web app

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Float video window.

The main video window (including thumbnails) shrinks and is pinned on top of all your other application windows. You can drag it to a suitable location.

To return to the Chrome tab with the video window resized within it, from the pinned window select Back to tab.

To close the pinned video window, from the toolbar select Reset video window.

 

Share your screen with all other participants

   

(Available to Connect desktop app and Connect web app on the latest desktop browsers)

  1. From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Share my screen.
  2. Select the window, screen or tab you want to share.
  3. Optionally, select whether you want to Share system audio, or Share tab audio if you are sharing a browser tab.

    Sharing audio when sharing your screen is supported on Chrome and Edge browsers only. On Windows you can share either system audio or browser tab audio. On Mac and Linux, you can only share audio from a browser tab.

    You must have joined the conference with audio to be able to share audio. Muting your microphone does not also mute shared audio.

When you are sharing, the icon changes to blue. To stop sharing, select the Stop presenting button.

The best way to share a PowerPoint presentation is to start the Slide Show from within PowerPoint first, and then tab to the Connect app, share your screen, and select the Slide Show window.

Note that the ability to present into a meeting may have been restricted to Hosts only.

 

Share images or PDFs with all other participants

   

  1. From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Present files.

    The Presentation screen appears:

  2. Select +, or drag and drop the file(s) you want to share into the Presentation window. You can add multiple files, and they can be a combination of images (JPEG, BMP, PNG or GIF) and PDFs (if supported by your device). Each image and PDF page is converted into an individual slide.
  3. By default, every slide is selected for presenting, but you can click on individual slides to select and deselect them:

  4. When you have selected all the slides you want to share, select Present. Use the left < and right > on-screen controls, or the arrow keys on your keyboard, to scroll through the slides. You also have the option to View presentation in separate window.
  5. To stop sharing the slides, from the toolbar select Stop presenting.

Note that the ability to present into a meeting may have been restricted to Hosts only.

 
View a presentation being shown by another participant

When a participant starts a presentation, you automatically see the content they are sharing as your main image, and the image of the participants reduces to a small thumbnail at the top left corner.

You can toggle between viewing the presentation and viewing the participants by clicking on the thumbnail.

You can also click and drag the thumbnail to move it.

p

View a presentation in a separate window

   

Whether you are the presenter or a participant, you can view the current presentation in a separate pop-out window.

To do this, from the bottom right of the screen select View presentation in separate window. To close the window, you can select Close separate presentation window.

Shift + P

Expand the presentation window when it is displayed in the layout mix

   

When receiving presentation content in an Adaptive Composition layout, the presentation stream is shown as part of the layout mix (replacing some of the other video participants), providing the client is receiving video at a medium or higher bandwidth setting (otherwise it is displayed as one large separate stream).

You can toggle the presentation content between the "in mix" and "separate" streams via the maximize and reset buttons in the bottom-right corner of the presentation.

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View a presentation at a lower (or higher) refresh rate

   

When a participant is showing a presentation, by default you receive it in full motion as HD video. However you may choose to receive it as a series of still images instead which may be more suitable if a very sharp image is required.

To do this, from the bottom right of the screen select View normal presentation. To return to the default view, select View full motion presentation.

 
Stop/start sending presentation to a participant

(Requires Host privileges)

When a participant is sharing a presentation, other participants receive both the presentation and the main video. However, you may want to receive just the main video on a particular endpoint (for example, if you are using a meeting room system for audio and video, but you are already viewing the presentation on your Connect app, you could stop sending presentation to the meeting room system). To do this, from the Participant list, select the participant and then select Hide presentation here.

 

Start sending and receiving video

(For users who have initially joined without audio and video)

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Start Video.

 

Start sending and receiving audio

(For users who have initially joined without audio and video)

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Start audio.

 

Stop/start sending your video to other participants

   

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Turn my camera off or Turn my camera on.

Other participants will no longer be able to see you, but you will be able to see them.

c

Stop/start sending your audio to other participants

   

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Turn my microphone off or Turn my microphone on.

Other participants will no longer be able to hear you, but you will be able to hear them.

While your microphone is disabled, you can press and hold down the keyboard spacebar to talk.

m

Stop/start viewing the video of yourself

The video of yourself that is being sent to other participants is shown in a thumbnail at the top right of the screen. To hide this, click on the image. It is replaced by a small Show self view icon; select this to view your image again.  

Show or hide the side panel

   

To hide or show the side panel (containing the Participant list tab and the Events tab, and the Control menu), select the Hide side panel < and Show side panel > icons. These are at the middle left or bottom of the screen, depending on your device and screen width.

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View a list of other conference participants

When using the Connect app, a list of all other conference participants is shown in the Participant list tab of the control panel (which is to the left of or at the bottom of the screen, depending on the screen width). You can scroll through this list to view the names of other participants. You can also search for a particular participant using the Filter by name box at the bottom of the list.

