Cool, but I couldn't close the java 'ScreenLeap' dialog without using chrome's task manager to kill the java plugin.
(I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, and chrome 16.0 if that helps)
Also, I feel "No downloads, installs" is a little disingenuous - just because it's not installed as a full-time application doesn't mean that it's not downloaded or installed.
Thanks for the feedback. Point taken on the "no downloads or installs". We wanted to convey how easy it is for someone to view your screen but I can see that it doesn't accurately describe the process for sharing your screen. We'll work to improve the messaging.
I would be cautious about changing your marketing based on feedback here. While we understand you are really downloading an applet, 99% of the people in the world won't even care that distinction exists. A/B test on your target market.
Faced the same bug on the same os, browser.
And just for fun wanted to see what happens if I open the url in another browser in the same computer ... recursion!
My boss works in a different city, and we're on the phone all the time. The simplicity of this is priceless. I especially appreciate that the viewing side requires no setup. That makes it much preferable to WebEx or Skype when I'm dealing with less tech-savvy folks.
Thanks for the suggestion on the URL. When we eventually support accounts, we plan to allow you to start a screen session by simply clicking on a name from your buddy list so hopefully the longer URL will be less of an issue for frequent users.
Convenience is what you should be going for. If you're able to generate a short url for convenience, the chances of someone signing up later rather than saying "Signup just to try? fuck it" are higher.
Hell, when generating the url, just make a call to the api at http://tweak.tk so that you can display the short one side-by-side with the long one. Provided your codebase is well formed, a change like that should not be astronomical.
(P.S. Tweak.tk is really awesome. At least check it out.)
If you are going to use an URL shortening service, please go with one that is universally recognised by most tech people, such as bit.ly. I've never heard of tweak.tk and I've never seen it come across my Twitter feed.
The cool thing about tweak.tk is that it's operated by the .tk-registry and you're getting a free generated .tk domain instead of just a page on the domain of the shortening service. Jdyk56.tk instead of bitly.com/jdyk56
Just tried it. Works pretty well. I especially like the share rectangle region feature.
I have been using https://join.me/ since it allows me to control the other person's screen as well. The setup is just as simple but it requires you to run a downloaded file.
Right now, you can limit what is shown to what's inside a rectangle. The rectangle is movable and resizable although that is currently not obvious from the UI. We want to eventually allow you to select the application that you want to share.
If I hadn't found http://join.me a few months ago I'd be jumping up and down right now. This is just as effortless, great job there. I'd suggest making the two options: share a screen, and join a session stand out even more from the rest of the homepage.
1) Can I safely assume you're working on a way to share desktop control, for things like tech support? Seems like the next semi-major logical step.
2) Out of curiosity, how do you plan to monetize this beast? Freemium, with a more feature-rich paid version (voip, desktop control, etc)? Or...something else?
1) We want to really nail the screen sharing experience first and make it work reliably for everyone. Remote desktop control and live collaboration are follow-up ideas that we are definitely looking into.
2) Freemium is one option that we are considering. We want to keep focusing on reducing the time it takes to share a screen and see what kind of use cases emerge before deciding on how to monetize it. Besides freemium, we think there might be possibilities for integration with other sites for support or enhancing the browsing experience. For example, a clothing site could have a stylist available that could walk users through the site and help them pick outfits that they might like.
That's something we are looking into. We think that there will be different optimal image formats depending upon the use case (i.e., are you sharing an illustration or a photo). We want to see what those use cases are before optimizing.
How do you see what the use cases are?
Are you asking .. or watching? I'm kind of serious here, because as others have stated, this has the 'untrusted' sticker on it for now.
Otherwise: Congratulations. From my day to day 'support the in-laws' sessions: This could be very helpful.
We'll definitely be asking. The trust of our users are very important to us. If you have an interesting use case, please let us know.
We wanted to soft launch something now to start getting feedback about the product. We'll be doing a formal launch in the next couple of weeks and will have a lot more detail to share about us and the company then.
If you do so, add ability to reduce # of colors to speed up refreshes. Clients to whose machines I am connecting to often have lousy upload bandwidth.
I'm not sure how hard is it to send events (window move/resize, mouse move etc.) instead of compressed image of invalidated screen region. Even if that's usable only in special cases, it's worth doing.
Great responses. Best of luck to you guys. I'll be sure to bookmark your stuff and follow the progress, and if/when I come across a screen-sharing need, I'll definitely use yours.
