[waxman]

I worked on a video chat startup in 2006 and a concept that still stands out is "floor exchange," which is when one person stops talking and another person starts talking during a conversation.

Floor Exchange usually happens seamlessly in most in-person conversations, but it can be a challenge over video chat, even in 2020.

In any video chat it's helpful to keep your points short and pause for longer than you normally would at the end of each one; if you're doing it right, the pauses will feel uncomfortably long, especially at first. This allows extra time for floor exchange.

I'm excited to see how this remote batch goes!

[pavlov]

Good advice.

IMO, video conference apps should be designed around mute as the default. The only way to unmute should be modal — holding down the spacebar key (or touch UI equivalent).

This hold-spacebar "enter floor mode" event and its matching exit event should be transmitted out of band to other participants, so they'd get the "floor exchange" signal more reliably and a fraction of a second faster than when relying on video to communicate this.

[travisjungroth]

I’m worried this might make it worse. What I’ve seen is people have a harder time getting the floor, so they speak even longer (making it harder for everyone else). Soon it’s just a series of speeches instead of a conversation. Seems like people would have an even harder time giving it up with holding a key. Maybe if you paired it with a “seconds spoken” timer.

[dugmartin]

Zoom has had this as a feature for a while. I use it on long meetings so I don’t accidentally say something dumb out loud when I’m bored.

I think you have to enable it in the options. I’m away from my desk or I would check myself.

[viklove]

Congratulations, you just described push-to-talk.

[juped]

Business-targeted tools don't have this because they're intended for people used to conference calls on a telephone system.

[russell_h]

Zoom has this. Mute yourself, then you can use space bar as a PTT button.

[thaumasiotes]

> Floor Exchange usually happens seamlessly in most in-person conversations

This is definitely just me (and, I guess, other people like me, but clearly there aren't enough of us to shift the norms in our direction), but I don't find this to be true at all. I have problems with people not recognizing whether I've finished speaking, and even more problems with people deciding that I'm not speaking so they need to continue filling airtime.

[__s]

A lot of people will start talking before they've thought through something, figuring out what they're saying half way. There's been past HN threads getting into how some cultures have small interjections which the speaker generally talks over to collaboratively steer conversation which can have this "floor exchange" occur when the speaker responds to the interruptions with a prompt

I've met some people who think all the way through what they say before speaking. Interrupting generally shuts them up, so one has to learn to not. Important to stop talking & wait for response, double digit silence may be the right call

If you're the latter type, you can help people understand this is your preferred mode of communication by finding a way to non verbally signal that you're thinking. It can be as stupid as pointing a finger aimlessly if you're thinking of a response after half a second of silence, to sign that if the speaker doesn't continue you will eventually bring something up. Thought being put into responses is appreciated in the end

[kick]

Floor Exchange usually happens seamlessly in most in-person conversations, but it can be a challenge over video chat, even in 2020.

This is because (conventionally, at least) video chat doesn't really allow eye contact in a natural way, isn't it?

I'll be really surprised if the easiest way to hack the interview process this year isn't just being aware-enough about your camera setup that you can emulate visual cues inherent to physical conversations.

[dalton]

I haven't heard that term before - but excellent advice!

[rubatuga]

Having longer pauses is good, but also randomizing your pause length ensures that there is a fair distribution among who gets to go first. It's kind of like the collision logic in the WiFi protocol.

[sunw]

Is there a floor exchange issue during strictly 1-on-1 video calls with only 2 participants?