Learn how to include family and friends in your Purple Visits video calls, including participant limits, ID requirements and approval process.
Purple Visits allows multiple people to join video calls together, so you can bring family and friends together to connect with your loved one in prison, a secure hospital or a secure training centre. This makes visits more meaningful and inclusive, allowing everyone to share important moments.
Whether it’s grandparents who want to see their grandchild, siblings who want to stay connected or friends who want to offer support, additional participants help make video calls a shared family experience.
Purple Visits allows up to 4 people total on prison video calls - the main account holder plus up to 3 additional participants. If children will be joining, read Video calls with children too. Additional participants over 18 must provide photo ID and verify their identity before they can approved onto a video call, while children under 18 can be added to your account without photo ID being required.
As the account holder, you’re the “main participant” on the call. Additional participants are other people who join you on the video call - they can appear on screen with you during the call and everyone can see and speak with your contact in custody.
There are lots of great reasons to include additional participants. You can bring family members together like grandparents, siblings and children. You can allow friends to connect and show support, share important moments and celebrations, provide more emotional support for your loved one and make the most of limited call time by including more people.
Purple Visits allows up to 4 people total on each call, that’s you as the main participant, plus up to 3 additional people. This is the establishments limit, though some establishments may have different limits based on their security policies (which sometimes means they will have a lower participant limit). Check your contact’s establishment page for their specific policy.
The system is designed to be really flexible. You can approve unlimited participants on your account and choose which ones to include for each specific call, not everyone needs to be on every call. Different participants can join different calls, so you can mix and match based on availability. There’s no minimum requirement either, you can have calls with just yourself or include 1, 2 or 3 additional participants.
All adults must verify their identity using the same types of ID accepted for the main account, a passport (UK or foreign), driving licence with photo or CitizenCard, plus a proof of address dated within the last 3 months. Additional participants aged 18 and over must also verify their identity through the same process as any account holder. See What ID do I need? for the accepted documents and our guide on verifying your identity for photo tips.
The Purple Visits system doesn’t require identity verification for participants under 18. However, some establishments may request ID on a case-by-case basis and you’ll be notified in the app if this is required. As the main participant, you’re responsible for their presence and behaviour during the call and parental or guardian consent is assumed, you should have permission to include any children.
If you have photo ID for additional participants, it’s worth adding it even if not strictly required. This results in a smoother approval process, avoids potential delays and some facilities prefer it even when not mandatory. It’s better to have it on file and not need it than to be asked for it later.
Open the Purple Visits app, go to “My Account” or access the main menu, select “Additional Participants,” and tap “Add Participant” or the “+” button.
You’ll need to provide their full legal name (first name and surname, spelled exactly as on their ID if they have one), date of birth in DD/MM/YYYY format (this is used to determine if ID verification is required), you will also need to provide the additional participants address.
If they’re over 18 or have ID available, you’ll need to upload their photo ID following the same guidelines as main ID verification, a clear photo of the ID document with all four corners visible in the frame, text clearly readable and no glare or shadows.
For additional participants under the age of 18 if ID is available please upload this, if not then use the “Verify by Selfie” option which will allow you to simply upload a selfie of the additional participant for verification.
If the participant is over 18, they must provide ID to become verified including a proof of address document. Once verified they can be added to any of your video call or social visit requests.
During the call request process, you’ll see an option to “Add Additional Participants.” Select from your approved participants list and choose 0, 1, 2 or 3 additional participants, then complete your booking as usual.
You have complete flexibility with different participants for different calls. One call might be just you, another might be you plus your children, another you plus your parents and another you plus your children and parents. Choose based on who’s available and what makes sense for each call.
After booking, you may be able to add participants before call time depending on establishment policy. Contact the establishment if you need to modify participants, they can advise what’s possible. Generally it’s easier to select participants when initially booking to avoid complications. Please note that the Purple Visits support team are unable to add or remove any participants to calls that have been approved by the establishment.
Here’s something really important: the Purple Visits system pauses the call if partial faces are detected. This is a security feature.
To avoid interruptions, everyone must be fully visible in the camera view if they are onscreen. Position everyone so all faces are clear and don’t crowd the camera, sit back so everyone fits comfortably. Partial faces cause automatic pausing and the system enforces this for security.
You do not need to have everyone on the call, however anyone that is approved to be on the call should ensure that their entire face is visible when they are on-screen.
Before the call starts, test your camera positioning with all participants present. Make sure everyone fits in the frame comfortably, you may need to step back from the camera to fit everyone. Ensure good lighting on all faces and choose seating that keeps everyone visible.
