Using Pexip Connect for Web

This guide describes how to use Pexip Connect for Web, although not all features are available to all browsers.

Pexip Connect for Web supports over 20 of the most popular languages. If your browser is set to use any one of these supported languages, Pexip Connect for Web will use that automatically instead of the default English shown in this section. Alternatively, you can view Pexip Connect for Web in any of the supported languages by appending the appropriate language code to the end of the URL.

Joining a meeting

The first time you use Pexip Connect for Web , you are asked to provide your name. After that, we'll remember who you are and you just need to enter the address of the meeting you want to join, check everything is working as expected, and then join the meeting.

There are additional settings you can configure at any point before or during a meeting.

To join a meeting quickly:

  1. If prompted, enter your name:

    We'll remember your name for next time, but you can change it before making a new call by refreshing your browser.

  2. Enter the address of the meeting you want to join:

  3. Check that your camera, microphone and speakers are working correctly.

    • The video preview shows what your camera will send to other participants. To join without your video, select the camera icon; this will change to to indicate that your camera is off.
    • The microphone icon shows a green bar to indicate the level of audio being detected. To join without your audio, select the microphone icon; this will change to to indicate that your microphone is off.

    If you are joining a meeting where you might not be speaking often, or where there will be many other participants, it is good practice to turn off your microphone before placing the call, and turn it on only when you are in the meeting and wish to speak.

  4. Select Join.

  5. Finally, there may be one or more security steps:

    • If the meeting is set up to have different Host and Guest roles, you will be asked to select your role:

    • You may also be asked to enter a PIN to join the meeting:

    • You may need to sign in with your organization's identity provider:

    In each case, simply follow the on-screen prompts to verify your identity and join the meeting.

During the meeting

What How

Stop/start sending your audio to other participants

   

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Mute microphone or Unmute microphone. Alternatively, press m on your keyboard to toggle between these options.

When you're muted, other participants will no longer be able to hear you, but you will be able to hear them.

While your microphone is muted, you can press and hold down the keyboard spacebar to temporarily unmute yourself while you speak.

If your microphone detects sound while muted, you will see a message saying "Trying to speak? Your microphone is muted".

Stop/start sending your video to other participants

   

From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Turn camera off or Turn camera on. Alternatively, press c on your keyboard to toggle between these options.

When your camera is off, other participants will no longer be able to see you, but you will be able to see them.

Share your screen with all other participants

   

(Available on desktop browsers only; not available on mobile browsers.)

  1. From the toolbar at the bottom of the window, select Share 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.

  4. To stop sharing, select the Stop sharing button.

The best way to share a PowerPoint presentation is to start the Slide Show from within PowerPoint first, and then tab to Pexip Connect for Web, 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.

Change your background

From the toolbar, select Change background effect. From the Effects tab, select whether you want to Blur or Replace your background — or select None to remove the currently selected effect.

Note that background blur and background replacement are available on Pexip Connect for Web ("Webapp3") via Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers on desktop devices with hardware acceleration enabled. Both features incur a significant local processing overhead which could affect the performance of your device.

Indicate that you wish to speak

From the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, select Raise 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 hand.

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.

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 of your screen.

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

You can also expand the size of the main window so that the thumbnail is overlaid on the main image, rather than sitting separately at the top of the screen, using the Expand and Collapse buttons which appear in the toolbar.

View a presentation in a separate window

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

To do this, from the top right of the screen select Dual-screen mode.

To return to viewing the presentation in the same window, either close the separate window or select Dual-screen mode again.

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 Hide self-view icon within the image. Your self-view is replaced by a small toolbar; to view it again, select Show self-view.
Send and receive chat messages, and share links

(Available when chat has been enabled by the administrator)

When a new chat message is received, you'll see a notification at the bottom left of your screen:

To view the messages, select the Chat button. A side panel opens which shows all chat messages, along with events such as participants joining or leaving the meeting.

Chat messages are visible to everyone else in the conference with a chat-capable client (such as Skype for Business or Connect app). Participants will only see messages sent after they joined the meeting.

To send your own message, type it in the text box at the bottom of the panel and select Send:

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

View a list of other conference participants

The number of other conference participants is shown on the Participants button at the bottom left of the screen. This button will also show a notification if there are any participants with raised hands or who are waiting to join the meeting.

To open a panel showing the full list of participants, select the button.

Participants are sorted into groups, including:

  • Raised hand: the participant has indicated that they'd like to speak.
  • Waiting in lobby: the participant has not yet joined the meeting, for example because the meeting has been locked and they are waiting for a Host to admit them.
  • In this meeting: the participant is connected to the meeting.
  • External: the participant is connected to an externally-hosted conference, such as a Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business meeting, or Google Meet.

To hide the Participants panel, select the Participants button again.

View a participant's status

Participants may have one of the following icons next to their name:

indicates that the participant has been muted by a Host

indicates that the participant is sharing their screen

indicates that the participant is currently sending audio.

