Better meetings: waiting rooms, recording and screen sharing

This guide is for anyone who runs team or client calls. It explains three settings, the waiting room, recording and screen sharing, shows how Nubo Meet handles each, and ends with a few habits that improve meetings more than any feature does.

Most bad meetings are not caused by the video tool. They are caused by no agenda, the wrong people, and nobody writing down what was decided. Still, a few settings make a real difference to privacy and to how smoothly a call runs. This guide covers three of them (the waiting room, recording and screen sharing) and then a short set of habits that do more for your meetings than any feature.

Where we describe how Nubo Meet behaves, we are describing the app as it works today. Details can change, so the in-app help is the final word.

Start with how people join

Nubo Meet gives each meeting a link. You can start an instant meeting and share the link, or create a persistent link in advance and put it in a calendar invitation. A persistent link does not expire, so a recurring meeting can use the same one every time.

When someone clicks the link, one of three things happens:

• If they are signed in to Nubo and the meeting is not running, they start it and become its host.
• If the meeting is running, they join it.
• If they are a guest without a Nubo account, they can still join. They do not need to create an account, and they wait in a lobby until the meeting is running.

This is convenient for external calls: a client or candidate can join from a link without installing anything or registering. The trade-off is that a link is a key. Anyone who has it can ask to join, which is where the waiting room comes in.

The waiting room

A waiting room is a holding area. People who join land on a “waiting for the host to let you in” screen, and the host gets a prompt to admit or deny each one.

In Nubo Meet the waiting room is on by default. The host can switch it off from the More menu. When it is on:

• A new joiner sees a waiting screen. They are not given the roster of participants, any media or the chat until they are admitted.
• The host sees an Admit or Deny prompt, and a list of who is waiting. There is an “Admit all” action for when you are expecting a group.
• If the host role moves (for example, the person who started the meeting leaves), the original organiser is recognised and can still come back in as a moderator.

When to leave it on: any call with people from outside your team, any call where the link was sent in a public place or forwarded, and any call about something confidential. When it is reasonable to switch it off: a short stand-up with your own team where everyone is expected and the link has not left the company.

A habit that helps: look at the waiting list before you start talking. If someone is waiting whose name you do not recognise, ask in the chat or ask them to introduce themselves before you let them in.

Recording

Recording needs more care than any other feature, because it affects people who may not expect it. Three rules cover most of it.

Tell people first. Say at the start of the call, and in the invitation if you can, that you intend to record and why. In many places the law requires the consent of participants, and requirements differ by country and by state. If you are not sure what applies to you, ask a lawyer. Our Acceptable Use Policy says that you must have a lawful reason to record and to keep a recording.

Make it visible. In Nubo Meet recording is never silent. While anyone records, every participant sees a REC badge and a banner that names who is recording, and a notice appears when recording starts and when it stops. This is built into the app, so a participant does not have to rely on the recorder remembering to announce it.

Know where it goes. Recording in Nubo Meet happens on the recorder’s own device. The recording includes every participant’s video tile (a name tile appears when a camera is off, and a presentation is featured) and a mix of everyone’s audio. The file is saved to the recorder’s drive in Files, under Recordings and then Meet. So the person who records is the person who holds the file, and is responsible for who they share it with and how long they keep it.

After the call, decide what to do with the file. Many recordings are never watched again. A written summary of decisions and next steps is usually more useful and takes less storage. Delete recordings you do not need to keep, and set a reminder to review the rest.

Screen sharing

Sharing a screen is where accidents happen: a private notification pops up, an unrelated tab is visible, or a sensitive file is open in the background. Some habits help.

• Share a window or a tab, not the entire screen, if your browser offers the choice. Then only that content is visible.
• Close what you do not need. Before you share, close email, chat and any documents that are not part of the discussion.
• Turn off notifications for the duration, using your operating system’s focus or do-not-disturb mode.
• Say what you are about to share and give people a second to look, rather than clicking through.
• Use a clean workspace or a second browser profile for demos, so that bookmarks and history are not on show.

In Nubo Meet, a shared screen is displayed as a presentation tile that is pinned automatically, so everyone sees it large without having to arrange the layout. Participants can still pin someone else, and the layout moves between a grid and a spotlight with a filmstrip as people share and speak.

If you present from a laptop with a limited connection, remember that sharing adds a stream on top of the video. See the note on group size below.

A note on group size

Nubo Meet connects participants directly to each other. Audio and video flow between participants rather than through a central server, and the app adjusts the video quality to the size of the call. Direct connections are good for privacy and keep things simple for small teams, and they also mean that each additional person adds load on everyone’s device and connection. For a team call or a client call, this is rarely a problem. For a very large call or a webinar, check that the experience is acceptable for your group before the day.

Small features that make calls smoother

• The green room. Before you join, a preview lets you check your camera and microphone, choose devices and enter your name.
• Background blur and virtual backgrounds, processed on your device.
• Noise suppression, on by default, which reduces keyboard, fan and traffic noise.
• Raise hand and reactions, which let people signal without interrupting.
• In-call chat, for links and quick questions.
• Picture-in-picture, which lets you keep the call visible in a small window while you work in another tab.
• Device switching mid-call, for when a headset dies.

None of this matters if the basics are missing, so here are the habits.

Habits that matter more than settings

1. Send an agenda with the invitation. Even three bullet points. It tells people whether they need to come.
2. Invite fewer people. If someone only needs the outcome, send them the notes.
3. Name a note-taker at the start, and write down decisions, owners and dates while people are still in the call.
4. Start on time and end early when the agenda is done. People remember a meeting that ended ahead of schedule.
5. Share notes within a day, in the same place the team keeps its project plan.
6. Review the standing meetings every quarter. If nobody can say what a recurring meeting is for, cancel it.

For more on how we protect accounts and calls, see the Security page.