During the call, take turns speaking so audio is clear, don’t move around excessively, keep all faces fully visible at all times and be mindful of background noise.
If someone needs to step away briefly, thats fine, the call won’t pause if the person is fully out of frame (the system only reacts to partial faces) and they can return by re-entering the frame fully when ready.
Before the call begins, you’ll take a security selfie to verify your identity. This is critical: ONLY the main participant should be in this security selfie. Do NOT include additional participants in the pre-call security photo. Additional participants join AFTER the security check passes. This is a security requirement that cannot be bypassed.
Sometimes the system requests identity re-verification during the call. When this happens, only the main participant verifies, you take the re-verification selfie alone. Additional participants should NOT be in the re-verification selfie. Never include others in verification photos as this is a strict security rule. The call will resume once you’ve verified.
Read more about call procedures in our guide on during your video call.
You can access your participants list by going to My Account and then Additional Participants. You’ll see all approved and pending participants and can view the approval status for each person.
If you need to update information, tap on the participant, update information as needed, change the address or date of birth if it was entered incorrectly and save changes. Note that changes may require re-verification.
If you need to remove someone, tap on the participant, select “Remove Additional Participant” and confirm removal. This means they won’t be able to join future calls with you and their verification is revoked, though you can re-add them later if needed (which will require new verification process to happen before they can join a video call).
It’s important to understand that participants can only join calls when you specifically include them. They cannot independently request calls with your contact, you control who participates on each call and they need your invitation to be part of any video call.
Can I have more than 3 additional participants (4 total)? No, the maximum is 3 additional participants plus you, for a total of 4 people on the call. This is the establishment limit for operational and security reasons.
Do all participants need their own Purple Visits account? No, Participants aged 18+ must provide both ID and proof of address however they can be an additional participant on your account without the need for their own Purple Visits account. Children under 18 are not permitted to open their own Purple Visits account, they must be an additional partipant on an adults account to participate.
Can I add different participants to different calls? Yes! This is one of the benefits of the system. You can have unlimited approved participants on your account and choose which ones to include for each specific call based on availability and preference.
What if a participant can’t make the scheduled call? That’s fine. The call proceeds with the remaining participants. It’s courteous to let your contact know if someone expected won’t be there, but the call itself isn’t affected.
Do additional participants need ID if they’re just a child? No, children under 18 don’t need ID verification by the Purple Visits system, they will be verified with just a selfie image. However, some establishments may request it on a case-by-case basis for their own security policies. You’ll be notified in the app if this is required.
Can additional participants talk during the call? Yes! Everyone on the call can participate in the conversation with your contact. For best audio quality, take turns speaking rather than talking over each other.
Preparation is key. Test camera positioning with all participants present before the call, ensure everyone knows the scheduled call time, brief everyone on the rules (especially security selfie procedures), plan seating arrangement so all faces are visible and check that your device is charged.
During the call, stay in camera view at all times, try not to move around excessively, take turns speaking clearly, be mindful of background noise, keep all faces fully visible (no partial faces).
To make the most of your time, decide on speaking order before the call starts, don’t talk over each other, allow everyone time to connect with your contact, keep conversations inclusive so everyone feels involved and be respectful of the limited call time.
If participant verification is taking longer than expected (typical approval is usually fairly quick) use the live chat facility within the Purple Visits app to ask a member of the team what might be causing the delay.
If you can’t add a participant to a call, ensure they’re verified in your participants list (not just “Awaiting Verification”), check you haven’t hit the limit of 3 additional participants per call and check establishment rules as some facilities may have stricter limits. View your contact’s establishment page for specific policies.
If the call keeps pausing when participants are present, ensure all participants are fully visible with no partial faces in frame, check that lighting is good so all faces are clearly visible, ensure no one is blocking anyone else and adjust seating arrangement if needed and don’t move in and out of frame as partial visibility triggers automatic pausing. Read our full guide on during your video call for more details.
To get started adding participants, gather their information including names, dates of birth and addresses. Collect ID documents if they’re 18 or over, add them in the app by going to My Account and then Additional Participants and wait for verification.
Once your participants are verified, learn how to request calls in our guide on requesting a video call. You’ll select participants during the booking process and you will recive notifications about the scheduled call.
For a smooth experience during your calls, review our call procedures guide on during your video call, understand technical requirements in preparing for your video call and know how to handle issues with our technical troubleshooting guide.
Questions about additional participants? Check our Frequently Asked Questions, email support at [email protected] or reach out to our friendly team via the live chat facility in the Purple Visits app.
We’re here to help you bring your family together for meaningful connections with your loved one.