# Calls in sessions and chats
Source: https://docs.aden.space/docs/help/more/session-calls

Call, share your screen, take control of someone's screen and send studio-quality audio from an audio interface, in a chat or a session, with the session's track and files beside the call, recorded and transcribed with every moment kept, and let followers watch from the share link or the Aden app.
{/* Generated by `bun docs:publish` from docs/features/session-calls.md: edit the spec, not this file. */}

## What it is [#what-it-is]

Every studio session has its own call. Talk with camera and mic, share your
screen, and send your music at full studio quality straight from your audio
interface or your computer. The session's track and files sit beside the
call, and anything someone drops in shows up for everyone, ready to drag into
your DAW.

## Using it [#using-it]

* **Start or join.** Open the session and press **Start call**, or **Join
  call** when others are already in. ⌘K finds it too: "join call". The
  call's **Invite** link drops people straight into the call. In the Aden
  app, a live session has **Join call**: the same call, full screen, and it
  closes when you leave.
* **Add from your phone.** In the Aden app, the session's **+** records an
  idea, adds a photo or video (from the library or the camera) or any file.
  Files land in the session's **Files** tab and in the call for everyone;
  one you added can be deleted there.
* **Start one from your DAW.** In the desktop app (menu bar popover, Home
  and ⌘K), the project open in your DAW has **Start session**: a session
  about its track starts now and its call opens. A project nobody saved yet
  has **Save and start session**. In the call, **Share** gives the join
  link for people who play along and the watch link for visitors. While the
  session runs, the project and the session's card say **Join call**.
* **Call someone from ⌘K.** Type "call senne" (or "voice call with jo",
  "bel jo") and pick **Call Senne Van Heffen**: your one-to-one chat with
  them opens (made if there is none) and you're in its call. On the web and
  in the desktop app, where the call opens in its own window. "Share screen
  with Senne" does the same and shares your screen once you're in.
* **Start a session with someone from ⌘K.** Type "start session with artist
  Senator" (or "jam with jo", "new session vocals with Jo on Afterglow").
  The session starts now in your chat with them: they're invited, its card
  in the chat lets them join, and its call opens for you with Invite and
  the session's files beside it.
* **Sounds.** A short chime when you or someone else joins, a falling one
  when someone leaves, through the call's speakers.
* **Flip your camera.** The flip button beside the camera picker (or "flip
  camera" in ⌘K) shows your camera mirrored to everyone, the way you see
  yourself: a raised left hand reads as left. Your own view is always a
  mirror. Remembered for the next call.
* **Ask Aden.** Stuck on the chords, or don't like a part? Press **Ask
  Aden** in the call's controls (or "ask aden" in ⌘K) and say it out loud.
  Aden knows the session's track, key, tempo and lyrics, and answers with
  one idea at a time. Chords it suggests land in the session's files as a
  MIDI clip to drag into your DAW, and in the chat for everyone. In the
  desktop app it also finds sounds in your libraries by what they sound
  like. Only you hear Aden.
* **Chat in the call.** The call's side panel has **Files** and **Chat**.
  Everyone in the call reads it, people who join later see what was said,
  and a recording keeps it in its moments. While the call is only its bar,
  a new line shows as a notice.
* **Call a chat.** Every chat with people in it has a call too: the call
  button in the chat's header (web and desktop). Like a phone call, it goes
  straight in with your mic, no camera, and the chat shows "Maxime started
  a call" so the others can **Join call** from its header. Nobody else in
  it for 3 minutes, and you leave on your own (**Join again** brings you
  back). Joining from another tab or device moves you there: the old
  one leaves, with **Join here** to switch back. When the last person leaves, the chat says who was in the call and
  for how long ("Mave and Maxime were in a call for 12 minutes"), or
  "Nobody joined Mave's call". Screens, control, the mix and studio audio work the same. Files, recording and the transcript come
  with a session: press **Start session** in the call and one starts now,
  with the chat's people invited and its card in the chat, and everyone in
  the call moves into it. A chat linked to a session calls in the session.
* **Put it on the calendar.** In the session's **Video call** dialog, pick
  **Aden call**. The session's call link then opens the call from the
  calendar feed, the desktop's upcoming calls and anywhere else the link
  goes.
* **Pick your devices once.** Camera, microphone, speakers and studio audio
  are remembered for the next call. Studio audio can be any input of your
  audio interface (a loopback channel works well) or everything your
  computer plays.
* **Share files.** Drop files on the project panel on the right. They are
  saved to the session and appear for everyone. Drag a file from the panel
