Fix calls and screen sharing

Set up your microphone

The first time you join voice, your browser or operating system asks for microphone access. In Settings > Audio, choose your microphone and select Record a test. Say a few words, then play them back. While that panel is open, snug keeps your microphone out of the call, so only you hear the test. The tuning controls sit below it; speaker choices are under Listening.

Automatic mic level evens you out: it trims a loud microphone and gently lifts a quiet one. It's off until you turn it on; leave it off if you'd rather set input level yourself. For noise, RNNoise · recommended suits most microphones. Choose a gate only when you want silence between words, and put its marker just above where your background noise sits in the input test.

snug automatically brings microphone voices toward one comfortable listening level on this device. Settings > Audio > Level people automatically turns that behavior off or back on. It remembers each person's level between turns, even after a long quiet stretch. A person's volume control still adjusts them relative to that baseline, while screen-share audio keeps its separate volume.

Talk from the background

Push to talk and shortcuts for mute and deafen live under Settings > Hotkeys. In a browser they work while the snug tab is active; the desktop app can also listen in the background. On macOS, the app may ask for Accessibility permission first.

In the desktop app, Minimize keeps your call running. Closing the main window quits snug and leaves the call by default. To keep snug running after Close, enable the option for your system below. Saved settings remain in place.

On macOS, click snug's menu bar icon to mute, deafen, leave voice, or open settings. Settings > Desktop > Show menu bar icon is on by default. Enable Keep running when window closes to keep your call alive when you close the window, even with the icon off. Click snug in the Dock to return. With that setting off, Close quits the app. Quit snug (Command-Q) always leaves the call and exits.

On Windows and Linux, snug has a system tray menu. Its icon changes when you talk, stop talking, mute, or deafen. Right-click it to mute your microphone, deafen, leave voice, or open settings.

In Settings > Desktop, Show system tray icon keeps snug in the tray whenever it is running, including when its window is open. The icon is on by default. Enable Close window to tray to keep the call running after Close. Minimize always uses the taskbar. Turning the icon off makes Close quit snug.

Windows may hide the icon. Choose Open Windows taskbar settings in snug, expand Other system tray icons, and turn on snug to keep it visible.

When the window is hidden in the tray, select Show snug to return or Quit snug to leave and exit. The menu also has a Close to tray shortcut. On Linux, turn it on only after checking that your desktop shows the snug tray icon. Some Linux desktops need a tray extension. Opening snug again also brings a hidden window back.

Keep the call in view

On a wide window, hide the sidebar to see the call as a column of faces. The column shows as many whole faces as fit. If the window is too short, +N opens the full, scrollable list. Click any face for names with the usual speaking bubbles and mute or deafen icons. Hover a face to see the full name. Select a person's name in the list to open their profile. Media bots keep their picture or initials. Their badge uses the same moving bars and pause icon as the channel list, with a quiet media icon when idle. Select a bot's name to open its playback controls. Mute and deafen sit below the faces, ready to use with names closed or playback open. The column reserves space for those controls before folding extra faces into +N. Leave call stays below those controls. Drag the grip or the space between controls anywhere below snug's header, across video and chat. Switching video above or beside chat, or hiding either panel, keeps your placement. A smaller window keeps it within reach without forgetting where you put it. Select Reset position in the names panel to put it back. You can also focus the grip and use the arrow keys, or press Home to reset.

For a clear workspace, click the column's X. The bubbles stay hidden for this call, even when you open and hide the sidebar again. Your call continues. Use Show call bubbles (the headphones button at the bottom left) to bring them back to their saved position. The names panel's own X only hides names.

Select Pop out call beside your call controls at the bottom left to keep the call above other apps in its own window. That button stays available with the sidebar open or folded; it is also in the names panel. The desktop app keeps it visible when snug is minimized. Drag its grip or the space between controls to move it, click the faces to show names, and use its X to close just the overlay. Names open on whichever side keeps the bubbles in place, and closing them gives that space back to the apps underneath. The column returns to its saved position inside snug when the sidebar is hidden. You stay in the call. Opening the sidebar again also leaves the overlay open. Mute, deafen, and Leave work directly from the overlay's column. Open names and select a media bot to control its queue in that same window, including while snug is minimized. Close the playback panel to return to names. Selecting a person's name opens their profile in snug and brings the desktop app back if it is minimized or hidden. The call overlay stays open.

This option appears in desktop apps that support the overlay and browsers with Document Picture-in-Picture. Fullscreen games may cover it; use a windowed or borderless game if that happens. The overlay closes when you leave the call or close snug.

If nobody hears you

1. Check the microphone permission in your browser or operating system.
2. Make sure you aren't muted or deafened. A red lock is a moderator mute, and only someone with voice moderation can lift it.
3. Pick the right microphone under Settings > Audio.
4. Speak and watch the input test move.
5. If the call says Microphone unavailable, select Try microphone. You stay in the call while snug retries.

Choose or recover a camera

Settings > Video owns the camera choice. Go there when the saved camera says unavailable or Switch camera is missing. Opening the panel never turns your camera on and never takes you out of the call.

Share your screen

snug always shows a chooser before a share starts. It never picks a screen or window for you.