Another option for you for monetizing: customer rebranding. For a couple bucks a month, you can use your own logo and/or color scheme and/or stylesheet. Though I'm sure that's at least been considered.
For us, the main frustration was showing your screen to someone who you didn't frequently collaborate with. If they didn't have WebEx installed, you would have to ask them to download and install it, create an account, and then get invited to a meeting. The whole process can take more than 10 minutes which is more than enough for most people to decide that it's not worth the trouble, especially if it's for something like a sales demo.
We want to make it as easy to share your screen with someone as it is to instant message them. If we do, we hope people will start using it frequently throughout the day for all sorts of ad-hoc collaboration.
This looks nice. Is there any way to switch who is sharing their screen among participants? We have weekly meetings for product demos and WebEx allows us to trade of who is the presenter.
Very nice, worked flawlessly when I just tested it with a friend (other than having to kill the java process by hand in the end). Thanks in particular for supporting Linux!
Two things:
1. It was odd that you can't resize using the top and left borders.
2. I'm using 2 monitors (laptop + monitor) and I can't move the rectangle to the secondary monitory.
For join.me, you need to have Flash installed to view someone's screen. Screenleap allows you to view from any device with a web browser, whether it be a PC, tablet, or smartphone. In the same way that you don't worry about what email program someone is on before sending them an email, we want to make it so you don't have to worry about what device a person is on before showing them your screen.
Just tested this. Ok so it works. Very cool! Now chances of someone correctly guessing a permutation of three 3-digit numbers are 1 in 901^3 = 732 million, but still, is that the only form of security ? I can call someone over the phone & give them my screen key ie. 3 3-digit numbers. Someone else can overhear that & also go to screenleap and enter those 3 numbers & suddenly my screen isn't private anymore...
Java is shown in the instruction screenshots, but it would be nice if it was clearing saying "share your screen if java is installed". I have Java disabled so this doesn't work for me, nor does it work trying to share my Android screen :-)
I had expected something like a cross platform browser plugin that isn't Java.
135 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 243 ms ] thread(I'm running Ubuntu 11.10, and chrome 16.0 if that helps)
Also, I feel "No downloads, installs" is a little disingenuous - just because it's not installed as a full-time application doesn't mean that it's not downloaded or installed.
This operates exactly like join.me - however I like join.me's shorter URLs - I would suggest copying a format similar to theirs.
However I really like the "share whats in the rectangle" feature.
Hell, when generating the url, just make a call to the api at http://tweak.tk so that you can display the short one side-by-side with the long one. Provided your codebase is well formed, a change like that should not be astronomical.
(P.S. Tweak.tk is really awesome. At least check it out.)
This one, screenlap.com, worked out like it said it would.
I have been using https://join.me/ since it allows me to control the other person's screen as well. The setup is just as simple but it requires you to run a downloaded file.
Thank you for helping keep the hair on my head
1) Can I safely assume you're working on a way to share desktop control, for things like tech support? Seems like the next semi-major logical step.
2) Out of curiosity, how do you plan to monetize this beast? Freemium, with a more feature-rich paid version (voip, desktop control, etc)? Or...something else?
3) Very cool. Great job guys!
2) Freemium is one option that we are considering. We want to keep focusing on reducing the time it takes to share a screen and see what kind of use cases emerge before deciding on how to monetize it. Besides freemium, we think there might be possibilities for integration with other sites for support or enhancing the browsing experience. For example, a clothing site could have a stylist available that could walk users through the site and help them pick outfits that they might like.
3) Thanks!
Otherwise: Congratulations. From my day to day 'support the in-laws' sessions: This could be very helpful.
We wanted to soft launch something now to start getting feedback about the product. We'll be doing a formal launch in the next couple of weeks and will have a lot more detail to share about us and the company then.
Another option for you for monetizing: customer rebranding. For a couple bucks a month, you can use your own logo and/or color scheme and/or stylesheet. Though I'm sure that's at least been considered.
We want to make it as easy to share your screen with someone as it is to instant message them. If we do, we hope people will start using it frequently throughout the day for all sorts of ad-hoc collaboration.
Works well, and yes, effortless. Impressive.
How is this different from https://join.me/?
I had expected something like a cross platform browser plugin that isn't Java.
How are you guys streaming the images down? Any interesting technologies or methods used?