Setting up Huddles (audio calls in Messaging)
Applies to: Workspace Admins and System Admins · Time: about 5 minutes
Overview
A huddle is a quick audio call inside any Messaging conversation: a channel, a group message or a direct message. Anyone in the conversation can start one with a single click and the others join from a banner. Huddles are audio only.
Huddle time is counted in person-minutes: every person connected counts. A 10-minute huddle with 3 people uses 30 minutes. Your workspace has a monthly allowance of minutes, and automatic rules end forgotten calls so minutes aren't wasted.
Where to find the settings
- In the left sidebar, select Workspace settings.
- Open the Huddles tab (next to Modules).
- Change what you need and click Save. The message Saved confirms it.
Settings
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Huddles (on/off) | Shows or hides the Huddle button in every conversation. | On |
| Who can start a huddle | Everyone, or Selected roles. Anyone in the conversation can always join, and Workspace Admins can always start. | Everyone |
| People per huddle | From 2 to 50. When a huddle is full, Join and Invite are turned off. | 25 |
| Minutes per month | The workspace's monthly allowance. It resets on the 1st of each month (workspace time zone). It can be set up to your organization's limit, shown under the field. | 20,000 |
| When the allowance is used up | Stop new huddles until next month (huddles already running finish normally), or Keep huddles on, only alert admins. | Stop new huddles |
| Alert workspace admins | A bell notification and an email to every Workspace Admin at 80% and at 100% of the allowance, once per month each. | Both on |
| Daily limit per person | Optional. Caps how many minutes one person can spend in huddles each day. They are warned 5 minutes before the limit and then leave the huddle. | Off (60 min when turned on) |
Need more minutes? (Cloud) If you would like to increase your organization's limits, create a support ticket: Workspace settings → Support → New ticket, or use Create a support ticket under the allowance field. A higher limit might add additional cost on top of your subscription fee.
Automatic rules
These rules apply to every huddle so forgotten calls don't use minutes. People see a prompt first, and the server applies the same rules every minute, so a closed laptop or a frozen tab can't keep a call running.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Alone in the huddle | After 1 minute: You're the only one here. After 2 minutes the huddle ends. |
| Nobody has spoken | After 5 minutes of silence: Still here? with a 60-second countdown, then the huddle ends. |
| Muted with the app in the background | After 30 minutes: a prompt, then that person leaves. The others stay. |
| Connection lost (laptop closed, Wi-Fi lost) | The person is dropped after about 30 seconds. |
| Long huddle | Warning at 55 minutes, ends at 61 minutes. Anyone can start a new one. |
| Empty huddle | Ends as soon as the last person leaves. |
| Joining a second huddle or another device | One huddle and one device per person: joining elsewhere replaces the earlier connection. |
| Out of office | People marked out of office can't join or be invited, and leave a huddle they're in. |
On-premise installations
On your own server, huddles run on an audio server that is included with Digital Workspace, so audio never leaves your network, there is no per-minute charge and there is no organization limit: set any monthly allowance that suits you. The server steps (firewall ports, turning the audio server on, a test call) are in "Turning on Huddles on your server" in the On-premise Administrator Guide.
Usage per person
The bottom of the Huddles tab shows usage for the month you pick:
- minutes used against the allowance, with a mark at the 80% alert
- totals: huddles, people who joined, average length, and how many huddles ended automatically
- a table per person: department, minutes, huddles, average length, auto-ended and busiest day
Use Month to look at earlier months, the search box to find a person, and Export CSV to download the table.
How your team uses huddles
- Open a conversation in Messages and click Huddle in its header. The browser asks for the microphone the first time: choose Allow.
- Others in the conversation see a green banner, Huddle · names · minutes, with Join, and a headphone icon with the number of people next to the conversation in the list.
- While in a huddle, a bar stays at the bottom of the screen on every page: Mute, Invite, back to the conversation, and Leave.
- Invite rings colleagues from the same workspace for 30 seconds, including people who aren't in the conversation (they join the huddle only and don't see the chat history). A missed invite appears in their bell.
Troubleshooting
| Message | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Couldn't join the huddle. Check that the browser can use your microphone… | Allow the microphone in the browser's site settings (the lock icon in the address bar) and try again. |
| Click to turn on sound | The browser blocked audio until you click. Click the button on the huddle bar. |
| This month's huddle minutes are used up… | Wait for the reset on the 1st, raise the allowance up to your organization's limit, or create a support ticket for a higher limit. |
| This huddle is full. | Raise People per huddle (up to 50) or start a separate huddle. |
| Your role can't start huddles… | Add the person's role under Who can start a huddle, or let them join one someone else starts. |
| That's above your organization's limit… | Set a lower allowance, or create a support ticket to increase the limit. |
These articles are also in the Knowledge Base on your own server, after it is updated.