  into your DAW, or download it.
* **Your own mix.** **Mix** sets how loud each person's voice and studio
  audio play for you, mutes either, or soloes one person. It changes what
  you hear only.
* **Talk without unmuting.** While muted, hold Space to talk. ⌘D (Ctrl+D)
  mutes, ⌘E (Ctrl+E) turns the camera on and off.
* **Sharp screens, your sound.** In **Devices**, pick how your screen goes
  out: **Sharp** (text and plugin windows crisp, up to 4K) or **Smooth**
  (video and animation at 60 fps), and studio audio at 256 or 510 kbps.
  Both apply at once and are remembered.
* **When your connection holds you back.** If your screen goes out smaller
  or choppier than you picked, or your studio audio breaks up on the way,
  **Slow connection** (or **Computer busy**) shows in the call. Open it for
  what is held back and the fix, such as sending at 256 kbps.
* **Record someone on their device.** In **Mix**, the circle beside a person
  records their studio audio (or their voice) on their own computer, as a
  24-bit WAV. They're told; it turns red while it records, and the file
  lands in the session's files when you stop it, ready for your DAW.
* **Lowest latency.** In **Devices**, trade the network cushion for hearing
  everyone sooner. Best on a wired or strong connection.
* **Mark moments.** The flag names a moment so you can find it later.
* **Thumbs up for a good idea.** With your camera on, hold a thumbs up to
  it and the recording gets a "Good idea" mark right there. Nobody
  recording yet? Aden asks whether to record the call (at most every few
  minutes). Your hands are read on your own computer; only the mark goes
  out. Switch it off in **Devices**, in the recording bar or with "Mark
  with a thumbs up" in ⌘K: one switch for calls and recordings.
* **Record.** On the Max plan, record the call. Everyone sees who is
  recording. The recording lands in the session's recordings with its
  moments: who spoke when, screens, studio audio, files and marks. Click
  any of them to hear that moment.
* **Transcript.** Open a recorded call's **Transcript** and press
  **Transcribe**: ElevenLabs writes it down, with each line under the name
  of whoever said it. Then read it, search it, or click a line to hear that
  moment. Nothing is transcribed until someone asks, since transcripts count
  against the plan: Max includes 5 hours a month, then €0.50 an hour.
* **Lossless takes.** While the call records, everyone sending studio audio
  also keeps a 24-bit WAV of it, untouched by the call's compression. When
  the recording stops it lands in the session's files ("Ava studio take
  14.05"), ready to drag into your DAW.
* **Keep browsing.** Minimise the call to a bar at the bottom and keep using
  Aden. The bar is the inverse of the page (light on a dark theme) so it
  stands out; click anywhere on it to open the call again. While only the
  bar shows, your camera rests and nobody sends you video; both come back
  when the call is big again. A screen you share keeps going.
* **Your screen with its sound.** Sharing your screen sends what it plays
  too, as studio audio: the sound the browser's picker captured, or in the
  desktop app everything your computer plays (the call itself left out).
  Stopping the screen stops that sound. Studio audio from your interface,
  already on, stays as it is. On a Mac this needs macOS 14.2 or later; the
  first time, allow Aden to record system audio.
* **Show or hide the project.** The project panel opens and closes from the
  header, or with a sideways swipe on the call like the sidebars: away from
  its edge brings it in, toward the edge puts it away.
* **Take control of a screen.** When someone shares a screen from the
  desktop app, press **Request control** on it. Once they allow it, your
  mouse, trackpad and keyboard drive their computer: mix their session,
  turn plugin knobs, type. Shortcuts carry over between Mac and Windows
  (⌘ becomes Ctrl and back), and text types exactly as you type it, whatever
  the keyboard layouts. The screen's buttons sit in a bar above it, never
  over it, so reaching for **Stop control** never lands on their screen.
  **Full screen** gives the other computer the whole view. While you
  control, the screen comes at 60 fps and your side holds back no video, so
  the pointer keeps up with your hand. On an iPad or a phone, fingers work
  too: tap to click, drag to move a fader or a clip, hold to right click,
  two fingers to scroll, and pinch to zoom in on their screen (only on
  yours, **Fit to screen** zooms back out); **Keyboard** brings up the
  iPad's keyboard to type. A trackpad, a mouse or a Pencil works as on a
  computer. The person sharing sees who has control and takes it back with
  **Stop control** or ⌘⇧Esc (Ctrl+Alt+Esc on Windows), from the call, the
  notch or ⌘K. Right after, the notch offers **Stop sharing** and **Leave
  call**, for when stopping isn't enough. While control is on, moving your
  own mouse pauses theirs until you stop (their own moves never count as
  yours: the desktop remembers where it put the pointer over the last
  300 ms, `createPointerTrail`), and shortcuts that reach past the
