Troubleshooting
Video Chat Lagging? Find the Cause and Fix Choppy Calls
Video call lagging almost always comes from the network or the device on one end of the call. Work out whose side it's on first: if everyone you talk to looks choppy, it's you; if it's one person, it's probably them. On your side, the quickest fixes are moving closer to the router, using 5 GHz Wi-Fi, pausing uploads and VPNs, or plugging in a cable.
Live video is harder on a connection than streaming a show, because there's no buffer to hide hiccups. Your picture has to go up and theirs has to come down in real time, so your upload speed, often the weaker half of a home internet plan, matters a lot.
Your side or theirs? A quick diagnosis
| What you notice | Whose side | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Every partner freezes or looks blocky | Yours (connection or device) | Work through the fixes below |
| Partners say you're frozen, but they look fine | Yours (upload) | Pause uploads, check Wi-Fi, turn off the VPN |
| Only one partner is choppy | Theirs, or the route between you | Press Next; you can't fix their connection |
| Your own preview stutters | Your device or camera | See the device section |
| Sound keeps going while the picture freezes | Brief drops in bandwidth | Fix your Wi-Fi and uploads first |
| Calls cut off completely | Unstable or blocked connection | See the last section |
Distance plays a part too. A call with someone on the other side of the world crosses far more of the internet than one across town, so a little delay is normal even when both connections are good.
Fix your Wi-Fi first
- Move closer to the router, ideally into the same room. Walls, floors, mirrors and appliances all weaken the signal.
- Use the 5 GHz network if your router has one (it's often named with 5G or 5GHz at the end). It's faster and usually less crowded than 2.4 GHz, though its range is shorter.
- Restart the router: unplug it, wait half a minute, plug it back in, and give it a few minutes to come back fully.
- Get off busy shared Wi-Fi. Café and hotel networks are split between everyone using them.
On a phone, try switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data. If the call is smooth on one and choppy on the other, you've found the culprit.
Stop other things eating your connection
Your video competes with everything else on your network, and uploads do the most damage. A cloud backup or big file upload can fill your upload and make delay jump for everything else, an effect often called bufferbloat.
- Pause photo and file sync, such as iCloud, Google Photos, OneDrive or Dropbox, while you chat.
- Pause game downloads and updates on consoles and PCs.
- Quit torrent apps completely.
- Ask others in your home to pause 4K streaming or large downloads.
- Close other browser tabs that are playing video or music.
Some routers have a quality-of-service (QoS) or smart queue setting that keeps calls smooth while others use the connection. Your router's manual or admin page will say whether yours does.
Pause your VPN
A VPN sends everything through a server that may be far from both you and your partner, which adds delay, and busy VPN servers can also limit your speed. Turn it off, start a new chat and compare. If the lag disappears, pick a VPN server close to you or chat without it.
There's a trade-off: on a peer-to-peer call the other person can see your IP address, which a VPN hides. When two browsers can't connect directly, Omlet relays the call through its network provider, and strict networks or VPNs make that more likely; any relay adds a little distance. VPN problems with video chat covers both sides in detail.
Use a wired connection on a computer
On a desktop or laptop, an Ethernet cable from the router is the most reliable cure for a choppy video call. A cable doesn't care about walls, interference or your neighbors' networks. Many thin laptops need a USB Ethernet adapter.
If the router is too far away for a cable, a mesh Wi-Fi system or a powerline adapter can bring a strong connection closer to where you sit.
When your device is the bottleneck
During a call your device encodes your camera and decodes your partner's video at the same time. If your own preview is choppy, the network isn't the only suspect.
- Close heavy apps and tabs, especially games, video editors and other calls.
- Plug in your laptop. Battery-saving modes slow the processor to save power.
- Let your phone cool down. Hot phones slow themselves; take off a thick case and keep it out of direct sun.
- Add light. In a dim room, many webcams lower their frame rate to gather more light, which makes your video look jerky even on a perfect connection.
- Update your browser, and leave graphics acceleration switched on in its settings.
Video call freezing still? Narrow it down
- Try at a different time of day. Home internet is often busiest in the evening.
- Run a speed test and look at upload speed and ping or jitter, not just download. Compare results with and without your VPN.
- Try your phone's hotspot. If calls are smooth on it, your home network or provider is the weak point.
- Contact your internet provider if your speeds are far below what you pay for.
If the picture freezes while sound carries on, see video freezes but audio works. If calls drop completely, see video chat keeps disconnecting, and if a frozen picture turns black, see black screen on video chat.
Once things are smooth, start a random video chat and press Next whenever one person's connection is the weak link.