3. Voice Channels

Voice channels are where you use real-time voice, video, and screen sharing in HakoSpace. This chapter explains the stage interface you see after you join, the call control buttons at the bottom, the device check when you turn on your camera, the two capture methods for screen sharing, and where to find your personal call quality settings. Adjusting each channel’s audio quality on the admin side is the owner’s and admins’ area; if you want to learn about it, see the Admin Manual.

3.1 What You See After Joining

Click any voice channel in the channel list (its name has a ♪ music-note icon in front of it) to join it right away. After you join, the message area switches to the voice call interface, which has two main parts:

• The video area (the stage): All participants are arranged in a grid. Members who have neither their camera on nor a screen share appear as avatar tiles (avatar and nickname), and an avatar tile gets a highlighted border while that member is speaking. Members with their camera on show their camera video directly. Screens that other people share first appear as a box labeled Click to Load; click it to start watching (see §3.4).
• The text chat area: It sits alongside the video area and can be collapsed, so you can send messages while you talk.

The toolbar at the top of the channel shows the current number of participants (for example, 3 in voice) and provides a set of layout control buttons (hover over an icon button to see its name):

• Vertical layout / Horizontal layout: switches whether the stage and the text chat area are stacked top to bottom or placed side by side
• Show watched only: hides the avatars of members who are neither sharing a screen nor using their camera (see §3.4)
• Collapse text chat / Expand text chat: collapses or expands the text chat area
• Pop out stage: opens the stage in a separate window (see §3.4)

When you move the mouse over a tile that is playing video (a camera, a screen share, or an external stream), a row of controls appears at the bottom of the tile. On touch devices, tap such a tile to bring up or hide this row of controls. The buttons in the row are icons only; hover over one to see its name:

• Mute / Unmute (speaker icon) and a volume slider: These appear when someone else’s share has sound. They adjust the sound of the share itself and affect only how loud you hear it. To adjust how loud a member’s voice is, use User Volume in the member menu instead (see “Volume for individual members” below).
• Stop watching (eye-with-a-slash icon): Other people’s screen shares and external streams (see §3.4) have this button. Click it to stop receiving the video. The tile turns back into a box labeled Click to Load, and you can click it whenever you want to watch again.
• Fullscreen (four-corner-brackets icon): enlarges the video to fill the whole screen. Press Esc to exit.
• Pop Out (box-with-diagonal-arrow icon): moves the video into a separate window (see §3.4).

When a tile is narrow, the volume slider and Pop Out move into the control bar’s More button (three-dots icon).

When the same member has both their camera and a screen share on, the two videos merge into one tile once the screen share starts playing. By default, the screen share fills the whole tile, and the camera appears as a small inset in the bottom-right corner. To swap the main and inset views, double-click the small inset in the bottom-right corner, or click the double-headed arrow button in the tile’s top-right corner. When the tile is your own, you can also press the S key to swap them.

Members in voice channels: In the channel list on the left, each voice channel lists the members currently in it. These member rows, as well as members’ avatar tiles and the tiles showing their camera or screen share on the stage in the main window, can open a profile card or the member menu, the same as the member list on the right (see §1.4):

• Click a member row under a voice channel, or an avatar tile on the stage in the main window, to open that member’s profile card.
• Right-click (on touch devices, long-press) a member row under a voice channel, or a member’s avatar tile or the tile showing their camera or screen share on the stage in the main window, to open the member menu. This works for a member’s camera or screen share whether it is playing on the stage, shown as a box labeled Click to Load, or already replaced by a tile that reads Playing in a pop-out window (see §3.4).

Volume for individual members: When you open the member menu for a member who is in the same voice channel as you, a User Volume slider appears in the middle of the menu. This is the same whether you open the menu from any of the places above or from the member list on the right. Your change takes effect as soon as you drag the slider. It changes only how loud that member’s voice is for you; what everyone else hears is not affected.

The current percentage appears to the right of the slider. You can adjust it from 0% to 100%, and the default is 100%. When the value isn’t 100%, Reset appears below the slider; click it to return to 100%.

