What is a headset room, and how can I use it on a tour?

A headset room turns your phone into the microphone and your travellers' phones and earbuds into the headsets. You talk, and they hear you in their ears, even at the back of the group. There's no set of receivers to hand out at the start, charge the night before or collect at the end, and nobody installs anything: you open a page on your phone, they open a link on theirs.

Your voice reaches their earbuds as you speak, and it is not recorded or kept. It works one way, like a radio. They hear you, you don't hear them, and questions still come to you face to face.

When it helps

• A loud square, with traffic, a busker and two other groups. You talk instead of shouting, and nobody has to lean in.
• A path or a vineyard terrace where the group strings out in a long line. The people at the back get the story too, not only the three walking beside you.
• A market, where raising your voice over the stalls would feel rude. You speak quietly and they still hear you.
• A minibus or a boat, where people sit apart. You keep talking from your seat instead of walking up and down the aisle.
• A cathedral, where you have to keep to a whisper. A whisper is enough, and the whole group hears it.
• The traveller who wanders off for a photo. They can drift a little and still hear you, and you don't have to wait for them or tell it twice.

When it doesn't

• A small group standing right next to you. Your own voice is enough, and that close they would hear you twice.
• A site with headset rules of its own. Some sites require their own headsets, so check each site's rules before you plan on the room there.
• Underground. In a crypt, a cellar or a cave there is often no signal, and the room goes quiet. Your travellers' pages reconnect by themselves when you come back up. After a long stop down there the room may have ended by itself, so tap Reopen room and ask them to tap Listen again.

How you open one

1. Open your dashboard on your phone, in Safari or Chrome.
2. On the home page, tap Open a headset room, choose the tour you're giving, or No tour, and tap Create the room. If travellers booked this departure through GuidesUnited, open its room from the departure's page on the Check in tab instead, because the links in their reminders and on their tickets lead there. That room opens an hour before the start.
3. Read the short checklist on the page, then tap Open room. Your microphone is on but muted, so people can join while the group gathers and hear nothing yet.
4. Let people in: hold up the QR code for them to scan, or tap Add people to send them the link in a message.
5. Tap Go live when you start talking, and Mute whenever you need a private moment.
6. When the tour is over, tap End room. Everyone is disconnected.

Ended it too soon, or want it back after lunch? Tap Reopen room, and your travellers tap Listen again on their page. A room you open from the home page closes by itself after the length of your tour plus two hours, or six hours with No tour. Until then you can reopen it, and the page shows the time.

For now, keep your screen on while the room is open: once the screen locks, your phone may stop sending your voice. Pocket mode makes that easier. It turns the screen black and makes all of it one big button to mute and go live, so you can hold the phone or clip it on without pressing anything by accident. To get the page back, press and hold the button that says Hold to unlock.

What your travellers do

Nothing to install and no account to make. They scan your QR code or open the link you sent, put their earbuds in and tap Start listening. A chime plays, and the page asks whether they heard it in their earbuds, so a phone playing out loud is caught before you begin.

Then the page tells them what to do with the phone. In Chrome on an Android phone it says they can lock it and put it away. On an iPhone, for now, it asks them to keep the screen on.

Anyone with your QR code or link can listen, up to a limit: your tour's group size plus a few, or 30 with No tour. Their page has no share button, so adding people is up to you. If the link of a room you opened from the home page reaches people it shouldn't, end the room and open a new one. The new room has a new link, so show its QR code to the group again.

If you use the room on a tour, say so on the tour itself: in the tour editor, under Details, set Audio for the group to Headset room. Your tour page then asks travellers to bring earbuds, and those who booked through GuidesUnited find a listening link in the reminder the day before and on their ticket.

Listening uses their mobile data. Anyone whose phone plan doesn't cover the country should check their roaming before the day, and the reminder tells them so.

What to bring

• A clip-on microphone that plugs into your phone, with a foam or fur windscreen. Close to your mouth it picks up your voice rather than the street, and the windscreen keeps the wind out of everyone's ears.
• A charged phone, and a power bank for long tours.
• Two or three pairs of wired earbuds to lend to whoever forgets theirs. If you always bring some, pick the Audio for the group answer that adds headsets for anyone without earbuds, and your tour page says so.

Before you open the room, turn on Do Not Disturb, so a call doesn't cut in. If you wear Bluetooth earbuds yourself, disconnect them, so your phone uses the clip-on and not their microphone.

How to speak

Softly, in your everyday voice. The people standing next to you hear you twice, once in the air and once, a moment later, in their earbuds, and the quieter you speak, the less that echo gets in the way. There's no need to project to the back: the back hears you as well as the front.

[COUNSEL] Your microphone also picks up the people around you, your group and anyone passing. Tap Mute for anything private: a word with one traveller, a chat with the driver, a question at the ticket desk. Tap Go live when you're back.

If it fails

Carry on. Your tour worked before there were headset rooms, and it works without one. Gather the group a little closer, use your own voice, and reopen the room at the next stop.

Glance at your screen now and then. If the count says 0 listening, or the room says Off air, nobody is hearing you. If it says Off air, tap Back on air.

What it costs

Nothing extra. The headset room is included in the platform cost, travellers pay nothing more to listen, and using it, or not, never changes where your tours appear.

We're testing it

Headset rooms are new, and we're testing them with a few guides first, which is why you may not see Open a headset room on your dashboard yet. Want to be one of them? Message us from the contact page, and tell us where you guide and which phone you carry.