BloomText Video allows you to start HIPAA-compliant video calls with one or more participants. Participants can join a Bloom video call from any device, such as a smartphone, without needing to download an app.
You can use BloomText video for telehealth appointments, or for conference calls with your coworkers.
Sections in this article
- Upgrade to BloomText Premium
- Setting up the video room
- Starting a video call
- After the call
- Issues & Troubleshooting
- Common Questions
Upgrade to BloomText Premium
BloomText Video requires a BloomText premium account. You can request a free 7-day trial by sending us a message here, or by logging into BloomText, and activating a trial from the ‘patients’ tab.
Setting up the video room
Once you have BloomText Video enabled, navigate to the video section by clicking the icon on the left sidebar.
[Video room icon with arrow IMG]
Create a video room
Next, press the plus button to create a video room. We recommend you give the room a meaningful name, in case you need to search for it later.
[Create video room gif]
Add administrators
You can optionally add other BloomText users as administrators to the meeting room. Administrators will be able to edit, as well as join the room at any time, and can approve or deny guests.
This workflow is helpful, for example, if a staff member is setting up a video room for a healthcare provider.
[Add administrators gif]
Share the link
Select the room that you just created, and select the “Copy Meeting Link” option. Now, you can share that link with either patients, coworkers, or other BloomText users.
There are many ways you can share a link, such as:
- Through a BloomText conversation
- Adding the link to a calendar invite
Share the link via a patient conversation
If you want to share your link via a patient conversation
If you send the link via a patient conversation, we recommend using the “normal sms” option instead “secure SMS”
[Create a patient conversation, add the link]
Approve the User
When a user clicks on a video link, BloomText will notify you that a user is requesting to join the video room. You’ll need to approve them before they can successfully join the call.
[Participant joining ]
The patient joining experience
After clicking on a link, BloomText will walk the participant through the proper setup tasks to make sure they are successfully able to join the call.
The video below illustrates what this process looks like for a patient, step, by step.
[Patient joining experience GIF]
Starting a video call
If you navigate back to the video rooms screen, you should now see that one or more participants are waiting for you on the call. To begin the call, press the ‘join now’ option.
[Joining video call GIF]
Share your screen
During a video call, you can share your screen with other participants by pressing the screen sharing icon at the bottom.
[Screen sharing GIF]
Change your settings
If you need to adjust your camera or microphone settings, you can access them via the settings gear in the lower left corner of the screen.
[settings gear GIF]
Minimize the view
BloomText video allows you to minimize the video call screen and continue using BloomText while remaining on the call. When you are ready to expand the view, just click the thumbnail.
Ending the call
You can leave the call at any time by selecting the red ‘hang up’ icon. When this occurs, BloomText will ask you to rate your video call experience, and to provide feedback if you encounter any issues.
[Call rating experience GIF]
After the call
Once your call is complete, there are some additional features you may find helpful.
View meeting history
Once your video meeting is complete, you can view information about your meeting, such as meeting duration, participants on the call, and participant’s ratings by selecting the “session history” option.
[Video history GIF]
Archive the meeting room
If you don’t plan to re-use your room in the future, you can archive it by selecting the ‘done’ option in the video room sidebar.
If you don’t archive the meeting room, participants will be able to re-join at a later date using the same link. This is especially useful for a re-occurring meetings.
[Archive meeting gif]
Un-archive a meeting
You will still be able to view information from your archived meetings, and can even un-archive them if you change your mind. To view archived meetings, click the filter icon at the top of the screen.
[View archived meetings gif]
Issues & Troubleshooting
In this section, we’ll walk through some issues that may occur with video calling and our recommendations on how to solve them.
Poor network connection
If you notice that a user’s video or audio is blockly, choppy, or low-resolution, it may be due to one or more participants having a poor network connection.
BloomText provides a network quality information panel that can help you diagnose if this is the issue. To view this pane, select the settings/gear icon while on a video call and then ‘network stats.’
[Access the network panel GIF]
The BloomText network settings pane provides you with detailed network information about your call, an also with a summary of the quality of your network connection. There are four different options: “excellent”, “good”, “fair”, “low.”
Generally, we recommend that every participant have at least a “good” connection that provides at least 350 kbps, with under 10% packet loss.
If you notice that one or more of your participants is having network issues, we recommend the following troubleshooting options:
- If they are on a wifi connection, ask them to move closer to their Wi-Fi router
- If their wifi connection remains bad, ask them to turn off their Wi-Fi and use their cellular data
- If the participant is using a cellular data connection, make sure they have at least a 4G connection with two bars.
- If the participant is on a mobile phone, ask them if they can try joining via their laptop.
Unexpected video issue
If you encounter any other unexpected video issues, or have suggestions about how the video feature can be improved, we encourage you to reach out to us as soon as possible. You can contact us via the support