Troubleshooting Camera & Microphone Access on Android Devices

In order to record a video with Vocal Video, you'll need to enable access to the camera and microphone on the device you're using. We've put together a guide to troubleshooting the top issues people have seen when attempting to record videos on Android devices.

A note about security: when you grant vocalvideo.com access to your device’s camera and microphone, it is ONLY accessed while you have the Vocal Video website open in your browser AND you see the recording interface onscreen. Your device’s camera & microphone are never accessed (and cannot be accessed) at any other time. The recordings you make are only uploaded when you approve them, and you can request to have them deleted at any time even after uploading.

Google Chrome

When you begin to record a response to a Vocal Video Collector, click Allow. 

You may be asked this multiple times - both from the app, and from your operating system. Click Allow each time you see this prompt.

Samsung Internet

When you begin to record a response to a Vocal Video Collector, click  Allow. 

Firefox

When you begin to record a response to a Vocal Video Collector, click Allow. 

You need to Allow pictures, record video, and audio all in order to record a response.

Overriding settings

If you see this screen, it means we tried to access your camera & microphone but couldn’t for some reason. This can happen if you clicked Deny on any of the prompts above. If you see this message, try refreshing the page to see if anything changes.

If you don’t see the Allow/Deny prompts when you refresh the page, you’ll need to override a previous Deny in your system settings. To do this, go to Settings -> Apps, then click on the name of your browser app. Usually this is Chrome, or Samsung Internet, or Firefox. 

Once you’re in the settings for your browser app, select Permissions.

At this time, you will need to enable permissions for Camera and Microphone.

Here’s what it will look like for Chrome:

Here’s what it will look like for Firefox:

Choosing the right camera app

When you Allow permission for the browser app to take pictures and record video, you may be presented with this prompt: 

This is where you choose a Camera. We suggest using the Camera app that your device comes with. 

Some cameras allow editing and can only export video files. Those do not work for Vocal Video because files cannot be uploaded into a Video Collector. We only take live recordings that are immediately uploaded to our platform.

If you made the wrong choice of camera, or want to toggle back to your device’s default camera app, go to Settings -> Apps, then click on Camera. Select Set as Default to restore this.

Restoring camera defaults

If after you have set the correct Camera and you are still seeing this error message, you may need to reset the Camera app to its original defaults. 

To do this, go to Settings -> Apps, then click on Camera. Select App permissions to turn every setting back on.

We hope this guide has been helpful. If you follow the steps here for your browser, but still have issues recording, please let us know.

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