Embodiments are configured to provide communication environments to communicating participants using a number of modality control features, but are not so limited. In an embodiment, a system includes a communications manager to manage an amount of available communication bandwidth to a number of communication modalities that include an audio modality, a video modality, an application sharing modality, and/or a file transfer modality. In one embodiment, available bandwidth can be distributed by controlling an audio state, a video state, an application sharing state, and/or a file transfer state, including using first and second distribution ratios as part of allocating available bandwidth.