Show them, instead of describing it

Half the calls anybody makes about a thing on a phone are spent describing the thing on the phone. "The green button — no, the other one — under the picture." You can now just show them.

Share the screen, in the call you are already in

Screen sharing works inside a normal Cyca call, voice or video. Start it and what you are looking at is what they are looking at — the order, the listing, the settings page you cannot find.

It replaces your camera rather than opening a second window, which is the version that does not need explaining to the person on the other end.

The unglamorous half: how a call sounds

A call is mostly sound design. This round rebuilt it: nine tones across the call surface, and a real ringback — the sound you hear while it rings on their side — instead of silence you cannot read. Silence is the worst possible feedback, because it is the same thing a broken call sounds like.

And hanging up ends the call

Tapping the red button used to leave the screen sitting there for a beat while the network caught up. It does not any more: the call surface closes the moment you end it, and the tidying happens behind it. Small, and you feel it every single time.

Calls have been the part of Cyca we are hardest on — they either work like the phone app or they are not worth having. More on the call surface here.