Online Mode

Online Mode lets you record with remote guests over peer-to-peer connections. Each participant records locally at full quality while seeing and hearing each other in real time.

Availability: Hosting a session requires Pro (up to 4 participants) or Team (up to 8). Guests need no plan and no account.

How It Works

1. Host creates a session — a room and a 6-character code are generated
2. Host shares the invite link — guests open it in their browser
3. Guests are admitted — the host approves each arrival
4. Everyone confirms they’re ready — the ready check runs before the countdown
5. P2P connections established — direct connections between participants
6. Everyone records locally — full quality captured on each device
7. Host controls recording — start and stop are synced for all participants
8. Tracks upload automatically — each guest’s recording lands in the host’s library

Why record this way?

Hosting a session

Requirements

• Pro or Team plan
• Internet connection
• Microphone (and optionally camera)

Steps

1. Start a session from the desktop app, the web app, or mobile
2. Copy the invite link — it contains a 6-character room code (e.g. A7B3C9)
3. Share the link with your guests
4. Admit each guest as they arrive
5. Run the ready check, then start recording

Host Controls

As the host you control:

• Admitting guests into the session
• When recording starts and stops for everyone
• Removing participants from the room
• Per-participant recording state, shown live on each tile

You’ll also see an alert if a participant’s recorder stops mid-take or their cloud backup fails, so a problem surfaces during the session rather than after it.

Joining a session (guest)

Requirements

• The invite link from the host
• Internet connection
• Microphone (and optionally camera)
• A supported browser, or the Capturly desktop or mobile app

Guests need no account, no plan, and no download — the link opens in the browser.

Steps

1. Open the invite link
2. Enter your display name
3. Wait for the host to admit you
4. Confirm you’re ready when prompted
5. Wait for the host to start recording

Entering a code by hand

Desktop and web also accept the bare 6-character code. Mobile requires the full invite link — the code alone isn’t enough there, so send guests the link.

Codes are drawn from an uppercase alphabet with the confusable characters removed — no I, O, 0, or 1 — and are not case-sensitive.

Guest Experience

Guests see:

• Video feeds of all participants
• Audio levels for each participant
• Recording status
• Their own preview

Guests cannot start or stop recording, admit or remove participants, or access host controls.

During Recording

What everyone sees

• Recording indicator: red when recording is active
• Timer: elapsed recording time
• Participant feeds: video of all connected participants
• Audio levels: real-time levels for each participant

What’s recorded

Each participant records independently:

• Their own microphone audio
• Their own camera video (if enabled)
• The same output files as a solo take on their platform

Remote participants’ streams are not recorded — only local capture. What you see and hear in the call is a preview; the recording is always the local original.

Session quality

Every participant defaults to 1080p in a multi-participant session regardless of plan, because a 4K guest camera can destabilize the machine it’s running on. Higher rungs stay selectable in Settings.

Audio and watermark settings follow the host’s plan, not each participant’s — guest tracks are the host’s work product. A Starter guest recording into a Pro host’s session produces an unwatermarked track.

Participant Limits

Connection & Reconnection

Connection process

1. Signaling: initial connection via Capturly’s signaling server
2. P2P establishment: direct WebRTC connection between peers
3. Media streaming: audio and video flow directly between participants

If someone drops

Local recording continues on every device throughout — a dropped connection doesn’t stop anyone’s capture.

A guest who rejoins mid-take has their recorder restarted automatically through the countdown, rather than sitting unrecorded for the rest of the session. Reconnecting guests who were already admitted skip a second approval.

Collecting the recordings

You don’t collect anything by hand. When the session ends, each participant’s track uploads over signed, single-purpose URLs and appears in the host’s cloud library, attributed to the person who recorded it.

If a guest’s machine dies mid-upload, the take isn’t lost — it surfaces in the library’s Unfinished uploads panel, where the host (or an org admin) can recover, save, or discard it.

Firewall & Network

Requirements

P2P connections require:

• Outbound connections on port 443 (signaling)
• UDP traffic for media (varies by NAT type)

NAT types

Most home and business networks work without configuration.

Corporate networks

If you’re behind a strict firewall:

• Capturly falls back to a TURN relay
• Call quality may be reduced — recording quality is not, since it’s local
• Ask IT to allow WebRTC traffic

Synchronizing recordings

Every participant’s take opens with the sync beep. Line the beeps up and the tracks are aligned.

See Post-Production for detailed steps.

Best Practices

For hosts

1. Test before the session — do a quick call with participants
2. Share the link privately — not in public channels
3. Wait for the ready check — confirm everyone is green before you start
4. Announce start and stop — it gives you clean edit points
5. Watch the tiles — per-participant REC state tells you if someone stopped recording

For guests

1. Join early — connect a few minutes before the scheduled time
2. Test your setup — verify your mic and camera work
3. Stable internet — use a wired connection if possible
4. Quiet environment — minimize background noise
5. Stay until the upload finishes — closing the tab mid-upload leaves the take unfinished

For everyone

1. Use headphones — prevents echo and feedback
2. Close other apps — free up bandwidth and resources

Troubleshooting

Can’t create or join a session

• Verify internet connection
• Check that Capturly has network access
• Ensure your firewall allows Capturly
• Guests: make sure you opened the full invite link, especially on mobile

Poor call quality

• Use wired ethernet instead of WiFi
• Close bandwidth-heavy applications
• Reduce your preview quality if needed — it doesn’t affect your recording

Recording doesn’t start

• Only the host can start recording
• Verify all participants are connected and ready
• Check disk space on all devices

Connection keeps dropping

• Improve internet stability
• Check for network interference
• Try a different network
• Disable VPN

Next Steps

• Learn about the sync beep
• Set up your post-production workflow
• Read the remote recording guide