Backchannel communication, like whispering or instant messaging, is common in meetings and holds significant value. However, it remains largely unexplored in the context of hybrid meetings with co-located and remote participants. To address this gap, we derived unique challenges of backchannel communication in hybrid meetings through an interview study. These challenges inspired a new voice-based backchannel communication system, WhisperChannel, aimed to be inclusive and low effort. WhisperChannel enables users to whisper remotely to anyone in the meeting — similar to whispering to co-located seat neighbors. In a user study with three groups, each having two sessions of hybrid meetings, we investigated the inclusiveness and effort of WhisperChannel for both co-located and remote participants. We provide insights into the benefits and limitations of using remote whispering. We show that WhisperChannel helped remote and co-located participants feel more included while requiring low effort to use, however, also introduced new challenges in backchannel communication.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642419
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