Telehealth - Client is hearing an echo (of their own voice)
Answered
So, during the last few telehealth sessions my clients have had an echo of their own voice - which was very distracting. We had to switch to Skype until I can this fixed. Has anyone had this issue?
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Official comment
Hi Mitchell,
I can definitely investigate your Telehealth feature to make sure you and your clients have a seamless Telehealth experience, but to do that I'll need some more information. I've reached out to you directly so that we can troubleshoot this together.
In the meantime, here are a couple of our Telehealth guides:
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Usually not. Why should that matter though? I have a MacBook Pro, and I use FaceTime and Zoom all the time. On those platforms, my audio is always crystal clear, perfectly synced with the video, and no echo. It seems like there must be something different about the SimplePractice platform that causes these problems when no other platforms do.
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Cathy, got it. Have you tried the Pre-Call Tool to test your connection and check for audio issues? https://tokbox.com/developer/tools/precall/
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I just got off a session and it worked well about 95% of the time. However, the other 5% were frozen screens, pixel lotions, and audio fades. I made sure I only had chrome open on my computer, and I cleared the cache right before the session. This is just a very touchy platform compared to FaceTime and Zoom. It’s fine in a pinch, but I don’t think I would be happy with it if I did telehealth on any sort of regular basis.
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Hi Erik, I would definitely recommend that you and your clients run the Pre-Call Tool to ensure that their connections can handle SimplePractice's Telehealth platform. Here's a link: https://tokbox.com/developer/tools/precall/
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Hi Gillian, I've already run the Pre-Call tool, and it came back perfect. I don't know that I feel comfortable asking all my clients to run the test on their computers, as it's the same set of issues every time regardless of who the client is. I hope that, at some point, Simple Practice will decide that the telehealth platform needs some upgrading if so many people are running into the same issues. I get that there are ways to improve the connection, but if everything has to be "just so" every time...using Chrome, clearing cache, closing out all other windows, using a headphone/mic on both sides, running the Pre-call tool...ultimately, there's something wrong with the platform. As I've said before, FaceTime and Zoom don't have these issues, and I can run those with a million windows open, with no headset or mic, and with no clearing the cache ever. Those other platforms work perfectly 99.9% of the time. Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate all the suggestions on how to troubleshoot these issues, but at the end of the day, the platform just seems very unstable compared to many others out there.
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Hi Eric, thank you for your feedback. Despite a massive influx of Telehealth appointments on our platform, we have not seen a meaningful increase in error rates - do keep in mind that you're more likely to see reports of issues in our Community Forum because this is where our customers come to troubleshoot. The vast, silent majority of our customers are using SimplePractice's Telehealth platform without the issues you might see on the Forum. Let me know if you have any additional questions about this, or anything else SimplePractice. I'm here to help.
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My clients also experience echos on more telehealth sessions than not. When I use other platforms (Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom) there are no problems. This is NOT simply a headset/mic problem. I've tried all the variations with both parties using SP trying with and without headsets. The client still gets an echo. No other platforms are showing this issue in my experience.
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I have not. It's not a consistent problem and I don't have time to deal with it. What I typically do is try to start the call on SP, and if there's an echo present I have an alternate platform ready to go and I shift the client to that. The SP platform just needs an upgrade as far as I can tell, because no other platform has the problem.
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Got it, Fred. If you'd like to address this issue, we do ask that you reach out so we can run through some troubleshooting steps with you privately and learn more about your device and connection speed. As I mentioned in my comment above, SimplePractice's Telehealth platform is not experiencing widespread issues related to yours, and we're standing by to help if you do find the time to reach out.
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