The pre-join screen

Both you and your client land on the same pre-join screen the moment a session starts. The screen exists for one reason: nobody should join a clinical session without confirming their camera is framed right and their mic is hearing them. This is the standard Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams pattern, built into Rivet from day one.

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What’s on the screen

• Practice name at the top
• “Check your camera and microphone, then join.” subtitle
• A 4:3 self-preview frame, rounded, with a brand-color glow around it
• A 5-bar microphone level meter overlaid at the bottom-left of the preview, lit from left as input level rises
• Microphone and camera toggle pills directly under the preview
• A “Join session” button at the bottom

The preview is mirrored — when you raise your right hand it appears on the right side of the frame, the same way a bathroom mirror works. This is the universal convention for self-view.

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Camera and mic turn on automatically (when the browser allows)

On Chrome and Firefox, if you’ve previously granted camera and mic permission to meet.getrivet.ca, the camera and mic come on automatically within about a second of the pre-join screen appearing. You don’t tap anything — you just see yourself, the meter starts moving as you speak. On Safari (macOS and iOS), browsers require an explicit user gesture before they’ll start the camera and mic. The first tap anywhere on the page — the camera toggle, the mic toggle, or even the Join Session button — counts as that gesture and triggers the permission prompt. Either way, by the time you tap Join Session, the camera and mic are running.

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Toggling mic and camera before you join

The mic and cam pills are toggle buttons. Tap to turn off, tap to turn on. Whatever state you leave them in when you tap Join Session is the state you’ll be in when the session starts:

• Tap Join Session with the mic off → you join muted. Tap the mic button in the in-call toolbar to unmute.
• Tap Join Session with the camera off → you join with no video. Your client sees a placeholder where your face would be. Tap the camera button in-call to turn it on.

Joining muted or camera-off is a first-class option. Useful if you want to confirm the call connected before showing your face — e.g. if you’re unsure whether you’re in the right session.

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What the client sees vs. what you see

Both sides see the same layout. The selfie-preview is each person’s own camera — you see yourself, the client sees themselves. The “Join session” button does the same thing on both sides: it locks in the local mic and camera and connects you to the other person. The order doesn’t matter. Whoever taps Join first lands on a “Waiting…” screen with their own preview still visible. When the second person taps Join, the call connects.

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The mic level meter

Five horizontal bars at the bottom-left of the preview. As your mic picks up sound, bars light up from left to right. This is the single most useful piece of pre-join feedback:

• No bars light up when you talk → your mic isn’t connected, isn’t permitted, or another app has hijacked it (a common one on macOS: a paired iPhone within Bluetooth range steals the mic via Continuity). Tap the mic button to confirm permission. Disconnect Bluetooth or sleep the nearby iPhone.
• All five bars max immediately on every word → your mic gain is too high, or your mouth is too close. Move back a few inches.
• Two to four bars on normal speech → good. Join.

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Joining the session

Once you tap Join session:

1. The pre-join card slides away.
2. A short “Connecting…” card appears.
3. Once both sides connect, the in-call workspace mounts: your client fills the main stage, your own camera shrinks to a corner tile, the toolbar appears at the bottom.

If the client tapped Join first and was already waiting, the connection is nearly instant. If you tapped first, you’ll see the “Connecting…” card until they tap Join on their side.

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