View all participants with raised hands

(Virtual Auditoriums only by default; requires Host privileges)

Open the Participants panel. At the top is a list of participants who have Raised a hand.

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

Mute/unmute another participant

   

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participants panel, hover over the participant's name; additional icons will appear.

Select Mute or Unmute.

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

Change a participant's role

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

From the Participantpanel, select the options button next to the participant's name 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).

Keep a participant in the main video

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participants panel, hover over the participant's name; additional icons will appear. Select and then select Spotlight.

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

Transfer a participant to another VMR

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participants tab, hover over the participant's name; additional icons will appear. Select  and then select Transfer.

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

   

You can transfer any participant, except yourself.

Prevent/allow others from joining the meeting

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top right, select Settings and from the Meeting settings tab select Lock meeting (or Unlock the meeting).

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

Allow a participant to join a locked conference

(Requires Host privileges)

You'll receive a notification on the Participants button whenever any participants are waiting in the meeting lobby because they are:

  • waiting to join a locked conference, or
  • waiting to join a meeting that requires authentication, but they are using an endpoint that does not support authentication.

Select the button to open the Participants panel. You then have two options:

  • To allow a participant to join the conference, select Admit.
  • If you do not want them to join, select Deny. The participant will be disconnected from the meeting.

Mute all Guest participants

(Requires Host privileges)

From the bottom of the Participants panel, select Mute all Guests.

Disconnect another participant

(Requires Host privileges)

From the Participants tab, hover over the participant's name; additional icons will appear. Select Remove. You'll be asked to confirm that you want to disconnect that participant.

The participant who is removed sees a message saying that another participant disconnected them.

Add a participant to the meeting

(Requires Host privileges)

  1. From the top right of the screen, select the User menu button and select Add participant.
  2. Enter the address of the participant. This must be in the format name@domain
  3. Select whether you want the participant to have Host privileges.
  4. Select Add participant.

The call is placed from the meeting to the participant and they appear in the participant list. If and when the participant answers the call they will join the meeting; if they do not answer, or do not accept the call, they will disappear from the participant list.

Share a link to the meeting

To send a link to the meeting to someone so that they can join you:

  1. From the top right of the screen, select the User menu button and select Add participant.
  2. Next to the meeting link, select Copy.

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

Disconnect yourself from the conference

From the bottom right of the screen, select Leave.
End the conference for all participants

(Requires Host privileges)

To end the meeting by disconnecting all participants (including yourself), from the top right, select Settings and then select Meeting layout. Select Disconnect all.

You are asked to confirm that you want to disconnect everyone.

View diagnostic information about your call and client

(Available when connected with audio or video)

From within your self-view window, select Connection quality.

   

A dialog appears 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.

Logs If you are having issues with your Connect app, your administrator may ask you to open the User menu and select Download log to obtain logging information about the last call.

Change your camera, microphone or speakers during a call

From the top right of the screen, select Settings. Under the Personal settings tab, the Devices section provides drop-down options where you can select the camera, microphone and speakers you wish to use.

Configuring your settings

These are the full set of options available to you:

Setting Description
Personal settings

(Camera)

Shows the currently selected camera. Select this option to change the camera to use.

When the selected camera is working properly, your self view (what you will be sending to other participants) is shown in the preview window.

(Microphone)

Shows the currently selected microphone. Select this option to change the microphone to use.

When the selected microphone is working properly, a green bar appears below the video preview which indicates the level of audio volume being picked up by the microphone.

(Speakers)

Shows the currently selected speakers or headset. Select this option to change the speakers to use.

To check that the selected speakers are working properly, select Test your sound. A tone will be played from that speaker.

Connection quality

Controls the amount of bandwidth you'll use for the meeting.

If you are on a cellular connection or slow Wi-Fi connection, or if you experience slow, frozen or low-quality video, you may want to reduce this to a lower setting.

Noise suppression

Enables Pexip's noise suppression feature, which reduces the volume of non-speech background noise in the audio you are sending to the meeting.

If this feature is disabled, your device may instead use its own noise suppression functionality, if available and compatible with your browser.

Effects
Background blur or replace

Select whether you want to Blur your background, or Replace it with a default image. You can also select None to remove the currently selected effect.

Note that background blur and background replacement are available on Pexip Connect for Web ("Webapp3") via Chrome, Edge or Firefox browsers on desktop devices with hardware acceleration enabled. Both features incur a significant local processing overhead which could affect the performance of your device.

Background effects are off by default.

Meeting layout
Change the layout

(Requires Host privileges)

From the top right, select Settings and then select Meeting layout.

This opens an overlay dialog from where you can dynamically change the layout of the meeting — just select the layout you want to use.

Meeting settings
Lock the meeting

This prevents guest participant from joining the meeting. When a meeting has been locked, you can still admit them manually.

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

Disconnect all This option ends the meeting by disconnecting all participants, including yourself.