Community · Audio rooms

Live talks, like Clubhouse, with a chat beside them

Go live with your members: a Bible study, a Q&A with the principal, a town hall. The host brings up to 4 people on stage to speak; everyone else listens, raises a hand to ask a question, and types in the room's chat.

A live audio room, Midweek Bible study: the host and a speaker on stage, a listener, and the room chat (on a computer) — Grace Chapel Lekki, a sample community, on a computer and on a phone.

A live audio room, Midweek Bible study: the host and a speaker on stage, a listener, and the room chat (on a phone) — Grace Chapel Lekki, a sample community, on a computer and on a phone.

At a glance

Who hosts: The owner, admins and moderators
On stage: The host and up to 4 speakers at a time
Listening: Up to 20 for now; hundreds with our relay, later
Room chat: Everyone in the room, up to 500 characters a message
Who can join: Members of the community
Recording: None: nothing is recorded or kept

Hosting a room

On the community's Home, tap + Start a room, give it a name (Sunday Q&A, Midweek Bible study) and Go live. Members see it at the top of Home with Join.
When a listener taps ✋ Raise hand to speak, the host sees it and taps Bring up. The host can also tap anyone and Invite to speak, or Move to listeners. Up to 4 speakers at a time besides the host.
A green ring shows who's talking. The host's mic button mutes and unmutes. End room ends it for everyone; the host leaving ends it too.

Listening and speaking

Tap Join and you're listening: no camera, no mic until you're brought up.
On stage, your mic is on; tap Back to listening to step down. Leave quietly to go whenever you like.

The room chat

While a room is on, everyone in it can type: questions for the speakers, prayer points, amens, links.
On a computer the chat sits beside the room. On a phone, tap 💬 Chat; a red number shows what you missed while it was closed.
The host and speakers are marked in the chat. The host or a moderator can remove a message. The chat goes when the room ends.

How the sound travels

For now, rooms run phone to phone: the people on stage connect straight to each other, and each listener connects to the host, whose phone sends everyone the mix. Nothing passes through #NotesApp's servers.
That keeps it private but puts the host's phone in the middle, so a room holds 20 listeners. A host on Wi-Fi or a strong 4G connection works best. Bigger rooms come with our relay.