Join a call somebody else started
Get into a video call from a link somebody sent you, without installing anything or being late.
Somebody sends a line of blue writing and says “press this at three o’clock”. Pressing it does not install anything, buy anything or sign you up to anything. It opens a door.
What happens next is always the same three things, whichever service your niece happens to use. It asks who you are, it shows you what you look like before anybody else sees it, and it puts you in.
Key points
- Open a link somebody has sent you, knowing it installs nothing
- Put your name in and check your camera before anybody sees you
- Read a waiting screen as “too early” rather than “you have done something wrong”
- Leave a call whenever you like without cutting anybody else off
What to remember
- Press the link, type your name, look at the preview, press Join. Yours will look a little different, but those four steps are always there.
- A waiting screen means the call has not started. Leave it sitting there and it will let you in by itself.
- Leave takes you out. Only the person who set the call up can end it for everybody, and they are asked twice.
Try this
Look back through your messages for a link somebody has sent you in the past — a call, an invitation, anything. Press it. Whatever opens, close it again. The point is to learn that pressing a link is a reversible act.
Practice: Join a call somebody else started. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.