  screen (quit, switch apps, Spotlight, force quit, the trash, Alt+F4, Task
  Manager, the Windows key) never land. A request shows in the notch too (Allow / Deny), and on
  Windows as a notification when Aden isn't in front. With more than one
  screen, the desktop app asks which one to share.
* **Lyrics.** In a session's call, the **Lyrics** tab beside Files and
  Chat is the session's notes, the same ones as on the session page: write
  in them together. Press the pen to have the call write down the lyrics
  people sing: each person's microphone is heard, the lines that are lyrics
  land in the notes, and a new version of a line goes right under it as
  "or: …". It's one switch for everyone in the call, and the call's moments
  say who turned it on or off. Pro includes 1 hour a month and Max 5, then
  €1 an hour; the pen says so when the plan has none. While it listens it
  also marks the ideas you call good ("oh, that's a really good idea",
  "keep that"), named after what you said ("Octave jump in the chorus"),
  at the moment you said it, so you find them again on the recording.
* **Draw on a screen.** Press **Draw** above someone's shared screen and
  draw on it: everyone in the call sees it, each person in their own colour,
  and it fades a moment after you lift the pen, so there is nothing to
  clear. The person sharing sees it over their screen in the call and, when
  they share from the desktop app, on their real screen. Escape stops
  drawing. It works with or without control.
* **Stay in your DAW.** **Pop out** floats the call in a small window that
  stays on top: faces, the session's files to drag in, and your controls.
* **Open the same project.** In the desktop app, the call shows the DAW
  project you have open and warns when someone's computer lacks one of its
  plugins ("Jonas is missing EchoBoy"), so you can freeze or bounce those
  tracks before sending the project.
* **A window of its own on the desktop.** In the desktop app every call
  opens in a floating window you can drag anywhere, on the call alone (not
  the whole session or chat page), in a window Aden keeps ready, so it
  opens at once. On a Mac it shrinks to
  a bar (who's in, mic, leave) while your DAW is in front, and grows back
  when you click it or come back to Aden.
* **The notch.** In the desktop app, the notch shows who's in the call and
  your mic. Drop files on it to share them in the call; files others share
  show up there, ready to drag into your DAW.
* **Share files in a live session, no call needed.** While a session you're
  in is live, drop files on the desktop's drop zone and pick **Share in**
  the session. Everyone in it gets them in their drop zone (on a Mac it
  opens under the notch; elsewhere a notification opens it), ready to drag
  into their project.
* **Big and small, like Discord.** Nobody sharing, everyone is the same
  size in a grid. Click any camera or screen to show it big with the rest
  in a strip; the grid button brings everyone back. Hover a tile for full
  screen (or double-click it) and pop out, which keeps it in a small window
  on top of your DAW.
* **Back in the call after a restart.** When the desktop app has to quit
  for a permission (Screen Recording's "Quit & Reopen") or an update, it
  reopens the call, joined, and every popped-out window, if it comes back
  within five minutes.
* **Share.** **Share** in the call's header: **Copy join link** brings
  people with Aden into the call; **Copy watch link** is the session's
  share link, and copying it lets followers watch.
* **Invite anyone to a chat's call.** In a chat's call, **Share** →
  **Copy join link** (or "copy join link" in ⌘K). No session needed, and
  the people you send it to need no account: they open the link, type their
  name and press **Join call**. Everyone in the call sees "Jo asks to join"
  with **Let in** and **Deny**. People already in the chat skip the asking
  and land in the call. Guests talk, show their screen and chat; if someone
  starts a session from the call, guests leave and are told to ask for the
  session's link.
* **Ask to join from the watch link.** Watching on the share link, press
  **Ask to join the call** (name and email first, the first time). Everyone
  in the call sees "Jo asks to join" with **Let in** and **Deny**. Let in,
  you join from the browser with your mic and camera, no account. Guests
  talk, show their screen and chat, but don't see the session's files or
  record.
* **Send someone into your DAW.** In the call's mixer, **Send to** plays a
  person on another output. Send them to a virtual audio device (BlackHole,
  free) and pick it as the input in FL Studio or any DAW.
* **Let followers watch.** In a session's call, open **Invite** and turn on
  **Followers can watch**. People who aren't in the call see what's on the
  stage (a shared screen, or whoever is talking) and hear the call: on the
  session's share link (**Copy link for followers**) and on the session in
  the Aden app. Everyone in the call sees **Followers** in the header. It
  counts as live streaming for your team (paid plans).
* **Keep the live recording.** Following records the call. When you stop it,
  or end the session, choose whether to keep that recording. Leaving the
  call keeps it.