Slack abandons screen-control during sharing, recommends Zoom

https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/360022908874

36 25 7 years ago

get.slack.help

This is infuriating because Slack had long ago acquired and killed Screenhero which was built for this specific purpose. We rely on Slack to pass control back and forth during pair-coding operations every day, throughout the day. They suggest using Zoom and have even cemented some referral partnership, but Zoom's control-sharing is more regimented and does not support the multiple (labeled) cursors that Slack / Screenhero had. Why punt on this incredibly useful feature?

skrebbel2• 7 years ago

In a footnote they recommend https://www.use-together.com/ particularly for pair programming. Interesting, looks like a direct Screenhero clone!

All this makes me wonder why they bought Screenhero in the first place, though.

USE Together looks like a pretty small company (judging by their low-fi website design, their usage of Crisp chat "low budget Intercom", etc). I bet (and hope!) this generates them a good amount of new business!

jlehuraux2• 7 years ago

We're indeed a small team (3 devs), but have been working hard those last years to build a complete Screenhero replacement tool for pair programming :)

skrebbel2• 7 years ago

Cool stuff! Will try you out for sure and all the best!

dfabulich2• 7 years ago

They sent an email about this to Slack admins this morning, with a section "Why the change" that doesn't answer the question at all.

Why the change:
• We will be rolling out a new, faster version of calls in early July.
• To enable this improved experience, we are removing the ability to share remote control of your screen during a Slack Call.

How does removing this feature enable an improved experience?

bglusman2• 7 years ago

With no personal knowledge here my guess is that's just marketing speak, and the real reason it was removed is... well... Slack is an enterprise product and a lot of enterprises don't want or need this, and the idea of a vector for remote control even being possible just blocks a lot of sales and complicates security audits in BigCo. I'm sure they offered a way to disable it but the feature was still in there so... just my guess though.

dfabulich2• 7 years ago

Nah, Zoom is an enterprise product, and they have this feature. (Slack is referring people who want remote control functionality to use Zoom.)

tomschaefer• 7 years ago

Our team has been using https://tuple.app for a few months now, and it works really well for us! We've had much nicer video / audio quality since switching. Definitely recommend checking it out if anyone is looking for a replacement!

Apart from the features and performance of Tuple itself, I find the Tuple team to be a HUGE asset. They are extremely responsive to feedback, are always willing to dig into any issues you might run into, and consistently ship updates and improvements and communicate their progress.

bglusman2• 7 years ago

Seconded... it's early days but it's nice to finally see a good successor to ScreenHero, which was never fully integrated into slack as well as it worked before aquisition, and with this change it's sort of like it's dead now. They don't have multiple cursor support yet for instance, but they do have a nice system that avoids some of the problems with accidentally both sharing simultaneous control of the same cursor so that you have to click to take over the cursor. Similarly, switching seamlessely back and forth who's sharing and/or which screen you're sharing has been really nice.

jlehuraux2• 7 years ago

USE Together has multiple mouse cursors support as Screenhero had without having to pass control, any keyboard layouts support, has a web and integrated client, works on macOS and Windows (a linux version is planned), you can switch who shares at anytime, record the session... there’s a reason why Slack mentions us on their email/article ;) you should try it, already available for everyone!

jrochkind12• 7 years ago

Looks like it's invite-only beta... any word on pricing?

Paying for Slack for chat plus screen sharing was one thing, but a totally separate project it's going to be hard for me to get approval for something with non-trivial costs.

godzillafarts• 7 years ago

Slack has been positioning themselves to be an integral tool used in the workplace. They dominate communication, but now are getting rid of one of the most important features for developer communication... You serious? What good is screen sharing (while pair programming) if you can't share control of your screen?

You're telling me that I have to download another application, and convince me teammates to do so as well? "Oh I immediately see the problem with this code you're showing me, but I can't do anything about it. Let's hop off this call and start another call in a different application!"

barillax• 7 years ago

My company has been a heavy user of the dual cursor pair coding approach since we first adopted Screenhero over 5 years ago. Screenhero wasn't perfect, but it felt like Slack's integration never managed to reach the performance of the original implementation. Hard to see this announcement as anything other than an admission of failure.

noelwelsh• 7 years ago

Tuple (https://tuple.app/) should thank Slack for giving them this market. It helps that Tuple are doing an excellent job of executing. Definitely try it out if you want this feature. (Happy Tuple user for 1 day here.)

DavidVII• 7 years ago

It's a shame to see slack mishandle the Screenhero acquisition.