3.2 Call Control Buttons

When you join a voice channel, the personal control bar at the bottom of the left sidebar gains a set of call control buttons:

• Mute Microphone / Unmute Microphone: switches whether your microphone sends sound.
• Deafen / Undeafen: switches your speaker output on or off. When Deafen is on, your microphone is muted at the same time.
• Visual Source: Click it to open a menu that contains Start camera (for turning it on the first time, see §3.3) and Share Screen / Stop Sharing (for the steps, see §3.4). If this channel is open to OBS streaming and you are a member who can stream, the menu also has an advanced OBS Streaming section at the bottom (see §3.4).
• Disconnect: hangs up, leaves the voice channel, and takes you back to the regular interface.

3.3 Turning On Your Camera

When you click the camera button, HakoSpace shows the Check your camera dialog if this is your first time, if camera access hasn’t been granted, or if your system has more than one camera device. The dialog lets you confirm your setup before the camera actually turns on. It contains:

• The title Check your camera and a short description.
• If more than one camera device is detected, a device selector appears so you can switch between them.
• A mirrored preview, so you can check your framing and lighting.
• If camera access has been denied, the dialog shows the notice “HakoSpace needs camera access to let others see you.” and adds “Open your browser or system settings to grant camera access, or continue with audio only.” Even if you turn down camera access, you can still take part in a voice-only call.

When everything looks right, click to confirm. Your camera turns on, and your video appears in your member tile on the stage.

iOS PWA note: To use the camera inside the PWA after you install HakoSpace Web as a Home Screen PWA, you need iOS 16.4 or later. If the system says it can’t access the camera, open HakoSpace directly in Safari instead, or upgrade iOS to 16.4 or later.

If you use HakoSpace Desktop and the operating system has denied the permission, the dialog also offers an Open settings shortcut. Click it to jump straight to the matching system permission page and grant access there.

3.4 Screen Sharing

Click Share Screen in the Visual Source menu, and a screen / window selector appears. Sharing starts as soon as you choose a source, and that menu item changes to Stop Sharing and shows that you are sharing. Both HakoSpace Web and HakoSpace Desktop support screen sharing; the difference is in the capture capabilities available. HakoSpace Desktop offers extra capture options on top of the browser’s standard screen sharing (for example, capturing app audio at the same time, staying unaffected when a window is minimized or covered, and so on). For the detailed settings, see §10 (Desktop-Only Features).

When you use the game HUD in HakoSpace Desktop for Windows, you can also open the HUD panel in a game and click Share this game to share the current game window directly (see §10.11).

In a phone or tablet browser, Share Screen in the menu is disabled, with a line of explanation below it: “Mobile browsers cannot share a screen. Your camera still works.” Start camera in the same menu works as usual.

If sharing doesn’t start properly, a brief notice appears in a corner of the screen explaining why, for example “Screen sharing could not start” followed by the reason in parentheses, or a notice that sharing took too long to start and was stopped.

HakoSpace supports several people sharing their screens at the same time. Multiple shared streams appear side by side on the stage. When you stop sharing, your stream’s tile disappears from every viewer’s stage right away, and Stop Sharing in the Visual Source menu changes back to Share Screen.

Click Show watched only in the toolbar at the top of the channel, and the stage hides the avatars of members who are neither sharing a screen nor using their camera, leaving only shared screens (including boxes labeled Click to Load that haven’t been opened yet) and camera videos. The button then changes to Show all shares; click it again to switch back. If nothing is left on the stage after filtering, it shows No shares to watch right now.

OBS Streaming (advanced): If you need to send a high-quality stream into a voice channel through professional streaming software such as OBS Studio, HakoSpace supports the WHIP protocol. When the channel is open to OBS streaming and you are a member who can stream, an OBS Streaming section appears at the bottom of the Visual Source menu, with two buttons: Copy OBS WHIP URL and Copy OBS WHIP Token. After you copy them, paste them into OBS’s stream settings. Whether the channel is open to streaming (Enable WHIP; see Admin Manual §2.2) and which members can stream are both set in the channel settings by members who hold the Manage channels permission (the owner and admins always included).

Once an external stream comes in, it appears on the stage as a box labeled Click to Load. Members in the channel start watching only when they click that box, and they hear its sound only after they open it. This is the same as a regular screen share: people who don’t want to watch don’t have their bandwidth taken up.

