Voice channels

Voice channels are always-open call rooms in your workspace: click one and you're in, talking, sharing your screen or camera, and you leave whenever you like. There's nothing to schedule and no link to send.

#How voice channels work

Voice channels live in the Channels section of the sidebar.

• Under each channel you can see who's connected right now, with a crossed-out microphone next to anyone who's muted. You see this even when you're not in the call.
• You stay in the call while you move around Tylode: open pages, boards or whiteboards and keep talking.
• You can be in one channel at a time. Clicking another channel moves you there.
• Channels are for voice. Each one has a Channel chat for text and files while you're connected, but there are no text-only channels: for written conversations use Chats or Mail.

#Create a voice channel

1. In the sidebar, next to Channels, click + (New voice channel).
2. Type a Channel name.
3. Optional: add Tags. Type a tag in New tag and press Enter; each tag gets one of eight warm colors at random (clay, olive, slate, ochre, plum, sage, terracotta or stone). Click × on a tag to remove it. The sidebar shows the first two tags next to the channel name.
4. Optional: in Allowed members — leave empty to open it to the whole workspace, tick the people who should see the channel.
5. Optional: tick Require approval to join to add a waiting room.
6. Click Create.

The two options control different things:

#Join and leave a channel

• Join: click the channel's name in the sidebar. On a phone, channels are in Messages → Channels, with the active call at the top. The first time, your browser asks for permission to use the microphone.
• While you're connected, a voice bar with your controls appears at the bottom of the sidebar.
• See the call full size: click the channel you're in again, or click Expand call in the voice bar (see Expanded view).
• In a frozen workspace you can't join calls: if you try, Tylode tells you so.
• Leave: click Leave channel in the voice bar, or open the channel's options menu and choose Leave channel.

#Mute, camera and screen sharing

The voice bar has these buttons:

Shared screens and cameras appear under the channel in the sidebar for everyone in the call. A shared screen is labelled "{name} is sharing their screen". Both the screen and each camera have a Full screen button (on cameras it shows up when you hover); click Exit full screen or press Esc to go back.

#Expanded view

The expanded view shows the call across the whole window. Open it by clicking the channel you're in, or with Expand call in the voice bar.

• Each person has a tile: their camera if it's on and, if not, their profile photo or initial. A colored ring shows who's speaking, and a crossed-out mic icon shows who's muted.
• If someone shares their screen, it takes the middle and the people's tiles move to a column on the right (below it on a phone).
• Click someone's camera to spotlight it: it's shown large in the middle. Click Remove spotlight, or click their tile again, to undo it.
• Whatever is in the middle has a Full screen button.
• At the bottom are the same controls as in the voice bar: mic, screen, camera and Leave channel.

Close the view with Close call view (the ✕ at the top) or Esc. You stay in the call.

While someone is sharing their screen, the channel shows a red Live badge in the sidebar, so people who aren't in the call can see it too.

#Channel chat

Each channel has its own text chat, handy for pasting links or files during a call.

1. While connected, click Channel chat in the voice bar.
2. Type in Write something… and press Enter or click Send.
3. To send a file, click Attach file. Any file type Tylode accepts will do, within your workspace plan's file size limit.

Messages stay in the channel, so whoever joins later can read what was said.

If a message is offensive, hover over it and press ⋯ to Report or Block whoever wrote it (see Block and report).

#Waiting room

With Require approval to join on, a 🔒 icon appears next to the channel (Waiting room on) and nobody gets in without being let through.

#Ask to join

1. Click the channel as usual. Instead of connecting, you'll see a message saying the channel requires approval and your request is pending.
2. Once someone admits you, click the channel again to join.

If your request is denied, you'll see a message saying so, and you can't ask again.

#Admit or deny people

The channel's creator and the workspace's owners and admins see Waiting (n) under the channel, with one row per person:

#Channel options

Hover over a channel in the sidebar and open its options menu (Options for {name}):

Rename turns the name into a field: type the new one and press Enter (Esc leaves it as it was). Deleting asks for confirmation and can't be undone.

#Reorder channels

Workspace owners and admins can change the order: press and hold a channel and drag it up or down. The order is the same for the whole workspace.

#Embed a voice channel in a page or whiteboard

• In a page: type /, choose Voice channel, then pick a channel or click Create new channel (it's created with the name "General"). The block shows the channel with a Join / Leave button. See blocks.
• On a whiteboard: click Insert a Tylode object (board, whiteboard, calendar, voice channel) and choose the channel. See whiteboards.

This is a good way to give a meeting page its own call.

#Limits by plan

The workspace's plan sets these limits:

#The 30-minute limit on Free

• The 30 minutes belong to the call, not to each person. The clock starts when the first person joins and is shared by everyone in the channel; people joining later don't reset it.
• In the last five minutes, the voice bar shows "The call ends in m:ss — Free plan" (in red during the last minute).
• At 30 minutes the call ends for everyone, with the message "The call has reached the 30-minute limit of the Free plan."
• You can rejoin straight away: that starts a new call with another 30 minutes.

#Full calls

When a call reaches the participant limit, anyone else trying to join sees a message saying the call is full and how many people the workspace's plan allows.

See plans and limits.

#Who can do what

In a frozen workspace you can see the channels but can't join them.

#What's not available

• Calls can't be recorded.
• There are no text-only channels.
• Voice channels aren't part of the API.

#Related

• Chats and Mail for written conversations.
• Members and roles and access.
• Pages and whiteboards, where you can embed a channel.