Once sharing starts, snug keeps your own preview out of the grid. The your screens button arrives beside the call controls with two soft waves spreading out from it, then wears a small red on-air light for as long as any share is up. With more than one screen, a count sits beside the light. snug also lights a small screen after your name in the channel list, so friends reading another channel know a share is on before they join. Open your screens, then select a share's viewer count to see who's watching and where it sits in their layout. The same manager lets you show or hide a preview, stop one screen, or share another. Hiding your preview changes only this device; friends who opened the share keep watching it. The light pulses while at least one share is sending, and holds still while every share is paused until somebody watches.

On Windows, if you choose a minimized window, snug opens a pending share pane and asks you to bring the window you chose back up. Friends in the call see that you're getting a screen ready. They don't see which window you chose or receive any video or sound until sharing starts. Select the screen-share control again if you want to cancel.

Shared computer audio on Windows carries sound from every app, so mind your notifications. Some games hand snug the launcher window instead of the game, so if friends see the launcher, stop sharing and pick the game's own window.

If the server disconnects, your share stops with it. Start it again once you're back.

If a shared window freezes

In the desktop app on Windows, a shared window holds still when it stops drawing. Friends keep seeing its last frame, and snug tells them why.

A minimized window never draws. Friends see Window minimized until you restore it.

Chrome, Edge, and many apps built on Chrome also stop drawing a window that other windows cover completely. The sound keeps playing, and friends see Window covered. Leave any part of the window showing and it moves again.

To keep Chrome drawing while it's covered, run this once in PowerShell, then close and reopen Chrome:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome" /v WindowOcclusionEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

For Edge, run the same command with Microsoft\Edge in place of Google\Chrome. While the setting is on, the browser says it's managed by your organization, and covered browser windows keep using power. To turn it off again:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome" /v WindowOcclusionEnabled /f

Other apps built on Chrome have no setting like this, so keep part of their window in view while you share it.

Choose share quality

Under Settings > Video, pick 30 or 60 frames per second and a sharpness limit: 720p, 1080p, 1440p, or 4K. The limit counts lines across the short side of what you share, so 1440p sends an ultrawide at 3440x1440 and a portrait monitor at 1440x2560. Match my screen uses its own size. 60 suits games and video; 30 is plenty for text and slides. The panel shows the network cost of each choice and applies to a share that's already running.

On Windows, if a share looks wrong, turn off Native screen capture there and start the share again.

Control what you receive

By default, cameras play automatically and a screen share waits for you to accept it. Under Settings > Video, change Automatically join cameras in the Camera section to keep new cameras in Hidden streams until you choose Show. In the Screen share section, enable Automatically join screen shares to watch new shares with their sound. Each choice applies when you join a channel and when someone starts a stream, and stays on this device. Changing it leaves streams you're already watching alone.

When automatic screen joining is off, select the dimmed tile to receive its video and sound on this device; its volume is separate from the call's. Leave stream stops receiving without ending the share for anyone else. For someone else's camera or share, Hide video for me removes it from your layout. Open Hidden streams and choose Show beside the stream you want back, or Show all to restore the whole list. Small Last seen pictures help you recognize streams you watched; a stream without a picture shows an icon. These pictures stay only on this device for the current hide. A hidden share stays paused until you select its restored watch tile again.

To keep someone's video hidden when they restart their camera or share again, right-click their name or any of their streams and check Hide all their video. On a phone, press and hold their name. This hides their cameras and screen shares on this device, including future streams and after you reopen snug. Their voice and messages stay as they were. Hiding a screen also stops its shared sound for you.

To see their video again, open that person's menu and uncheck Hide all their video. You can do this even when they have no video running. Hidden streams lists streams you hid once; it leaves this saved choice alone.

Pop out a stream

To keep watching outside snug's window, point at a camera or share and select Pop out video. Add to picture-in-picture floats a small window above your other apps; add more streams to tile them together. Open in new window gives the stream an ordinary window of its own. Drag it to another screen, make it any size, or select Fullscreen. Double-clicking the picture also goes fullscreen. The window's volume is the same one the tile uses.

Select Bring video back on the tile or in the window to return the stream. Closing the window does the same, and it closes by itself when the stream ends or you leave the call.

New windows are offered in desktop browsers and the desktop app. Phones keep picture-in-picture. If your browser blocks the window, allow pop-ups for your snug server and try again.

If your connection drops

A short drop doesn't end your call. Your voice, camera, and screen share keep going while snug reconnects, and you stay in the call for everyone else. Until snug is back you can mute or deafen, but not unmute, undeafen, or start sharing, and anything new in the call shows up once it reconnects. If the drop lasts long enough for the call itself to stop, snug rejoins it when your connection comes back.

Check a connection

Open someone’s connection info to see their connection to the snug server. To snug shows their sending path; from snug shows their receiving path. Open your own connection info to check loss on your side. A stream’s nerd stats show the streamer’s packet loss to snug. A dash means there is no recent measurement, including when the member’s browser doesn’t report it or their app or snug server needs an update.

If every call fails

If chat works but calls fail for everyone, the server's call ports are usually the problem, and that's the operator's side, not yours. Tell them snug loads but live media doesn't. If they ask for connection info on desktop, right-click yourself in the call, choose connection info, and send what it shows, especially if TCP appears.

Check what snug supports before blaming your browser, and ask for help with what you tried.