Indicator for avoiding speech confliction in a communications session when network latency is high

A client computing device comprising:

• a display;
• a processor coupled to said display and configured to perform the following:
• access a communications network to establish a communications session with at least one other client computing device, and execute an audio analysis agent to perform the following:
• determine network latency within the communications session based on communications with an audio analysis agent in the at least one other client computing device;
• in response to the network latency exceeding a latency threshold, analyze audio input from a user of the client computing device to determine a speaking status of the user;
• and
• generate an indicator command message for the at least one other client computing device based on the determined speaking status of the user, with the indicator command message causing display of an indicator by the at least one other client computing device indicating when a user of the at least one other client computing device can speak to avoid speech confliction with the user of the client computing device;
• wherein determining the network latency is further based on the following:
• the audio analysis agent in said first client computing device transmits a monitoring message with a start timestamp;
• the audio analysis agent in said second client computing device applies an end timestamp upon receipt of the monitoring message;
• determine, by said first client device or said second client device, a time gap between the start and end timestamps;
• and
• compare the time gap to the latency threshold.

A method comprising:

• operating a client computing device to access a communications network to establish a communications session with at least one other client computing device;
• and
• executing an audio analysis agent within the client computing device to perform the following:
• determine network latency within the communications session based on communications with an audio analysis agent in the at least one other client computing device;
• in response to the network latency exceeding a latency threshold, analyze audio input from a user of the client computing device to determine a speaking status of the user;
• and
• generate an indicator command message for the at least one other client computing device based on the determined speaking status of the user, with the indicator command message causing display of an indicator by the at least one other client computing device indicating when a user of the at least one other client computing device can speak to avoid speech confliction with the user of the client computing device;
• wherein determining the network latency is further based on the following:
• the audio analysis agent in said first client computing device transmits a monitoring message with a start timestamp;
• the audio analysis agent in said second client computing device applies an end timestamp upon receipt of the monitoring message;
• determine, by said first client device or said second client device, a time gap between the start and end timestamps;
• and
• compare the time gap to the latency threshold.