You're on mute: the video call game

A 90-second video call where you're on mute and every camera is on. Unmute when someone calls on you and give your answer. The dog, the kid, the doorbell and the blender all wait for that moment.

A 90-second call. Unmute when it's your turn, and mute when the dog picks that moment.

The weekly sync. Five others on the call.

Take your timeHalf speed. The mic is a press. Points don't count.

How to play You’re on Mute

You’re on a video call that lasts 90 seconds at most. Your mic starts muted, and every camera is on. When the call gets to you, the mic button changes to Your turn: unmute.

Press the button, give your answer, then press it again to mute. Three strikes and you’re dropped from the call.

Unmute when it’s your turn

A line is for you when it says your name or asks you something. Unmute and talk until the bar on the button fills, then mute again. You can also press M or Space instead of the button.

Your turn	How it works
Time to read the line	3 seconds at the start of the call, 1.8 seconds by the end
A long line	Gets a quarter of a second more for every word past the fifth
Your answer	2 seconds of open mic
Your turn runs out before you finish	A strike

Mute when the house goes off

Something at home goes off in most turns after your first. Mute before it does, let it pass, then unmute and finish your answer.

The noise	How it works
The warning	The dog lifts its head, a face peers around the hall door, someone appears behind the glass in the front door, or the blender’s light comes on
How long the warning lasts	0.6 to 0.9 seconds
After the warning	Then the noise goes on for 1.2 seconds
Muting mid-answer	Pauses your answer, so nothing you said is lost
Mic open while it goes off	A strike

Lines that aren’t for you

Not every line with “you” in it is yours. “Priya, what do you think?” is for Priya, and “Can everyone see my screen?” is for nobody.

If your mic is still open 0.6 seconds into a line that isn’t yours, you’re talking over whoever said it.

Good to know

Each call is dealt from 853 lines. The names on its tiles come from a list of 260 first names.
Some calls change the setup. All-hands puts eleven others on the call. On a Client call, every point counts double. On a rare Kid home sick call, every turn after your first comes with a noise.
Take your time halves the call’s speed. A call played that way sets no best.
Pause, or the P key, stops the call until you press Resume. Switching tabs pauses it too.

How You’re on Mute scores

You score for each answer the call hears, and more for each close call.

What you do	Points
An answer the call hears	100
Mute with less than 0.4 seconds to spare before a noise	50 more for the close call
Talk over someone	50 off, half of what an answer earns

No call can score more than 3,800.

How the call went	Grade
Stayed to the end, every answer heard, no strikes, two talk-overs at most	Exceeds expectations
Any strike	Meets expectations at best
Dropped from the call	Needs improvement at best

Daily and solo rounds

Today’s call gives everyone the same people, lines and noises. Solo calls are dealt at random and skip the lines you’ve heard lately.

Why everyone is on mute

Muted by default

55 remote workers were followed hour by hour for a working week. They felt less tired after the calls where their microphone was muted.

The game starts you muted too, so every answer begins with a tap on the mic.

Your own face on screen

32 people wore EEG caps through a live video meeting. They were measurably more tired whenever they could see their own face on screen. Every camera in the game is on, yours included, because your tile is where the dog shows up.

What the mute button does

Pressing mute doesn’t always cut the app off from the microphone. Some popular video call apps kept reading it the whole time you were muted.

One of them sent statistics about the sound to its servers. A test model used those statistics alone to tell six background activities apart, such as cooking and cleaning. It was right about four times in five.

Calls nobody booked

57% of meetings never get a calendar invite. They’re ad hoc calls, and one can start before you’ve found your headphones or shut the dog out.

Meetings and interruptions	Number
Rise in meetings after 8 pm, over one year	16%
How often a meeting, an email or a chat interrupts core work hours	Every 2 minutes

Questions about being on mute

What does "you're on mute" mean?

You're talking on a call with your microphone switched off, so nobody can hear you. Someone else has to tell you, usually right after your best point of the meeting.

Why does everyone forget they're on mute?

One button does two jobs: it keeps the dog off the call, and it lets people hear you. You mute for the dog, then your name comes up and you start talking before you unmute. People also felt less tired after calls with their microphone off.

Is You're on Mute a team game?

No, you play it alone. Everyone who plays today's round gets the same call, so your team can compare scores in the chat afterward. For a game the whole meeting plays at once, try buzzword bingo.

Can people hear you when you're on mute?

No, the other people on the call can't hear you while you're muted. The app itself may still be listening: in 2022, several video call apps kept reading the microphone through mute. One sent numbers about the sound to its servers, enough to tell cooking from cleaning.

Is it correct to say "you are muted"?

Yes. To mute someone is to make them unheard on a video call, so "you are muted" is standard English. "You're on mute" is just as correct, with mute as the setting, as in putting the TV on mute.

Sources

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