Settings reference

Open Settings from the profile menu in the main window (click your avatar, then Settings) or from the menubar popover’s Settings item. This page covers every section, top to bottom.

Devices

Camera preview — a live feed from your selected camera, shown once Camera permission is granted. If access is denied, this box instead shows a button that opens System Settings to the Camera privacy pane.
Camera — picks which camera feeds the preview above. Camera options are populated from your Mac’s real cameras once permission is granted; before that, a single placeholder option is shown. Note: this only affects the preview — the camera published in a meeting is always the system default camera, and the selection isn’t saved (see Cameras and audio).
Microphone — picks your recording device. Applies immediately if you’re in a meeting; otherwise saved for your next join.
Speaker — picks your playback device. Same immediate-vs-saved behavior as microphone.

Permissions

Four rows, each showing whether Petal currently has that permission and a button to open the matching System Settings privacy pane if it doesn’t:

Screen Recording — required to share your screen or windows.
Microphone — required to speak in a meeting.
Camera — needed to appear on camera and for the Settings preview. Unlike the other three, it isn’t needed to get through onboarding — you can always join meetings with your camera off and grant it later.
Accessibility — required for remote control: it’s what lets Petal replay a teammate’s clicks and keystrokes into windows you share while remote control is on.

Use this section any time you accidentally denied a permission during onboarding — it’s the same recoverable flow, just reachable later.

Allow teammates to control my shared windows — on by default. When on, people in your meetings can remote-control windows you share. Turning it off takes effect immediately — anyone currently controlling one of your windows loses control on the spot — and it stays your default for future meetings. The in-meeting controls can also stop control for just the current call without changing this default.
Local echo (experimental) — off by default. When you’re the one controlling someone else’s shared window, this shows an instant local preview of your own clicks, keystrokes, and typing (a ripple, a pending text strip) before the real frame comes back over the network. It’s a prediction, not confirmation that the action actually landed remotely.

Diagnostics

Export logs — reveals a zip of your local Petal logs in your file manager (Finder on macOS, Explorer on Windows) so you can attach it to a bug report. Nothing leaves your Mac on its own.
Send crash and error reports to Sentry — on by default. Sends diagnostic data (not just crashes) to help identify problems. Turn off if you don’t want any diagnostic data leaving your Mac.

Reset

Reset Petal — clears your local identity, saved rooms, favorites, microphone/speaker choices, and saved window positions on this Mac, then quits the app. This is local-app state only; see Troubleshooting for exactly what it does and doesn’t touch, including macOS permissions.

Updates

Check for updates — Petal checks for updates automatically on launch; this button forces an immediate check instead of waiting. The current version and commit are shown next to it.

Account

Display name — the name shown on your tile and in the participant list.
Identity color — one of six accent colors used for your cursor, pointer, and name chip elsewhere in the app, so teammates can tell whose pointer or annotation is whose.