If you are looking for Jitsi Meet, the WebRTC compatible video conferencing product click here.

Voice Call

Jitsi lets you communicate with friends and contacts across the Internet. Jitsi prevents eavesdropping by automatically encrypting your conversation for the full duration of its trip across the Internet (“end-to-end encryption”). This means that even your voice calling service (Google, Facebook, Jit.si, etc.) cannot listen to the contents of your call. For full details see “Limits of end-to-end encryption” below.

How to call a contact

[To be written]

Limits of end-to-end encryption

Jitsi’s end-to-end encryption offers a high degree of privacy, above and beyond most other voice calling software. However there technical limits to what Jitsi can protect, even with end-to-end encryption enabled.

  • Metadata The content of the conversation is private, but information about the call (such as the accounts and IP addresses involved, and the length and time of the call) are still visible to any intercepting party, and often stored by your voice calling service.
  • Lapses in verification If users do not verbally confirm the codes at the beginning of the conversation, it is possible for an eavesdropper to go unnoticed. Also it is possible that the person on the other end is not who you think they are. This is particularly true if you do not know the person well enough to recognize by voice.
  • Vulnerabilities on either end End-to-end encryption protects data in transit, but it cannot ensure the security of the device, computer, or person on either end of the call.

Please note: Tools > Create a conference call… offers the same level of encryption as one-on-one calls, but requires a sufficient level of bandwidth from the host of the conference call, to support multiple calls. However, calls using the video conferencing bridge are currently unencrypted. For details see video conferencing bridge?.

Troubleshooting

No sound

  1. If you are currently on a voice call take a look at the Call window.
    • Check that the microphone meter shows movement when you make noise. If not, jump to step 2 below.
    • If you see a line through the microphone icon, that means the microphone is muted for the current call. Click the microphone icon again to unmute.
    • Check that the headphone meter shows movement when your friend makes noise. If not, have your friend check their microphone using the instructions above. Also check that your computer speakers/headphones is not muted. If you still have trouble continue with the steps below.
  2. From the main menu choose Tools > Options
  3. Click on the Audio tab
  4. Under Audio System “Windows Audio Session API (WASAPI)” is recommended for Windows Vista or later. “Port Audio” is recommended for Linux (although a few users find “PulseAudio” works better). “CoreAudio” is currently in development for Mac OS (in the meantime use “Port Audio”)
  5. Under Audio In verify that you see movement on the meter when you make noise. Movement on the meter shows that your microphone is picking of sounds and Jitsi has access to the correct microphone. If you do not see movement in the meter try selecting different options from the Audio In drop-down menu. If none of the options work verify that your microphone is not muted, or the volume turned down. Check both the operating system (e.g. the microphone sound settings in Windows) and any physical hardware (e.g. if you have an external microphone, is it plugged into the correct socket?)
  6. Under Audio Out click the Play button. You should hear a breath noise. If you do not hear a noise try selecting different options from the Audio Out drop-down menu. If none of the options work verify that your sound is not muted, or the volume turned down. Check both the operating system (e.g. the speaker sound settings in Windows) and any physical hardware (e.g. a volume knob on your desktop speakers).
  7. Under Notifications follow the same instructions as the previous step.

Poor sound quality

There are many possible contributors to poor sound quality. Here’s a list of possible candidates:

  • Old version of Jitsi Jitsi sound quality has improved dramatically in the last few months (particularly on Windows). You might check a nightly build of Jisti (at least until version 2.3 stable comes out).
  • Poor Internet connection With less bandwidth available the audio quality suffers. For example, if you have a weak wireless signal, try moving closer to the wireless WiFi adapter. For statistics related to your current call click on the “i” button. Of particular interest here are the “Bandwith” and “Loss rate” numbers. Include these numbers in
  • Microphone and Sound Card [to be written: (artifacts from noise suppression, mic placement, etc.)]