This guide walks you through creating a video group session in Togetherly, allowing you to schedule a video conference for your facilitators and service users to connect face-to-face remotely.

## Prerequisites

- You must have an active Togetherly account with the Video Groups feature enabled
- You should have facilitator and service user contacts already added to your account

## Steps

### Step 1: Open the Groups page and select Video Group

From your dashboard, click on the **Groups** section in the navigation menu. In the top-right area of the page, click the **New Group** dropdown button. From the dropdown menu, select **Video Group**. This opens the new video group session form.

![Open the Groups page and select Video Group](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MjEyLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--e371882f269e3479117dc97661d7394e5d48e211/step_0.png)

### Step 2: Enter the session details

Fill in the required fields for your video session. Enter a descriptive **Session title** that participants will recognise (for example, 'Virtual coffee morning' or 'Wednesday Art Club'). Select the **Date** for the session. Choose a **Time** from the dropdown. Pick a **Duration** between 15 minutes and 3 hours (the default is 1 hour). Finally, set the **Frequency** to determine whether this is a single session or a recurring event that repeats every 1, 2, 3, or 4 weeks.

### Step 3: Configure session options

Customise how your video group call will behave using the toggle switches. **Play a sound when participants join and leave** is enabled by default and notifies everyone when someone enters or exits. **Record the audio of the session** lets you save the call for later review (only available if your account has recording enabled). **Have service users join muted** starts all participants on mute, which is useful for larger groups. **Enable text-based chat** allows participants to send text messages during the call (only available if your account has the chat feature).

![Configure session options](https://help.together.ly/rails/active_storage/blobs/proxy/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MjEzLCJwdXIiOiJibG9iX2lkIn19--5f48db8c33d29e3e8ba5fdbff3129f9dc0c54fe1/step_2.png)

### Step 4: Add facilitators and service users

In the **Facilitators** section, click **Add a facilitator** to select a team member who will host the session. You can choose how they will join: via video in their browser, by dialling in, or by receiving an automatic call. In the **Service users** section, click **Add a service user** to invite participants. For each person, select their join method — video link or phone dial-out. You can add multiple facilitators and service users as needed.

### Step 5: Create the session

Review all your settings to make sure everything looks correct. When you are satisfied, click the **Create session** button at the bottom-right of the page. The session will be saved and appear on your Groups calendar. All invited participants will receive an email with their joining instructions and any relevant dial-in details or video links.

## Tips

- If you set a recurring frequency, Togetherly will automatically create future sessions on the same day and time for the weeks you selected
- You can edit or cancel a session after creation by clicking on it in the Groups calendar
- Consider enabling 'start muted' for groups with more than four participants to keep background noise under control

## Summary

You have created a video group session with your chosen facilitators and service users. The session now appears on your Groups calendar, and all participants will receive email invitations with instructions on how to join.