How to start a call and take notes

A call is a voice and video conversation inside What is chat?. Start one from any channel or direct message, and it stays connected while you move around Tideswell. Every call is listed under Meetings at the top of the chat list.

At Fairgreen Golf Co., Priya Raman starts a call in #production to go through the Portside Mills lab dips. She presses Take notes, and afterwards the notes, the decisions and two action items are waiting for the four people who were on it.

How do you start a call?

Open the channel or direct message and press Call in its header. You join straight away.

In a direct message, starting a call rings the other person. In a channel, everyone who can see the channel sees a call card in the timeline with Join, and the header's button turns into Join too.

The first time, your browser asks to use your microphone and camera. Allow both, or the call says the microphone or camera is blocked.

How do you ring someone into a channel call?

Press Ring at the foot of the call, type a name in Ring someone into this call, and press Ring beside the person. Their screen shows Incoming call, "Ringing you into #production", with Join and Decline.

The list holds the channel's members who are not on the call yet. When they all are, it reads "Everyone in this channel is already here."

What can you do during a call?

The controls along the foot of the call:

• Mute and Unmute.
• Turn camera on and Turn camera off.
• Share screen and Stop sharing, in a browser that can share its screen.
• Ring, on a channel call.
• Take notes and Stop notes.
• Leave call.

Layout switches between Automatic, Tiles and Speaker. Pin someone's tile to keep them large on your screen, and press Unpin to let the layout choose again.

Can you keep working during a call?

Yes. Press Back to chat at the top left of the call, or Minimise call, and the call shrinks to a bar while you use the rest of Tideswell. You stay connected as you move between pages.

Expand call brings it back to full size, and Compact view makes it smaller again. You leave the call when you press Leave call.

Reloading the page would end the call, so during a call your browser asks before it reloads or closes the tab. Choose to stay, and the call carries on.

How do call notes work?

Press Take notes during the call. A line across the top of the call, with a red dot, reads "Notes are on. Everyone's voice is being transcribed."

Press Stop notes to stop.

When the call ends, its card in the channel reads Writing notes… and then shows a short overview, the number of action items and View notes. A muted microphone is not transcribed.

What is in the notes?

View notes opens a page headed Call in and the channel's name, with the date, how long it ran and who was on it. Below that:

• Overview, a few lines on what the call covered.
• Key points and Decisions.
• Action items, each with its owner and due date where one was said, and Make task to turn it into a task. See How to create a task.
• Transcript, the full record of who said what.

Open as document opens the notes as a document the people on the call can edit.

Who can read the notes?

Only the people who were on the call. Everyone else who can see the channel sees the call card with "Notes are private to the people on the call", and the notes page reads "Private to the 4 people on this call".

The Agent can read the notes of a call you were on, to answer your questions about it. A conversation that has read call notes suggests no changes, so nothing said reaches anyone who was not on the call.

To keep your calls out of every Agent's reach, turn on Ghost mode under User menu › Account settings › What buzzes you. Its hint reads "The agent never reads notes from calls you're on. This covers everyone's agent, not just yours." It covers calls that have already ended too.

How do you find an old call?

Open Meetings at the top of the chat list. It lists every call you can see, newest first, with In progress and Join on one that is still running.

All shows every call you can see, and Calls I was on only yours. Older loads the next page of calls.

Where can you make calls?

In Tideswell on the web, on a computer or in a phone browser. The Tideswell iPhone app keeps to messages and tasks, per Using Tideswell on your phone.