I've been a happy Tuple (https://tuple.app) customer since they released their freelancer plan a few weeks back, and they're knocking it out of the park. If you were using slack calls for pair programming (or any other tool), then I highly recommend checking them out.

wwilesx• 7 years ago

Given the direction Slack has been going lately, it does not surprise me in the slightest that they hamstring Screenhero like they have. Our team has completely abandoned Slack because of its' bloat and degrading performance. I'm glad the Screenhero team got paid but it's yet another great product relegated to the scrap heap post acquisition.

We've been using Tuple (https://tuple.app) for about a month now and are very happy customers. It's about as good as what Screenhero was when it was a stand alone product and is only getting better.

adamwathan• 7 years ago

As someone who had no need for Slack but did need to do a lot of remote pairing, I was really bummed when they acquired ScreenHero and was forced to find another tool.

I’ve been using Tuple since the first alpha was released and it has been awesome. They don’t have multiple simultaneous cursors (yet) but I actually like their current system more, only one person can control mouse/keyboard at a time and you just click to take over. Feels more like face-to-face pairing where only one person is driving at a time. As a bonus the mouse control actually feels right because they don’t have to do any weird hacks to trick the OS into displaying two fake cursors, it respects your tracking speed settings and all that stuff properly.

Performance is great too, I’ve been pairing 20 hours a week with a friend on a slower connection who lives in Arkansas (I’m near Toronto) and even sending 5K back and forth has worked flawlessly for hours at a time.

Really, really good product.

babageek2• 7 years ago

We have been using Tuple for little over a month now. While it is still in beta they are making amazing strides in a short period of time to bring us the tool that we have been wanting for such a long long time.

I had written an article about the missing tool in the pair programming market when Slack killed Screenhero and didn't fully support its features. The pickings were slim back then. (https://medium.com/codingzeal/a-guide-to-remote-pair-program...)

Here is a follow up article that I wrote about Tuple once we had put some time into using it along with an update or two. (https://medium.com/codingzeal/tuple-the-new-hero-of-pair-pro...)

schneems• 7 years ago

I hurt my hands a few weeks ago so I've been pairing out of necessity and I can't believe that it took me this long (10+ years) to get on the pairing train.

Just got access tuple about a week ago. Worked really well, I plan on trying to remote pair a lot more for OSS issues in the future.

jsherwani• 7 years ago

Screenhero co-founder here.

Serious question: if I were to make a Screenhero successor, would you pay to use it, or are the current alternatives (Tuple / UseTogether) good enough for your use case?

babageek2• 7 years ago

So far Tuple is answering my needs well. It is early in its life so I expect it just to get better, especially since its focus is on Pair Programming, and not all the other things that Slack is trying to solve.

BTW, thank you for setting the Gold Standard in pairing tools. I remember my Screenhero days very fondly and was sad to see what happened when Slack took over.

andrewsouthpaw• 7 years ago

Screenhero changed my life for the better as a remote worker, and I was so sad when Slack acquired SH and blundered the acquisition i.e. just iceboxed the competition. (I learned Slack had their own architecture and codebase -- which is why it was worse -- so I'm inferring Slack acquired SH just to eliminate competitors, rather than use their code.) Tuple has been good so far, though I'm still noticing lag issues that are worse that Screenhero being. Even when connecting within the same city via strong internet, we can get pings of 200ms. It's unclear whether that's because of our internet or Tuple's infrastructure, we're still doing some testing.

Overall I've been pleased with Tuple. I think they're doing good work, care deeply about making a good product, and are looking into exciting features like mobbing support and supporting video. It's expensive, but so it goes when you want a good product.

If an alternative came up I'd at least try it out.

jbeorse• 7 years ago

Our team already switched from Slack to Tuple since it was just better anyway. Call quality is better, its easier to swap who is sharing, its windowed so its easier to multitask while pairing, etc etc. We are fully distributed, so a solid pairing tool is essential to us, and Tuple is the closest thing we've found to just sitting next to each other with two computers open. Its also worth mentioning that their team is very responsive and helpful.

Now I just need a tool that replicates that magic feeling when everyone is in the same room and running on all cylinders.

pndy• 7 years ago

There's large number of accounts registered in last 17 hours (or less) in this thread

jrochkind12• 7 years ago

The way Slack allowed dual control of the screen (both parties keyboard input, two mouse pointers) was pretty unique and astounding. I loved it for remote pairing. It's actually what motivated us to upgrade from a free Slack to paid.

The announcement talks about "remote screen control", but doesn't mention the fairly unusual feature of simultaneous/dual control.

Anyone know of something else fairly affordable, that works well, and allows simultaneous dual control?

Slack abandons screen-control during sharing, recommends Zoom

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