Scheduling and joining video calls

Video calls in NearbySpy are built into the same Case workspace where Operations, Evidence, and Reports live. That means you can hold a kickoff with a new Client, debrief a teammate after a surveillance shift, or take a remote witness statement without leaving the platform — and the meeting is part of the Case's record afterward.

When to schedule a call vs message

Use Messages for short, factual exchanges where the thread itself is the record. Use a video call when you need real-time discussion, when a topic is too sensitive or too nuanced to write down, or when a Client wants to be walked through a Report. For the messaging companion to this article, see Messaging Clients.

Scheduling a call

Open the Case and find the call scheduler in the Calendar or call section. Pick a date and time, choose participants from the Case members list (you can include Clients on the Case), add a short agenda, and send the invite. NearbySpy generates a calendar entry that participants can see in their dashboard and a join link that becomes active at the scheduled time.

Calls scheduled inside a Case are automatically tied to that Case. Activity around the call — when it was scheduled, who joined, when it ended — is recorded on the Case for audit purposes. The contents of the call are not recorded by default; if you intend to retain a recording, see the recording note below.

Joining a call

At the scheduled time, open the Case and click the join action on the call entry. The first time you join from a new device, your browser will prompt for camera and microphone access — grant both. NearbySpy handles the rest: it picks a connection that works behind most corporate firewalls and sets up encrypted audio and video.

You do not need a separate app. Calls run in your browser. Modern Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge are supported on desktop and mobile.

If something goes wrong on connect

The most common issue is camera or microphone permission. Check your browser's site settings for NearbySpy and confirm both are allowed. The next most common is bandwidth — video calls degrade gracefully but a poor connection will show up as freezes or audio dropouts. NearbySpy will attempt to reconnect automatically if the network blips. For step-by-step recovery, see Troubleshooting reconnecting video.

What participants see

Investigators on the Case see the call exactly as you do. Clients on the Case see only the calls they are invited to and only the participants who joined. They do not see internal team-only calls, even if those calls were scheduled on a Case they are part of.

Recording

Recording is a sensitive feature with real legal implications, especially for Client communications and witness statements. NearbySpy does not record calls automatically. If you intend to record, get explicit consent from every participant on the call, document that consent in Case Notes, and follow the recording flow your firm uses. Where recording is supported, the recording is treated as Evidence and goes through the same hash-and-immutable pipeline as any other file (see How Evidence upload and integrity work).

Multi-party calls

Calls can include multiple Investigators, multiple Clients on the Case, and external participants you have added as members. The view adapts to the number of participants. For larger calls — say, a meeting with a Client's legal team — schedule with enough buffer to handle introductions and tech checks before the substantive portion begins.

Calendar visibility

Scheduled calls appear on the in-case Calendar (see Using the in-case Calendar) and on the global Cases calendar (see Using the global Cases calendar and Kanban) so they are not invisible against the rest of your work.

Best practices

• Send a short agenda with the invite. It improves the call and gives the Client time to prepare.
• Confirm camera and mic during the first minute, especially if anyone is dialing in from mobile.
• Wrap with a written summary in Messages or a Note. The call is the conversation; the summary is the record.
• If the call surfaces actionable work, create the Operation immediately so it is not lost when the call ends.