Voice & Video

Voice, video, and screen share

How to join a voice channel or call, turn on your camera, and share your screen

1 min readUpdated for the current Astral app

Voice in Astral works in a community channel and in a DM or group call. You are in one voice room at a time. After a dropped connection the server may hold the old session for about a minute — wait before you rejoin.

Join a voice channel

  1. Open a community and click a voice channel (or a stage).
  2. The browser or OS will ask for the microphone — allow it.
  3. Controls appear at the bottom left: mute, deafen, camera, screen share, disconnect.

You can turn on double-click to join in Look & Feel → Interface.

On a stage you join as a listener. Hosts add you to the speakers when it is your turn.

Call in a DM or group

Use the call button in the conversation header or Ctrl + '. Whether the other person rings depends on their settings (Nobody / Friends Only / Friends + Custom / Everyone). Answer with Ctrl / Cmd + Enter, decline with Esc.

Camera and screen

  • Camera: the call-panel button or Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + V. A preview can open first.
  • Screen: Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + S. On desktop pick a window or the whole display; you can share system audio when the OS allows it.

Quality

In User Settings → Voice & Video → Video:

Free Plutonium
Camera up to 1080p up to 1080p
Screen share 720p / 30 fps, 45 minutes per session 1080p / 1440p / 4K, 60 fps, custom bitrate up to 20 Mbps, no session cap
Custom video backgrounds 1 15

Noise suppression and echo cancellation are built into the engine. Fine-tuning is in Voice settings and what to do if nobody can hear you.

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