During a live session, you can control participant audio by muting or unmuting individuals or all guests at once. This helps manage background noise and maintain a professional call environment.

## Prerequisites

- You must be logged in as a facilitator
- You must be in an active live session with connected participants

## Steps

### Step 1: Mute or unmute yourself

At the bottom of your screen, you'll see a control bar with several buttons. In the center, look for the microphone icon button. If the button shows a microphone icon with a white outline, your audio is unmuted. Click this button to mute yourself. When muted, the button will turn white with a crossed-out microphone icon. Click it again to unmute yourself.

![Mute or unmute yourself](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6ODcsInB1ciI6ImJsb2JfaWQifX0=--a236270d878599077da12102bc73097e5581f61a/step_0.png)

### Step 2: Mute or unmute individual participants

If you're a facilitator and need to control a specific participant's audio, locate that person's card in the attendee list. Each participant card shows their name, connection status, and current mute status. On the right side of their card, you'll see control buttons. Click the microphone icon button to mute an unmuted participant. The icon will change to a crossed-out microphone and their card will show a red border. To unmute them, click the crossed-out microphone button.

![Mute or unmute individual participants](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6ODgsInB1ciI6ImJsb2JfaWQifX0=--08f0041d832c4a480fb520727e99f096c7f839e5/step_1.png)

### Step 3: Mute or unmute all guests at once

To control audio for all guests simultaneously, click the 'Actions' button on the left side of the control bar at the bottom of your screen. This opens the Session Actions menu. From here, click 'Mute all guests' to mute everyone except facilitators. This is useful when starting a session or managing background noise. To allow everyone to speak again, open the Actions menu and click 'Un-mute all guests'. Note that these actions only affect guest participants, not facilitators.

![Mute or unmute all guests at once](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6ODksInB1ciI6ImJsb2JfaWQifX0=--7a257db2e7ed1d571cd62d2c1e36f067afc60841/step_2.png)

## Tips

- Muted participants can unmute themselves at any time unless you've restricted their controls
- A red border around a participant's card indicates they are currently muted
- You can quickly identify who is speaking by looking for the pulsing green icon on their participant card

## Summary

Managing participant audio is essential for professional sessions. Use individual controls for specific participants or bulk actions to manage everyone at once. Remember that facilitators are never affected by the 'mute all guests' action.