Jitsi conference calls are completely unusable on a small screen (plus other bugs I found while writing this)

[ckp95]

My laptop screen is 1366x768. When I try to do a Jitsi conference call, the embedded interface is so squished it's impossible to do anything. I can't use the dialogue to invite anyone because I literally can't see or click on any of the options. I can't resize it to be bigger, and ditto for the outer "widgets" part of the interface.

This also happens with the post-call survey thing.

Also at the bottom right there is a thing that says "end conference" but clicking it does nothing, so I have no idea what state the app is in. Is there a conference happening or not? I can't tell.

The desktop version lets me resize the widgets view but the inner part is still wayyy too chunky for its own good:

There are only three things in this menu so why is it inside a scroll box? They could easily fit all at the same time if there was less useless padding and whitespace.

Also why do I need a "widgets" thing to stretch across the entire width of the screen and take up half the vertical space just to have a group voice call? Why not just tuck it away in the huge amount of dead space on the lower left, like how Discord does it?

Oh also, when I start or join a voice call, it actually thinks I meant "video call". That's totally unexpected and not at all what I wanted. Furthermore I can't see any option to turn off my camera BEFORE joining. I NEVER want my camera running in group video chat unless I turn it on manually, let alone when I click something clearly labelled "voice call".

Steps to reproduce

• have a small laptop screen
• attempt conference call

---

• Browser: Firefox
• OS: Manjaro Linux
• URL: app.element.io, private server (I think?), Element version 1.7.15

EDIT

Oh and I experimented on the desktop version and found another bug: if I start a video conference, then click the red "hang up" button in the Jitsi widget, then click "end conference" in the lower right, the "end conference" button doesn't do anything. But, if I start a video conference, then click "end conference" in the lower right first, the call does seemingly end, but the little LED on my camera is still lit up, and I get warnings about how my microphone is picking up noise, so the app is still recording me somehow even though there is no call happening (or is there???), and I can't figure out how to turn it off. I have to kill the app and restart it.

I think, for a privacy-focussed app, it needs to make it absolutely crystal clear to the user whether the mic and camera are on, and broadcasting. Any uncertainty about this at all makes me deeply uncomfortable and I don't want to use it. I certainly shouldn't be relying on some hardware detail like my camera's LED to tip me off.

[irelativism]

@ckp95 the space on the left is empty because you don't have that many rooms it is not usually the case, would be interesting idea though to use the left-panel when calls are occurring maybe for chat or call members, having it horizontal is indeed a bit clunky, vertical separation has you suggested makes much more sense.

[t3chguy]

The desktop version lets me resize the widgets view but the inner part is still wayyy too chunky for its own good:

The web version does the same, given the code is the same, it might just be that with all the additional browser window chrome that you hit the max-height sooner.

[HansJK]

Discord have solved this perfectly. Video or Voice channels are in the "room" list, and you can change rooms while still be in the conversations. it dosen't take up any space at all when you are just talking.

[florian-sabonchi]

Same issue here

[cmdruid]

I am having the same issues. The Jitsi plugin is difficult to use inside the chat room. The sizing of elements may work better if expanded to a separate window, but the current integration is poor from a UX standpoint.

The conferencing itself seems to work fine.