Joining, watching and participating in a Session

Within a Session, attendees can passively watch the presentation or actively participate by joining the screen. The attendee and speaker experience may vary based on its configuration. This guide covers all actions available for both watching and participating in a Session.

Joining a Session

You can access a live Session room through the Sessions event area or by clicking on the live scheduled segment in the agenda. 

Watching a Session

Within a Session, you can watch the Speakers talk or engage in a dedicated activity panel on the right side.

Chat

Each session has its activity panel, including the group chat, separate from the event-wide chat. As a viewer, you can interact with the people in the Session via the Session chat. This is a great place to ask questions and engage with people on-camera when you don’t want to be on-camera yourself. To learn more, refer to our guide on Using the chat area.

Fullscreen mode

To fully engage with a presentation within a Session room and optimize the content displayed on the screen, you can activate the full-screen mode. This mode allows you to expand the view to occupy the entire screen, and you can enable full screen for the entire presentation or individual speakers or screen shares separately. For detailed steps, refer to our guide on Enabling full-screen mode in Sessions.

Closed Captions

If you want to use Closed Captions within the Session, click the CC icon at the bottom of the screen, and the captions will appear underneath the video feeds. Captions are only available on Desktop versions of RingCentral and will only work in English. For more information, check out our article about Using Closed Captions (Sessions, Expo Booths, Networking).

Pinning a speaker

To pin a speaker to your screen, hover over the selected speaker or a screen share, click the Menu icon •••, and click Pin. This is especially useful when a speaker is sharing their screen, and you want to make either the screen share or the speaker bigger on the screen. To unpin the speaker, repeat the process. 

Confetti

Confetti is an engagement feature that allows you to express appreciation, acknowledge a speaker, or highlight presented data on the slides. If this option is enabled within the Session, you can trigger this effect by clicking on the video tile or screen share during the session.

Joining the screen

To join the screen:

1. Click Share Audio and Video or Ask to Share Audio and Video. If a Session is moderated, you'll need to wait for a Moderator to approve your request.
   
   
   
2. In the Audio/Video settings, you will be able to:
   • Select hardware sources for your camera, microphone, and speakers.
   • Enable/disable your microphone and camera.
     Note: You can join the screen without a camera by using only your microphone, making it possible to participate with audio only if needed.
   • Customize your tag's first name, last name, and headline.
   • Upload a new profile image. 
   • Under Background appearance & effect, blur your video background or add a virtual background.
   • Under More settings, enable additional video and audio settings.
     Warning: Enabling Pro sound disables all audio processing. Use it if you have a professional audio setup only.
   • Run a pre-event check.
3. Once ready, click Apply Selection.
   

Speaker controls

Once you are on screen, you will have the following Speaker controls at the bottom center of the Session:

• Microphone: Turn on and off your microphone.
• Camera: Turn on and off your webcam.
• Settings: Opens the audio/video settings where you can customize your name tag and change the hardware selection for your camera and microphone.
• Screen share: Opens a screen-share menu.
  • YouTube sharing (if enabled). Opens a pop-up to enter a link to share a video directly from YouTube.
    
    Tip: Check on our Sharing your Powerpoint and Sharing computer audio guides to screen share like a Pro.
• Emoji reactions (if enabled): Select an emoji to place on your video tile for a couple of seconds to express your sentiment during the presentation. 
• Raise hand (if enabled): Raise your hand to indicate your desire to ask a question or contribute a point. 
• Fullscreen: Make the entire Session fullscreen. 
• Closed Captions: Turn on and off closed captions. 
• Sound: Mute and unmute the whole stage if needed.

Finally, click Stop sharing Audio and Video to leave the screen at any time.

Sharing a screen

To share your screen and content from other platforms like Youtube, Miro, or Figma (if enabled in the Session settings), open the Share menu and select the preferred option.

Breakout rooms

Organizers may split more extensive Sessions into smaller groups to facilitate discussions, create brainstorming sessions, and encourage networking. In this case, you will be automatically placed in one of the groups together with other participants. For more information, refer to our guide on Navigating Breakout rooms in Sessions.

Emoji reactions

To communicate your sentiments without causing interruptions during the meeting, you can use emoji reactions when participating on screen. To trigger the effect, they need to click the Emoji icon in the Speaker Controls and select one of the available emojis. The emoji will be placed on your video tile for a couple of seconds and disappear automatically.  

Raising hand

You can raise your hand (if enabled) to signal your intention to ask a question or contribute to the discussion without interrupting the flow of conversation. To trigger this, click the Hand icon in the Speaker Controls. The hand icon will be placed on the speaker's video tile to notify other speakers. After speaking or once your question has been addressed, click on the same option to lower your hand. 

Leaving the screen without leaving a Session

Since there's a limit of participants allowed on screen (50 or less if specified in the settings), it is a good practice to free up a spot once you've finished participating in a live panel. To leave the screen, click Stop sharing Audio and Video. Alternatively, the Moderator can remove you from the screen manually. You will still stay in the Session room.