Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#1

Post by jrs235 » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 4:11 PM UTC

Two ideas:

1. A numeric overlay/identifier of participants for easily "going around the table" and not missing anyone. Some software moves the participant tiles around and not everyone's order is the same across participants. Perhaps just tracking and displaying the meeting entry number. If I enter the "room" 3rd then "3" gets associated with my tile.

2. The option to automatically turn off my camera if my mic is silent or quiet and only turn it on when my mic picks up [sufficient] sound (like when I'm talking).

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#2

Post by cfjgvjh » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

Prioritize audio data over video. I have issues in zoom when someone has slow connection where the video lags and the audio gets really garbled, making it impossible to communicate. If instead it just killed the video feed based on connection health, I'd at least be able to talk.

I'd also like a user mute button in general as a non-host. Some people have really bad microphone setup despite being year-in into the pandemic and remote stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#3

Post by booboofixer » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

I'm not sure if this is present in other software. The video conferencing tools i use only allow for one participant sharing their screen at a time, which leads to switching between participants sharing their screens, scheduling when to show what, wasting time in between etc. Maybe its too much to ask of people's internet connections, but two people looking at each other's screens simultaneously should be an option.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#4

Post by andrei_says_ » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 4:31 PM UTC

Analysis showing who speaks what percentage of the time - in real time.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#5

Post by iamevn » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

push to talk on a global hotkey

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#6

Post by hiidrew » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

Something that I've always thought would be fun is a groupchat that makes text bubbles bigger based on how much that individual has contributed.

This could be extended to meeting software, the more a person talks the bigger their avatar becomes. An easy downside is distraction but it's an interesting concept.

Slightly inspired by a peer of mine during graduate school https://www.riesmurphy.com/eclipse-shortform.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#7

Post by toomanyducks » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

Just working! We don't need more features, we need the ones we have to work well! I have to put a lot of effort into making my computer reliably join meetings with working sound, video, etc.

Yeah, there's a ton of reasons this is hard to do, but you can't tell me that if everyone at Zoom/Microsoft/whatever redirected their efforts to making their existing stack work reliably, there wouldn't be progress.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#8

Post by kgran » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

hiidrew wrote: post #6

Something that I've always thought would be fun is a groupchat that makes text bubbles bigger based on how much that individual has contributed. This could be extended to meeting software, the more a person talks the bigger their avatar becomes. An easy downside is distraction but it's an interesting concept. Slightly inspired by a peer of mine during graduate school https://www.riesmurphy.com/eclipse-shortform .

I wonder if a reversed version of such a feature would be better in some circumstances...

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#9

Post by toomanyducks » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 5:56 PM UTC

iamevn wrote: post #5

push to talk on a global hotkey

Hm, I know pulse audio has a CLI that allows muting, you could probably hack something up in Bash, maybe with netcat to get messages from a keyboard daemon to the script.

Re: Ask HN: What features would improve video chat/meeting software

#10

Post by mijkal » Thu, Jul 15, 2021, 7:38 PM UTC

iamevn wrote: post #5

push to talk on a global hotkey

There's a utility app on macOS that I've used for years called Shush https://mizage.com/shush/ > that provides a global mic toggle (double tap to invert toggle to speak/mute).

Very nice because it works at OS level and is same no matter which app I'm using.