Pop-out window for a single video: You can move the video of any tile that is playing on the stage (a screen share, an external stream, or a camera) into a separate window. Move the mouse over that tile, and the control bar appears at the bottom (see §3.1). Click the box-with-diagonal-arrow icon in it (tooltip: Pop Out). When the tile is narrow, this button moves into the control bar’s More button (three-dots icon). When one tile holds both a screen share and a small camera inset, the screen share is what pops out.

The pop-out window plays only this one video. The video grows or shrinks with the window and keeps its original proportions. Move the mouse to the top-right corner or the bottom of the window, and the Close button (×) in the top-right corner and the control bar at the bottom appear. The control bar has:

• The name of the member the video belongs to (your own video shows You, and an external stream shows the stream’s name).
• A mute button (speaker icon; tooltip: Mute or Unmute) and a volume slider, which appear when you are watching someone else’s share that has sound.
• A fullscreen button at the far right (four-corner-brackets icon; tooltip: Fullscreen, or Exit Fullscreen while in fullscreen).

In fullscreen, press Esc or double-click the video to exit fullscreen.

After the video pops out, its original tile on the stage is replaced by a tile that reads Playing in a pop-out window, with these buttons:

• Bring back: closes the pop-out window, and the video continues playing on the stage. Closing a window opened with Pop Out directly has the same result.
• Stop watching: Other people’s screen shares and external streams have this button. Click it to stop watching this share. The pop-out window closes along with it, and the tile on the stage turns back into a box labeled Click to Load. To watch again later, click it.

You can pop out several videos at the same time, each in its own window. While the windows are open, you can switch to text channels or direct messages as usual, and the windows keep playing. A window closes automatically when the share ends or the camera turns off, when you click Stop watching, or when you leave the voice channel.

Pop-out window for the whole stage: Click the box-with-diagonal-arrow icon in the toolbar at the top of the channel (tooltip: Pop out stage) to open a separate window that arranges the shares you’ve opened and members’ avatars in a grid. The toolbar at the top of the window has:

• On the left: the number of participants (for example, 3 in voice) and the Show watched only button. This button and Show watched only in the main window are the same switch: press it on either side, and both sides change together. In this window, it hides all member avatars and leaves only the shared screens.
• On the right: the fullscreen button (four-corner-brackets icon) and the Close button (×).

While the stage is popped out, its usual place in the main window shows “Stage is in a pop-out window” and a Bring back button. The icon in the top toolbar turns the accent color, and its tooltip changes to Bring back. Click either Bring back, or close the pop-out window, and the stage returns to the main window. The popped-out stage closes automatically when you leave the voice call interface (for example, by clicking a text channel or opening a direct message) or when you leave the voice channel.

In HakoSpace Desktop, neither kind of pop-out window has a title bar. For how to move these windows and what pressing Esc does, see §10.5.

If you use HakoSpace Desktop for Windows, you can turn on High-load viewer boost in Desktop App Settings → Behavior to reduce stuttering when you watch a share while playing a game. See §10.10.

3.5 Call Quality Settings

Settings such as your personal audio devices (microphone / speakers) and screen sharing quality are gathered under App Settings → Voice & Audio in the settings panel (for the settings panel, see §7.1). In HakoSpace Desktop, you switch the Voice Input Mode (Voice Activity or Push to Talk) in Desktop App Settings → Behavior instead; see §10.4.

The settings you can adjust include:

• Input Device (microphone) and Output Device (headphones / speakers). When your system has more than one device, you can switch here to the one you want to use.
• Quality (screen sharing): First choose a preset — Smooth, Standard, High, Ultra, or Custom. Expand Advanced to set the resolution, frame rate (FPS), and bitrate yourself. Encoding Priority below it decides what to protect first when bandwidth runs short: choose Resolution, Framerate, or Balanced.

A voice channel’s own Audio Bitrate is set in the channel settings by members who hold the Manage channels permission (the owner and admins always included), and different channels can have different audio quality. The audio quality of 1:1 DM calls is set for the whole server with DM Voice Call Bitrate in the server settings, separately from voice channels, and changing it requires the Manage server permission. For details on managing these, see Admin Manual §2.2 and §7.5.