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Ask HN: Does a viable alternative to ScreenHero exist?

18 points by todd3834 ↗ HN
I've been using ScreenHero ever since I first found out about it a few years ago. They were bought out by Slack and I assumed that meant slack was going to integrate them into their product. I'm sure this is still the plan but after waiting for over a year I'm not sure it will come any time soon. There is a way to invite people to ScreenHero but otherwise you can't sign up since Slack bought the company.

Does anyone know of an alternative that is as usable as ScreenHero? I can't believe there isn't an open source alternative… or is there? I realize that VNC software is very similar but the idea of giving people a username/password to your machine vs sharing a screen with someone in a buddy list is wildly different.

I'd be interested in collaborating in an open source version of ScreenHero if anyone else is interested

20 comments

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todd3834
Mac OS screen sharing works alright if you are on the same network or you know the IP address of the remote computer and they aren't behind a router (which is almost no one), I wonder if it would be easy to hack together a buddy list and expose the native apple screen sharing in a more usable way?
mercer
I vaguely recall MacOS screen sharing to work even behind a router via some iCloud voodoo. Can anyone else confirm that or did I dream it (or use a router that somehow was set up correctly already)?
stephenr
macOS screen sharing works well for me, using Messages/FaceTime (aka Apple ID) contacts.
sdomino
We used ScreenHero in the past and it was alright.

After a while we just ended up going back to Google Hangouts for screen sharing and Discord for voice, and it's worked perfectly.

todd3834
Yeah, Google Hangouts is great if all you want to do is share the screen. I guess my use case is mostly pair programming on a distributed team. I have used the remote desktop control on google hangouts but it never felt like I was actually on the machine the way you do on screen hero. That was a while back, I should try it again. thanks for the reminder! :)
ceautery
We've been experimenting with Sococo at my office. It can share voice, screen, and video with multiple people. It's worked pretty well so far.
Bahamut
The aspect that's not as good is if one person has a high res monitor - then you can get into some mismatches from people sharing or viewing.

FWIW, it works well enough for me.

ezekg
Everyone at work has been using https://room.co lately. Seems alright.
cvburgess
The homepage says "Goodbye" and has a shutdown notice so it's probably not the best alternative... Do you know any similar services still operating?
hackerboos
There's a shutdown notice on their homepage...
ezekg
That's so odd, their mobile site doesn't have that. I usually follow direct links to chats, so I didn't realize that. My bad!
pipework
I'm also curious. My favorite feature of screenhero has been the appropriate number of cursors on screen for each participant. It makes pair programming a lot better.
todd3834
Yeah totally! VPN with a buddy list, the way it rings when someone requests to share the screen and you can accept, and multiple cursors.

These other tools listed are nice but ScreenHero really has the perfect combination. It's such an essential tool for me that I'd be willing to spend a lot of my free time on an open source version since it's future with ScreenHero is uncertain.

pipework
If anyone needs an invite to screenhero, any screenhero user can invite someone, at least paid users, I can invite you. (Paid users haven't been charged since screenhero was bought.)