As the world of work changes and employees desire more flexible working arrangements, more and more meetings will be conducted on the move. In fact, thousands of meetings are already conducted from one of the BlueJeans mobile apps, and that number has continued to rise year over year.
Attending a video meeting from your phone is becoming more and more commonplace, especially since mobile meetings allow people to work from the car, from the train, and even from the waiting room in the doctor’s office. That said, there are factors to consider when attending a meeting from the phone rather than the computer or huddle room. To help, we’ve put together some etiquette tips for mobile users.
- Prepare in Advance
If you know you need to take a meeting from your phone, prepare ahead of time. Download the app prior to the start of the meeting and familiarize yourself with the location of the important features. You’ll want to know how to join the meeting, mute yourself, and share content before the meeting starts. Preparing in advancing will also allow you to set your preferences, like whether or not you want to save battery and data usage by using low bandwidth mode. - Know Your Surroundings
As much as possible, know where you’ll be and what the connection will be like. While BlueJeans will work in nearly any scenario, the app will always perform best with a good connection. If possible, stand or sit against a solid background in order to make it easier for other participants to see you. BlueJeans with Dolby Voice has excellent background suppression, but try to avoid loud areas and windy environments to ensure the best quality audio experience. - Mute Yourself
Even with clear audio and background suppression, it’s always helpful to mute your audio when not speaking. This is especially true when doing an activity like driving where your entire focus may not be on the meeting itself. After all, not everyone in the meeting needs to know that the jerk in the next car won’t let you merge. - Use Headphones
One of the benefits of having headphones with a microphone is making it easy for others to hear you, but it’s likely even more important for you to be able to hear everyone else in the meeting. Using headphones will ensure that you can hear clearly, and it’ll keep everyone else in your vicinity from having to hear your meeting. This step is particularly important when the team is discussing highly secure information. - Turn Your Video On
The whole point of video conferencing is the video—it’s much easier to communicate when people can see your facial expressions and body language. That said, turning your video on when you’re driving down the highway or in a distracting location will only make it harder for the people on the other end of the line to concentrate on what you’re saying. It’s not always possible, we recommend turning your video on when you can in order to experience the same meeting you would have had in-person. - Stay Safe
The best part of mobile video meetings is that you can have them anywhere. But the worst part of mobile video meetings is that you can have them anywhere. It’s probably okay to listen to a presentation when you’re in the car, but we wouldn’t recommend trying to present to the Board of Directors while driving 80 MPH down the interstate. Safety is always the first priority—make sure you’re exercising good judgment on when and where you decide to join (or host) your video meetings.
Already using the mobile app for video conferencing? Tell us your best tips for taking meetings on the go in the comments!
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About the Author
Jade Hill was a Content Marketing Manager at BlueJeans and ran the BlueJeans Resource Hub. She graduated from the University of Chicago and spent years working in higher education before transitioning to the world of digital marketing. When not writing blog posts or customer stories, Jade enjoys hiking with her dogs, reading, and exploring the California coast.