The /filter command lets you filter the participant list based on certain criteria such as the participants' role.

You can show and hide the side panel by clicking on the Hide side panel < and Show side panel > icons.

 
View a participant's role and video status

Each person in the Participant list has an icon next to their name, representing their role:

Hosts, who can control the meeting and other participants

Guests

External Guests, who connected directly to an externally-hosted conference, such as a Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business meeting, or Google Meet.

Each participant also has an additional icon displayed if that participant is a streaming/recording participant, is connected as audio-only, is a video-muted Connect app participant, or is inactive, for example, if they are away from the computer (and thus their face cannot be detected in their video stream):

where the indicators represent:

Muted video or inactive (away)

Connected via audio only

Streaming/recording participant

 

Change a participant's role

(Requires Host privileges; you cannot change your own role to Guest.)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Make Host or Make Guest.

You cannot change the role of External Guest participants (those who are connected directly to an externally-hosted conference, such as a Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business meeting, or Google Meet).

 
View individual participant's details

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Show Info. This brings up an overlay dialog containing details of the participant, including their avatar or image if available (otherwise a placeholder image is shown). See Applying user records for more information.

 

Control another participant's camera

(Requires Host privileges. This feature must be enabled by an Administrator; not all endpoints can be controlled remotely.)

From the participant list, select the participant whose camera you want to control, and then select Camera control (for person-to-person calls, this option is also available via the Camera control button on the toolbar).

The Camera Control overlay appears. Use the buttons on the overlay, or your keyboard arrow and + or - keys, to pan, tilt and zoom the camera at the far end. For calls in a Virtual Meeting Room or Virtual Auditorium you can also select Spotlight to bring the participant into the main video window for as long as the Camera Control overlay is open.

(You can also enable your own camera to be controlled by another participant — see Enable far-end camera control for more information.)

 
View details of events

To see a list of conference events that have occurred during the course of the call (participants joining, leaving, presenting etc.), from the top of the side panel select the Events tab:

Shift + S
Send and receive chat messages, and share online videos and images

(Available when chat has been enabled by the administrator)

All events, including chat messages, are shown in the Events tab of the side panel (which is to the left of or at the bottom of the screen, depending on the screen width).

To send a message, type it in the text box at the bottom of the panel:

Messages are visible to everyone else in the conference with a chat-capable client (such as Skype for Business or Connect app).

You can also share videos and images by pasting their URL into the text box.

A visual indicator is displayed when a new chat message is received. It is displayed against the Events tab If the side panel is open and showing the participant list, or above the button used to show the side panel if the side panel is closed.

  or 

 
Prevent/allow others from joining the meeting

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Lock meeting or Unlock meeting:

The impact of locking depends on whether or not the meeting has a Host PIN. For more information, see Locking a conference and allowing participants to join a locked conference.

 
Allow a participant to join a locked conference

(Requires Host privileges)

Participants who are waiting to join a locked conference are shown in the Participant list with a tick and cross next to their names. To allow these participants to join the conference, select the green tick. If you do not want them to join, select the red cross.

 
Allow waiting Guests to join a new meeting without a Host

(Requires Host privileges)

If a Guest joins a meeting without a Host, they are kept waiting to join until the first Host joins, at which point all waiting Guests are automatically allowed in to the meeting. However, this only applies if the Host has joined with audio or video; presentation and control-only Hosts do not automatically trigger Guests to join.

If you have joined a meeting as a presentation and control-only Host and want Guests to join, from the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Start the meeting.

 

Add a participant to the conference

(Requires Host privileges)

  1. From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Add participant.

  2. At the prompt, enter the address of the person you want to dial.

  3. Select whether you want the participant to have Host or Guest privileges.
  4. Select Call in.

The call is placed from the conference to the participant and they appear in the participant list with a green line under their name while their endpoint is ringing. If and when the participant answers the call they will join the conference; if they do not answer, or do not accept the call, they will disappear from the participant list.

Automatic routing is used when a Connect app user adds a new participant to a conference. This means that the dialed alias must match an appropriate Call Routing Rule that applies to Outgoing calls from a conference for the call to be placed (using the protocols and call control systems etc. as configured for that rule).

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Cancel a call to a participant

(Requires Host privileges)

Outbound calls are placed from a Virtual Meeting Room to a participant when a Host uses the Add participant option, or if the Virtual Meeting Room has an automatically dialed participant configured.

To cancel an outbound call, from the Participant list, select the participant and then select Cancel Dialout.

 
Change the layout and show/hide participant names

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Change layout.

This opens an overlay dialog from where you can dynamically change the layout being used — just select the layout you want to use. You can also use the buttons at the bottom of the overlay to toggle the display of participant names on and off.

 

View a live transcription of the meeting

(Available when live captions have been enabled by the administrator)

Select Show live captions or Hide live captions to start or stop a live transcription of the meeting audio. The transcription will be shown to you alone, but all the other meeting participants will be informed that transcriptions have been started (or stopped).

