
Slack abandons screen-control during sharing, recommends Zoom - booleanbetrayal
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/360022908874
======
jrochkind1
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?

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tomschaefer
Our team has been using [https://tuple.app](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.

~~~
bglusman
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.

~~~
jlehuraux
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!

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babageek
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...](https://medium.com/codingzeal/a-guide-to-remote-pair-
programming-tools-9ee20e06aa0c))

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...](https://medium.com/codingzeal/tuple-the-new-hero-of-pair-programming-
ffedfed9099c))

~~~
schneems
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.

------
wwilesx
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](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.

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godzillafarts
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!"

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booleanbetrayal
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?

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

I've been a happy Tuple ([https://tuple.app](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.

------
skrebbel
In a footnote they recommend [https://www.use-together.com/](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!

~~~
jlehuraux
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 :)

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

------
dfabulich
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?

~~~
bglusman
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.

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

------
barillax
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.

------
adamwathan
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.

------
jsherwani
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?

~~~
babageek
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.

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noelwelsh
Tuple ([https://tuple.app/](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.)

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jbeorse
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.

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

