Participating in a Meeting for Community Members

Meetings are great for Bible studies, classes, and other discussion based gatherings.  Whether it’s your first or 100th meeting, this guide will walk you through joining and participating in a meeting on Altar Live.

How do Meetings work?

Meetings are virtual rooms where you can see and hear everyone in the room. When you join a meeting, either via invite or your community’s landing page, you’ll be asked to sign in.  If you don’t have an account yet, you’ll be asked to make one.  

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Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a screen similar to this:

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On the bottom of your screen, you’ll see the control bar with the following icons:

• Mic: Toggle your microphone on/off, or change the microphone you are using.
• Camera:  Toggle your camera on/off, or change the camera you are using.
• Screenshare:  Share what’s on your screen with the rest of the meeting room.
• View Toggle: Switch between tile view (see everyone) and speaker view (see who is 
• speaking).
• Performance:  Change the quality of the stream (ranging from better performance to higher quality).  You can use this to turn the stream quality to better performance if you’re experiencing lag.
• Fullscreen:  Toggle in/out of Fullscreen mode
• More:  Here you can find video sharing, audio sharing, background preferences, and general settings.

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On the side of your screen, you’ll also see the following icons:

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• Chat: Here you can find general chat, and your private messages/groups.
• Members: Here you can see who else is in the meeting room, and start direct messages with other users.
• Announcements: New announcements will pop up on your screen automatically, but you can find past announcements here.
• Polls: New polls will automatically show, but you can return to polls and see results under this tab.

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When you’re ready to leave the meeting, you can press the red “Leave Meeting” button to exit the call.

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How to share your screen

Step 1: From the control bar, select “Start Screen Sharing”

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Step 2: Select which screen, window, or tab you would like to share.

Note: This step may differ depending on which OS and browser you are using.  We recommend using a Chrome browser for the smoothest screen sharing experience.

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Step 3: You’re now sharing your screen!  To finish sharing, press the “Stop screen sharing” button at the bottom of your screen.

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How to add a Virtual Background

Need to hide your background? In a Meeting, you can change your background to blurry or a custom image.

Step 1: During a meeting, click the three dots icon at the bottom of the screen

Step 2: Click Select Background and you will be able to upload a background of your choice

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Step 3: Choose a background.

NOTE: If you are using a Mac and the background options do not appear, go to View and select Zoom out

Step 4: If you want to upload a background, click the plus icon to access your images

Step 5: Add your desired image

Step 6: Click Apply and your background will be uploaded!

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Want to learn more about engaging with your community on Altar Live? Check out our Getting Started resources for Community Members!