Meeting controls: for desktop

With StarLeaf for desktop, the following meeting controls are available:

Basic controls
How to share your screen
Participant management controls
Meeting layouts
How to blur or replace your background
Spotlight meeting controls
Mini call window
Keyboard shortcuts
Controls for Poly headsets
Switch between computer and phone audio
Who is the meeting host?
Who can use meeting controls?

Basic controls

To access meeting controls, hover your mouse anywhere on the call window.

	Select Participants to access participant management controls. Permission to manage the Participants panel differs depending on the type of meeting you are in. See Who can use meeting controls? below for further detail.
	Invite another person to the meeting. You can share the meeting ID, send an email with instructions on how to join the meeting, or directly call them.
	See In-meeting chat below for more information.
	See Share my screen for more information on how to share your screen. This is only enabled when the meeting has started or more than one participant has joined.
	Configure your Audio and video settings, and blur or replace your background.
	In More you can switch between computer and phone audio, and also access a keypad.
	Enter and exit full-screen mode from here. This control is only available on Windows devices. To switch between full screen mode on other devices, double click on the video.

In-meeting chat

During a meeting, you can now access a meeting group chat and send instant messages to other participants. You can share and view files like any normal one-to-one chat.

When the meeting ends or drops down to one participant, the chat and chat history disappear.

Meeting rooms cannot view or participate in the chat.

You can share content to a call or meeting from any device. For more information, see Share my screen.

Participant management controls

From the Participants panel, you can access controls relating to other participants:

Mute participants
Locking the meeting
Remove a participant
Ending the meeting

Mute participants

You can individually mute or unmute participants by selecting the microphone icons beside their name in the Participants panel:

You can also choose to Mute all participants, or Unmute all participants from Options:

In a scheduled meeting, all participants have access to these mute controls and in an ad hoc meeting, only the person who initiated the meeting has these controls.

Locking the meeting

Locking a meeting prevents any more participants from joining the meeting. Those that attempt to join after a meeting has been locked see a screen telling them that the meeting is locked.

To lock a meeting:

Select Participants from the meeting controls panel.
Select Options.
Select Lock meeting.

To unlock a meeting, follow steps 1 to 2 above and select Unlock meeting.

Remove a participant

To remove a participant from the meeting:

Select Participants from the meeting controls panel.
Click the remove icon next to the participant who you want to remove:
Confirm that you want to remove the participant.

When you remove a participant, they are disconnected from the meeting.

Ending the meeting

To end the current meeting for you and all other participants:

Select Participants from the meeting controls panel.
Select Options.
Select End meeting. A confirmation box opens.
Select End now.

Meeting layouts

You can change how you view participants and content in a meeting or call, from any device. For more information, see Meeting layouts.

How to blur or replace your background

For information on how to blur or replace your video background while in a call or meeting, see Blur or replace background.

Spotlight meeting controls

For information on in-call meeting controls for Spotlight meetings, go to Spotlight meetings.

Mini call window

Minimizing your meeting on a Windows or macOS device turns it into a mini call window:

You can click and drag on the video to move the call window around your screen.

Hover your cursor over the mini call window to access call controls such as microphone and video mute. Click the maximize icon in the top-right to return the call window to its normal size.

Keyboard shortcuts

When you are in a call or meeting, the following keyboard shortcuts for your microphone and camera are available:

Turn microphone on / off
Windows	Alt+A
macOS	Shift+Command+A
Turn camera on / off
Windows	Alt+V
macOS	Shift+Command+V
Push-to-talk
Press and hold the space bar to temporarily unmute your microphone

Controls for Poly headsets

With StarLeaf for desktop, you can use call controls with the buttons on certain Poly headsets:

Mute/unmute microphone*
Adjust the volume of the call

*To use push-to-talk, you must still use the space bar to unmute your microphone.

Functionality may vary depending on the headset you have. Refer to Poly documentation for more information.

Poly Hub

You can configure additional settings for your headset, such as the voice-over language, by downloading the Poly Hub app .

Supported headsets

Switch between computer and phone audio

When you are in a meeting, you can choose to switch between your computer and phone audio if you are experiencing problems with one of them, for example. Select More to view the audio options available.

If you select Phone audio, you will be provided with a dial-in number that you can call from your mobile or landline while viewing the meeting in your browser.

Who is the meeting host?

In a scheduled meeting: the person who originally scheduled the meeting and sent any invites.

When using Meet Now: the person who started the meeting by selecting Group video meeting in a group or Start a meeting from the Today tab and invited others to join.

In an ad hoc meeting: the person who created the meeting by adding another user(s) to an ongoing one-to-one call.

In a Spotlight meeting: the person who originally scheduled the meeting and sent any invites. During the meeting, only the host has access to participant management controls.

Who can use meeting controls?

Depending on the user and type of meeting, participants’ permissions and controls vary according to scenarios below:

	Spotlight meeting	Start new meeting, Scheduled meeting, or Group video meeting		Ad hoc meeting
Permissions	Users inside or outside of the host’s organization	Users inside host’s organization	Users outside of host’s organization	All
In-meeting chat	All	Yes	Yes	Yes
View Participants panel	All	Yes	Yes	Yes
Add participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Remove participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Mute individual participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Unmute individual participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Remove individual participants from the call	Host only	Yes	No	No
Mute all participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Unmute all participants	Host only	Yes	No	No
Lock the meeting	Host only	Yes	No	No
Unlock the meeting	Host only	Yes	No	No
End the meeting for everyone	Host only	Yes	No	No
Record the meeting*	Host only	Yes**	No	No
Stop recording of the meeting	Host only	Yes**	No	No
Spotlight meetings only:
Move a participant into spotlight	Host only	–	–	–
Remove a participant from spotlight	Host only	–	–	–
In-meeting chat	Yes
Raise hand	Yes	–	–	–
Lower hand	Yes	–	–	–

*The recording solution is an optional extra. If enabled, only the meeting organizer can download and view the recording. To learn more about recording controls and permissions, go to StarLeaf recording.

**This option may be disabled by the admin.

Using Meeting and calling