How To Join Rooms In Paltalk

Paltalk rooms are places you can join to exchange text and audio with many people at the same time.  At any one point in time there are hundreds of active rooms on all sorts of subjects in Paltalk.

To access the rooms, press the "View All" button at the bottom right of the initial Paltalk window.  A room list window will open up displaying the various categories of rooms.  Click on the category of interest to view the sections or subcategories in that category.  Click on the section you want to bring up a list of the rooms in that section.  Double click on a room itself to join that room.  Our Paltalk room, "All Religions Unified by Maitreya The Expected One," is located under category Religion and Spirituality, section Interfaith. 

In the room list, next to each room's name, you will see either a G, R, or A.  These are room ratings, which roughly correspond to the movie ratings PG, R and X.  If there is a small golden key next to the room rating, then the room is Locked.  Locked identifies those rooms that may only be entered if you know the password.

Once you have joined a room you will see what looks like a communicator window screen with a list of members running down the right hand side.  To send a text message to the room, simply type your message in the text box at the bottom of the window and press Enter.  Your message will be sent to the entire room and included in the running text conversation in the main text box.  Anything you type will be seen by the entire room, and anything you say will be heard by the entire room.

Only one person may speak at a time in a room.  To speak, hold down your Ctrl key (or corresponding key for Macs) and speak into your mic.  You may also press the button at the bottom of the window called "Push to Talk".  If someone is already speaking, a brick wall icon will appear by your name.  This indicates you are temporarily blocked from sending audio because someone else is holding the mic.  If you press the Ctrl key and you get a mic icon next to your name, you may speak into your mic and transmit to the room. 

Although you can try to grab the mic at any time, it is courteous to "raise your hand" to indicate your desire to speak.  To do so, click on the "Raise" button at the bottom of the window, next to the "Push to Talk" button.  You will see a hand icon appear next to your name, and your name will move up to just below the name of the person holding the mic (or just below anyone who "raised their hand" before you did).  If the person speaking releases the mic, and you are next in line, it is your turn to take the mic and say what you wish. 

An important thing to note is the Red Dot.  If you see a red dot next to your name, you have been Red Dotted (by an Administrator of the room you are in) and will be unable to speak or type any messages to the room at all.  The Red Dot is generally only used if someone is being disrespectful or inappropriate.  Also, if it is necessary to keep everyone silent and respectful (such as for meditation, Satsang, etc.), in some cases an entire room may be Red Dotted.

At the bottom left of the window, there are three buttons.  The first one, "Mute", will turn off all sound coming in from the room to your computer.  The second one, a symbol of a speaker, allows you to control how loud you hear sounds from the room, such as others speaking.  To do this, click the button and then move the slider bar that appears up and down.  This may seem redundant if you have a manual volume control on your speakers, but not all speakers come with that convenience.  The third button, a symbol of a microphone, allows you to control how loudly others hear you when you speak.  It can be used in the same way as the previous button. 

It is possible to initiate one on one conversations with people in the room.  To do so, double click on their names in the member list and choose "Start a Private IM".  A one on one communicator to that person will open, and you can then type messages to them, add voice to the chat and speak through a microphone, and many other options.

Paltalk has many other capabilities and features than those explained here.  This is simply a basic introduction to help anyone get online, join a room, and listen and participate.  If you have more questions, please check www.paltalk.com.  Paltalk also has many rooms devoted to helping newcomers and troubleshooting problems.  We hope this has helped, and look forward to seeing you soon in our Paltalk room!