This is a tech preview feature and requires Pexip Infinity v30 or later.

 
Share a link to the meeting

If you want to send a link to the meeting to someone so that they can join you, select the Share icon at the top left of the screen and then select Copy meeting link.

You can then send this link to other participants who can paste it into their browser to join the meeting.

 

Mute/unmute another participant

   

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Mute or Unmute.

When muted, a icon is shown next to the participant's name.

 
Mute all Guest participants

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Mute all Guests.

 
Keep a participant in the main video

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Spotlight.

For more information, see Spotlighting a participant (classic layouts only).

 

Indicate that you wish to speak

(Virtual Auditoriums only by default)

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Raise my hand. The meeting Host is alerted that your hand is raised. If you no longer wish to speak, you can select the button again to Lower my hand.

The meeting Host can also lower your hand.

 
View all participants with raised hands

(Virtual Auditoriums only by default; requires Host privileges)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Show hands raised.

Participants are listed in the order that they raised their hand.

 
Lower a participant's raised hand

(Virtual Auditoriums only by default; requires Host privileges)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Hand down.

A participant can also lower their own hand.

 
Send DTMF tones to another participant (when in a VMR)

(Requires Host privileges; you must be joined over audio, or video and audio)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Open dialpad. This opens a keypad:

   

This feature is generally used to communicate with external systems (such as audio bridges, automated switchboards, and recording devices) after they have been added to the conference.

 

Send DTMF tones to the other participant (when in a person-to-person call)

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Open dialpad. This opens a keypad.

 
Transfer a participant to another VMR

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participant list, select the participant and then select Transfer Participant.

Enter the alias of the conference you wish to transfer the participant to, the PIN (if applicable) and whether they should join as a Guest or Host, and then select Transfer.

You can transfer any participant, including yourself.

 
Disconnect another participant

(Requires Host privileges)

From the participant list, select the participant's name and then select Disconnect.

 
Disconnect all participants (including yourself)

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Disconnect all.

 

Disconnect yourself from the conference

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Disconnect.  

Mute/unmute the audio coming from the conference

   

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Mute/Unmute incoming audio.  
Change the volume of the audio coming from the conference

Connect desktop app and Connect web app:

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, use the slider to adjust the volume level (which is indicated by the green bar under the toolbar).

Connect mobile app:

Use your device's volume controls.

 
View diagnostic information about your call and client

(Available when connected with audio or video)

From the top of the side panel, select Control and then select Get media stats.

This brings up an overlay dialog that displays statistics such as the codec being used, incoming and outgoing audio and video bitrates, and how many data packets have been lost and received.

It also shows the software version of the client and the Pexip Infinity deployment it is connected to.

 
Use a text-based interface to filter participants and control the conference

Some tasks can be performed using a command-line-style text input from within the Filter by name box at the bottom of the Participant list.

Hosts and Guests can filter the list of participants based on criteria such as their role or who is currently speaking. Hosts can also perform other conference control functions such as muting and unmuting participants, spotlighting a participant, and turning the text overlay on and off.

To view a full list of available commands, type / into the Filter by name box.

A description of each of the available commands is given in Text-based controls.

 

Text-based controls

The following actions can be performed by typing the relevant commands into the Filter by name box at the bottom of the Participant list:

Command Description
Host-only commands

/lock

/unlock

Lock and unlock the meeting.

/mute [participant]

/unmute [participant]

Mute and unmute another participant.

/muteall

/unmuteall

Mute and unmute all Guest participants.

/handsdown [participant]*

Lower a participant's raised hand.

/handsdownall*

Lower all participants' raised hands.

/disconnect [participant]

Disconnect a participant.

/disconnectall

Disconnect all participants (including yourself).

/spotlight on [participant]

/spotlight off [participant]

Put a participant into the main video window. For more information, see Spotlighting a participant (classic layouts only).

/overlay on

/overlay off

Turn text overlay of participant names on and off.

/layout 1:0

/layout 1:7

/layout 1:21

/layout 2:21

/layout 1:33

/layout 2x2

/layout 3x3

/layout 4x4

/layout 5x5

/layout AdaptiveComposition

Change the layout of the main video window and thumbnails.

In a Virtual Meeting Room, this affects the view seen by all participants. In a Virtual Auditorium, this affects the view seen by Host participants.

Host and Guest commands

/shortcuts

View a list of keyboard shortcuts.

/hand up*

/hand down*

Raise or lower your hand.

/filter host

/filter guest

/filter handraised*

/filter spotlight

/filter speaking

/filter streaming

/filter external

/filter waiting

/filter audio-only

/filter control-only

Filter the list of participants by the given criteria.

* Available in Virtual Auditoriums only.

† When you start entering a participant's name, the participant list is filtered to show only those participants with those characters in their name.