Huddles

Huddles are voice calls inside Pentos for quick check-ins with a friend, a group, a channel or the people in a shared chat. There’s nothing to schedule and no setup screen: start a Huddle and you’re talking. Huddles are available on every plan, including Free.

Where You Can Huddle

Direct messages: a call with the other person. A direct message with someone either of you has blocked is hidden from both of you, so neither of you can call there until the block is lifted. See What Blocking Does.
Group chats: a call open to every member of the group.
Channels: a call open to every member of the channel, including Viewers.
Shared chats: a call open to everyone the chat is shared with. Calls only appear in a chat once it’s shared.

Each conversation, channel and shared chat has its own Huddle. If one is already running, starting a Huddle there joins it.

Starting a Huddle

Open the direct message, group chat, channel or shared chat.
Click the More button (+) at the top left.
Click the microphone button (tooltip Huddle).

To call one person, you can also click Huddle on the User Profile panel that opens when you click their picture or an @mention of them. It starts a Huddle in your direct message with them, or joins the one already running, right where you are: nothing else on screen changes. If you don’t have a direct message with them yet, one is started for you. It’s greyed out while you’re already in a call.

Pentos shows “Connecting to huddle…” and then opens the Huddle window with your microphone on. The first time, your browser may ask for permission to use your microphone. If the call can’t connect, you’ll see an error such as “Sorry, we couldn’t join that call.”

When you start a Huddle:

Activity message: a line such as “Alex Rivera started a huddle” appears in the direct message, group chat or channel. Shared chats don’t show call activity messages.
Call alert: the other members are alerted so they can join (see below).

Joining a Huddle

Call alert: when someone starts a Huddle, the other members who have Pentos open see a pop-up at the top of the screen, such as “Alex Rivera started a huddle”, with a green Join button and a red Ignore button. If Sounds is on in your Preferences, a ringtone plays until you choose. The pop-up stays until you click Join or Ignore. Click Join, or anywhere else on the pop-up, to go to the conversation and join the call. In a shared chat, the alert goes to everyone who can open the chat, its owner included.
Declining: in a direct message, or a chat shared between just the two of you, Ignore declines the call. The person calling you sees a note with your name, such as “Sam Taylor declined the huddle”, and their huddle ends straight away, as a declined phone call would, unless someone else has joined it by then. In a group chat, a channel or a chat shared with more people, Ignore only closes the pop-up.
Join button: while a Huddle is running in the conversation, channel or shared chat you’re viewing, a green pulsing button with a microphone icon appears just below the More button. Hover over it to see Join, then click it.
Huddle button: in Collab, the Huddle button in the More menu turns green and its tooltip changes to Join Huddle. Clicking Huddle anywhere a Huddle is running joins it.

If you have the conversation open when someone joins the call, a short pop-up with a Join button also appears.

Call alerts appear only as pop-ups: they don’t add a badge or an entry to your Updates. If Pentos wasn’t open when the call started, look for the activity message or the green Join button.

A Huddle and a Meeting can run in the same place at the same time. When they do, the green Join button (and the green button in Collab’s More menu) shows only one of them, but clicking Huddle still joins the running Huddle.

If the Huddle has ended by the time you click Join, you start a new one.

During the Call

The Huddle window shows:

Participants: with up to four people in the call, you see each person’s photo or initial, with “(You)” after your own name. A ring highlights whoever is speaking, and a small muted microphone marks anyone who’s muted. With five or more people, the window shows a sound wave instead.
Mute and Unmute: turn your microphone off or on.
Leave: the red button. Pentos asks you to confirm.
Minimize: the minus button next to the Huddle title.

Huddles don’t have a device picker. They use your default microphone and speakers, so to use a different device, change the default in your browser or computer settings before you join.

Minimizing and Expanding

Click the minus button (tooltip Minimize), or press Escape, to shrink the Huddle into a small floating card in the bottom right corner. You stay in the call and keep hearing everyone while you move around Pentos, whether that’s Collab, Chats, Files or anywhere else. Drag the card to wherever suits you.

The card shows the call’s name: the channel (as ”# channel-name”), the group or chat name, or “Private Huddle” in a direct message. If you joined from a call alert, it shows the alert’s text instead, such as “Alex Rivera started a huddle”. The card also has a mute button and a red Leave button. To open the full window again, click the card’s title bar or its + button (tooltip Expand).

Leaving and Ending a Huddle

To leave, click Leave in the Huddle window or on the floating card, or click the close button (X) at the top right of the window. Pentos asks “Leave Huddle?”. Click Leave to confirm or No to stay. Leaving turns off your microphone.

Leaving only removes you. The Huddle carries on for everyone else, and there’s no button that ends it for everyone.

A Huddle ends when the last person leaves. Pentos then posts “The huddle has ended” in the direct message, group chat or channel, and the green Join button goes away. The next Huddle there starts fresh and alerts everyone again.

Use Leave rather than closing your browser tab. Pentos may not register that a Huddle ended if the last person closes the tab, if the last two people leave at the same moment, or if a Meeting is still running in the same place when the last person leaves the Huddle. Then no “has ended” message is posted, and the next Huddle there doesn’t send an activity message or call alerts. To fix it, start a Huddle there and click Leave while nobody else is in a Huddle or Meeting in that place. The next Huddle alerts everyone again.

One Call at a Time

You can be in only one Huddle or Meeting at a time. While you’re in a call, the Huddle and Meeting buttons are disabled everywhere with the tooltip Already in a call, and green Join buttons are hidden. Clicking Join on a call alert won’t join a second call either. To switch calls, leave your current one first.

Privacy and Security

Who carries the call: Huddles run on Cloudflare RealtimeKit, which relays audio between participants over encrypted connections. Calls are not end-to-end encrypted.
No recording: Pentos does not record Huddles.
What Pentos shares to set up a call: your name, profile photo and Pentos account ID, so others can see who’s talking, and a title for the call: the channel name, the group or chat name, or “Private Huddle” in a direct message.
Who is told: activity messages and call alerts go only to the members of the conversation or channel, or the people who can open a shared chat.

See Security for how Pentos protects your data.