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Video Calls

Sometimes voice isn’t enough, you want to actually see the person you’re talking to. Tavrn supports video in both DM calls and room voice channels.

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Enabling Your Camera

Video is off by default when you join a call. You turn it on manually when you’re ready. During a DM call or in a voice channel:
  1. Find the camera icon in the call bar or overlay
  2. Click it to enable video
  3. Your camera feed goes live to everyone in the call
  4. Click it again to turn your camera off
You don’t need to enable video just because someone else has. Totally fine to be audio-only in a mixed video/audio call.

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What Video Calls Look Like

When video is enabled, Tavrn shows a video grid with each person who has their camera on. The layout adapts based on how many people are in the call:
  • 1-on-1 calls, One big video tile (theirs) with your own small preview in the corner
  • Small groups (3–5), A tile grid with everyone visible at once
  • Larger groups, Active speaker gets priority, others show in a scrollable row

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Camera Permissions

The first time you try to enable your camera, your browser will ask for permission to access it. You must click “Allow” for video to work. If you accidentally clicked “Block,” you’ll need to reset this in your browser settings:
  1. Click the 🔒 lock icon in the address bar
  2. Find Camera in the permissions list
  3. Change it to Allow
  4. Refresh the page

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Adjusting Video Quality

Tavrn automatically adjusts video quality based on your internet connection and the number of people in the call. If your connection is solid, you’ll get higher quality. If it’s struggling, Tavrn reduces quality to keep the call smooth rather than choppy.
Cocoa members get access to HD video quality, higher resolution streams that look crisper on good connections.

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Turning Off Your Camera

Click the camera icon again to turn off your video feed. Others will see a placeholder (your avatar or a dark tile) instead.

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Virtual Backgrounds

Currently, Tavrn doesn’t have a built-in virtual background feature. If you want a virtual background, you can use third-party tools like:
  • OBS Virtual Camera, Creates a virtual camera output you can use in any app
  • NVIDIA RTX Greenscreen, Hardware-accelerated background replacement (NVIDIA cards)
Set up your virtual camera first, then select it as your camera source in Tavrn (via your OS settings).

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Managing Video in Calls

As the call organizer or room admin, you can’t forcibly enable or disable others’ cameras, video is always the participant’s choice. You can mute someone’s audio in room voice channels, but camera control stays with the individual.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! Any voice channel on Tavrn supports video. Just join the channel and enable your camera.
Make sure your browser has camera permissions (see the Permissions section above). Also check that your camera isn’t in use by another application. Restarting the browser often resolves camera detection issues.
This is usually a bandwidth issue. Try closing other bandwidth-heavy applications (streaming, large downloads). If your internet connection is limited, video will automatically reduce quality to maintain call stability.
Tavrn doesn’t have a built-in recording feature. However, be aware that other participants could be recording using screen capture tools outside of Tavrn. Treat any video call as potentially recordable, and only video-call people you trust.
Tavrn’s voice/video infrastructure is built to scale. There’s no published hard cap on participants. Large group video calls may have varying quality depending on everyone’s internet connections.