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Comment by plasma_beam | Hacker News Reader

On the flip side, when you get up and go off camera or turn camera off in a small video call (few participants), it feels awkward to get up and leave and I usually hold it and suffer through it. In person for some reason it felt less awkward to excuse yourself for a few minutes.

Not to mention I always leave the airpods in when I go now and have to triple check I’m on mute :)

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I have a five-step ritual.

1. Mute myself. 2. Double check I am muted. 3. Ask, "Can anyone hear me?" 4. Ask, "Can anyone hear me?" again, louder. 5. State, "I'm about to urinate."

Increasingly embarrassing failsafes, but not as embarrassing as broadcasting a bathroom break. I'm happy that I never needed anything past layer 2.

My old headset would disconnect at random. It had its own physical mute button. At some point, Teams decided to switch microphones for me without telling me. So when the headset came back online, Teams continued using the built in laptop mic. Fortunately I wasn't doing anything embarrassing.

Someone asked where some background noise was coming from. I said "not from me, I'm on mute". And several people said "no you're not!"

I mentioned this because of the ongoing anti-Samsung thread. I've always avoided Samsung but caved on the folding phones. I haven't really tried out any other phones lately, but I really like their buttons to disable the microphone and camera for this. Not sure if it's Samsung or stock Android at this point. Also I just got an update their adaptive battery protection is something I have been wanting.

I’d debate you on 5. That may be more embarrassing.

In a pinch like that I'll just put "brb" in the chat, turn off mic and camera, and take the laptop with me.

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