Ask Help Desk: How to fix that annoying video call echo - The Washington Post

We know as workers head back to the office that much will have changed. Companies are experimenting with flexible schedules, safety protocols and different types of technologies that could aid with more distributed workforces. So we want to help you solve your toughest, most annoying issues in the workplace as we explore together whatever the future of work may ultimately become.

As part of that exploration, I invite you to keep your workplace questions, suggestions and frustrations coming. If you have any workplace tech concerns you’d like us to explore, send us an email at [email protected]. We’ll do our best to tackle your toughest issues.

As it turns out, video conferencing providers are very aware of this issue and some are rolling out features to help minimize or even eliminate it. But there are some easy tweaks you can make regardless of what service you use.

First, the simplest and most basic thing workers can do is make sure their mics are muted when they’re not talking. Alternatively, meeting facilitators sometimes have the ability to mute others on the call, which may be necessary if workers aren’t actively muting themselves. The reason the echo even occurs is because the video service picks up the audio from the mic of the person speaking. But the sound from the meeting and the person talking is also picked up by nearby microphones, creating the irritating audio reverberation. Muting cancels that extra sound out.

Workers may also want to wear a quality pair of noise-canceling headphones to drown out their colleagues’ voices who may be in earshot while on the same meeting. (My colleague Chris Velazco recommends these headphones in our holiday gift guide.) That way, you won’t hearing your colleagues’ voices in-person and then again on a short delay, which can be equally annoying.

Some of the most commonly used video services say they have some features and tips that could help users with the problem.

On Google Meet, for example, users can go into their audio settings to switch on noise cancellation, which will minimize and in some case remove background noise like typing or nearby construction. Zoom has a similar feature called noise suppression, which by default is set to automatically detect and minimize background noise (You can find this on the desktop app by clicking preferences, then audio.)But users can toggle the setting to be more or less aggressive if they’re trying to drown out noise like a dog barking, for example. Webex, which also has automatic noise cancellation, is rolling out an additional feature called echo cancellation, which is expected to be available in the next few months.

Additionally, Google is working on a feature called companion mode, expected to debut early next year, for workers who may want to join a meeting with their own mobile device while in a conference room with others. The feature is expected to give users access to features like screen sharing, polls, and the chat but rely on the audio and video from the conferencing tools in the room so there’s no echo.

For conference room meetings, Microsoft suggests that everyone join the call on their own device to make it easy for all participants to see each other. But the company suggests that all participants in the room keep their audio muted and instead rely on a central microphone like a puck speaker.

“It will take some time to update physical meeting spaces to create a more seamless hybrid meeting experience for everyone,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president of Modern Work at Microsoft. “Until then, these small steps can make a big difference.”

Meanwhile Zoom is pushing its meeting room product for the office, called Zoom Rooms, which has the capability to create meeting spaces in open areas that will enable only the users close to the microphones to be heard.

While these solutions should help with workers’ echo headaches, we wanted to explore the issue of virtual meetings a little further. And it turns out, many people are reevaluating their use of virtual meetings (not everything needs to be a meeting, surprise!) and the best way to host virtual meetings when needed.

A group of global researchers who make up a community called the Future of Meetings has been exploring the issue. The group’s best practices for hybrid virtual meetings? Facilitators should take a digital-first approach to all interactions so that everyone, regardless of where they are, have to rely on the same digital tools to participate, for example. They should also think about accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability when considering the technologies they might want to use. And they should be willing to experiment with new technologies to determine the right tool to reach the desired outcome.

Meanwhile, some business leaders are realizing that video calling fatigue is becoming a real problem among their workforces. As a result, they’re rehashing the old but very important question: Did this meeting need to happen?

For example, could sales representatives use a shared document to update their numbers instead of hosting a morning meeting to discuss them? Can some work be done before a meeting — like brainstorming around a specific question — to make the call focus on collaboration and action items? Should every meeting be done over video conferencing services or does it make sense to go back to phone conference calls so that people can more easily dialin while they’re walking their dogs or running errands? And could the meeting be as simple as sending an email, text, or Slack message?

As workers and employers continue to navigate the complexity of the future of work, my guess is the video call echois just one of numerous headaches that we’ll all have to work through. But there’s no better time to swipe the slate clean of previous expectations and practices and start from scratch.