How to Make Group Calls

As a Gruveo subscriber, you can organize unlimited group video and voice calls with up to 12 participants.

Gruveo lets you organize group calls with up to 12 participants.

Group calls can be established in one of the three ways:

1. By all of the participants joining the same call room,
2. By inviting additional participants to an ongoing call on your permanent Gruveo link, or
3. By adding a caller on your permanent link to any ongoing call you might have.

Let's go through each option step by step.

How Do I Make a Group Call Using a Call Room?

Organizing a group call using a call room is the recommended approach due to its simplicity. Here is how it works:

1. Log into your account on www.gruveo.com.
2. On the Set up a Call page that opens, see "Option 2. Meet in a Call Room".
3. Use the widget to generate a random room link or type your own.
4. Click the copy button to copy the link. The link will look like this: https://www.gruveo.com/mcvtfi (note that there's no @).
5. Paste the link in an email, a text message, a calendar invitation etc. and send it to the call participants.
6. On the scheduled date and time, follow the link to enter your Gruveo room.
7. Wait for the other participants to join the same way. Once there is a Gruveo subscriber (you) as well as at least one other participant in the room, the call will begin.
8. Optional: After all the participants have connected, lock the room by clicking the padlock button in the top left of the call screen. Locking the room will ensure that nobody else will be able to join the conversation, even if they have the room link.

How Do I Add More Participants to an Ongoing Call on My Permanent Link?

If you have a one-on-one call on your permanent link, you also have the option to invite more people to the call, thereby making it a group conversation. Here’s how to do it:

1. Unlock the call by clicking the padlock button in the top left of the call screen. (Calls on permanent links are locked by default.)
2. Share the one-time join link with the people that you want to join that particular call. You can copy the link by clicking the copy button next to it.
3. Once the invited person has clicked the link, they will join your conversation.

Click the copy button to copy the one-time join link for a permanent link call.

How Do I Add A Caller to My Ongoing Gruveo Call?

You can add a caller on your permanent Gruveo link to any ongoing call you might have at the moment. (This option is currently only available in the Gruveo web app on www.gruveo.com.)

When you are on a call and someone is trying to reach you on your permanent link, you get a notification on top of the screen alerting you of additional callers in your call queue. The notification will have a link to add the first caller in the queue to your ongoing call.

You can also hang up your call, in which case you will be taken to the incoming call screen for the first caller in your queue.

During the Call

Automatic vs. Manual Maximization of Participants

In group calls, Gruveo maximizes the currently active speaker by default. You can override this behavior and manually maximize a call participant by clicking their thumbnail in the lower right corner of the call screen. The participant's thumbnail will get a solid white border, which means that manual maximization is now active.

To return to automatic maximization, click the thumbnail of the currently maximized user once again. The thumbnail border will turn semi-transparent, which indicates that you are back to automatic maximization.

A solid border around a participant's thumbnail means that manual maximization is active.

Participant Muting

You can selectively mute group call participants for yourself. (At the moment, this only works in the Gruveo web app on www.gruveo.com.) To mute a participant, hover over their thumbnail and click the mute button that appears. Do the same to unmute them.