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CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

coscreen.co

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Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#41

Post by corytheboyd »

thedracle wrote: post #22
corytheboyd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how to ask this question in a way that doesn't sound snarky, so having said that I'll try: At the end of the day, is this beneficial enough to justify a completely new product versus just sharing your screen/window over Zoom (etc.)? When I'm pairing, I prefer to have a single "driver" where the pair is there to work through the bigger ideas and course correct code level decisions. I've never really wishe…

CTO of CoScreen here. I think it's a really good question and not snarky at all. This is honestly one of the biggest hurdles I think we have towards adoption. We have bet a lot on the benefits of producing frictionless remote app-level sharing. At the moment you can share one application, or your entire desktop with other tools. Then there is the friction of allowing sharing, asking for sharing, or even down to just…

Thanks for taking the time to answer my bad question sincerely!

Here's a situation that actually comes up all the time in my remote pairing sessions. Both peers have mutli-screen setups where a terminal (tailing logs, etc.), an IDE, and a web browser (perhaps even the browser dev tools) are all in separate windows, where some windows are on one display, some on another. With CoScreen, would "hey, can we check the logs real quick?" become as simple as the other peer clicking the window to add it to the session? That could be pretty big on its own IMO!

Also really useful, as the non-driving peer is looking up documentation and adding it to the session for group reference.

I'd love to try this out eventually, joining a new team soon and perhaps I can pull it off there if/when pairing needs arise!

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#42

Post by thedracle »

prpl wrote: post #40
thedracle wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CTO of CoScreen here. One of my first forays into video conferencing was programming nTouch Mobile for Sorenson Communications: https://www.sorensonvrs.com/ntouchmobile Which was a video conferencing application for performing VRS for deaf and hard of hearing users, originally on the first Android G1, and the first iPhone. I'm extremely interested in accessibility, and I can say seeing people get together, laugh, cha…

I heard the test techs there were some real assholes, especially the physicist ones :) (Hi Jason)

<.< Oh no, my past is catching up with me...

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#43

Post by corytheboyd »

bmcahren wrote: post #32
corytheboyd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how to ask this question in a way that doesn't sound snarky, so having said that I'll try: At the end of the day, is this beneficial enough to justify a completely new product versus just sharing your screen/window over Zoom (etc.)? When I'm pairing, I prefer to have a single "driver" where the pair is there to work through the bigger ideas and course correct code level decisions. I've never really wishe…

I hate to say it but this sounds fairly close-minded. Does this need to be a new product? Yes. There are no great collaboration tools for developers I've ever seen like this. I'm immediately willing to pay whatever it costs to get this for my team. No more awkward calls trying to communicate complex concepts that don't often have terminology unless you make it up. Quickly highlight and explain a conflict without back…

I mean, you can say it it's okay! I can't encapsulate my ENTIRE way of thinking into every comment I make, which has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes coming across as "close-minded".

For the record, as you can see from my reply to a sibling comment from the CTO, I am legitimately interested in CoScreen and products like it.

So why did I ask what I did? I know the CoScreen people are watching, so I took advantage and asked for some reasoning about why "this time, it's different." And I got a good answer, too!

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#44

Post by corytheboyd »

dfee wrote: post #23
corytheboyd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how to ask this question in a way that doesn't sound snarky, so having said that I'll try: At the end of the day, is this beneficial enough to justify a completely new product versus just sharing your screen/window over Zoom (etc.)? When I'm pairing, I prefer to have a single "driver" where the pair is there to work through the bigger ideas and course correct code level decisions. I've never really wishe…

In sincerity, can this stand on its own as a corporate line item? Likely. Therefore, why shouldn’t this business exist?

Whoa whoa whoa I am not saying the company should not exist. I was simply trying to poke at it to get some more in-depth answers!

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#45

Post by thedracle »

corytheboyd wrote: post #41
thedracle wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CTO of CoScreen here. I think it's a really good question and not snarky at all. This is honestly one of the biggest hurdles I think we have towards adoption. We have bet a lot on the benefits of producing frictionless remote app-level sharing. At the moment you can share one application, or your entire desktop with other tools. Then there is the friction of allowing sharing, asking for sharing, or even down to just…

Thanks for taking the time to answer my bad question sincerely! Here's a situation that actually comes up all the time in my remote pairing sessions. Both peers have mutli-screen setups where a terminal (tailing logs, etc.), an IDE, and a web browser (perhaps even the browser dev tools) are all in separate windows, where some windows are on one display, some on another. With CoScreen, would "hey, can we check the log…

"Thanks for taking the time to answer my bad question sincerely!"

No problem! It's actually a great conversation starter.

"With CoScreen, would "hey, can we check the logs real quick?" become as simple as the other peer clicking the window to add it to the session?"

Basically yes, there is a tab that shows above your window.

At the moment we have a shared context space, so your windows have a relative location that is based on the layout of the remote screen.

Ultimately this helps in like the pair programming scenario you make above, but is a weakness in other situations: we are working on a model that will let you break all of the window locations apart, or relatively translate the position of another user's windows wherever you want.

"I'd love to try this out eventually, joining a new team soon and perhaps I can pull it off there if/when pairing needs arise!"

We'd love to hear your feedback. We rely heavily on our community to determine our development path, so please reach out to us when you do, and leave feedback!

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#46

Post by seinfish »

bmcahren wrote: post #32
corytheboyd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how to ask this question in a way that doesn't sound snarky, so having said that I'll try: At the end of the day, is this beneficial enough to justify a completely new product versus just sharing your screen/window over Zoom (etc.)? When I'm pairing, I prefer to have a single "driver" where the pair is there to work through the bigger ideas and course correct code level decisions. I've never really wishe…

I hate to say it but this sounds fairly close-minded. Does this need to be a new product? Yes. There are no great collaboration tools for developers I've ever seen like this. I'm immediately willing to pay whatever it costs to get this for my team. No more awkward calls trying to communicate complex concepts that don't often have terminology unless you make it up. Quickly highlight and explain a conflict without back…

I couldn’t have said it better myself @bmcahren! Perfectly summarizes the pain points we’ve experienced that led us to build this. (CPO of CoScreen here)

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#47

Post by offtop5 »

Not bad at all, the next time I work on a side project I'll try to see if I can get my teammates to collab using this.

I don't know exactly how you're going to get bigger companies to bite though, the vast vast majority of companies have settled on a video conferencing solution which allows for screen sharing. To be completely realistic I don't imagine you'll be able to compete in the Enterprise space. It might make more sense for you to have a tip jar on the website for your free users to donate a few bucks whenever they find the service useful. Something super casual, for example if this helps me and my team get something done on the side I'll have no problem with giving you five bucks

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#48

Post by coscreen »

sleepybrett wrote: post #33

Why is this free? What data is being collected?

Good question. It is entirely free today because we wanted to make it available to as many teams as possible as quickly as possible. And to be frank, we focused on building out the first version of the app and simply didn't get to building out the billing integration yet.

Even once we start charging, we're intending to enable most users to use it for free up to a certain threshold and feature set. We're planning to charge 18 USD per user per month for the Pro version and any feedback is welcome! Details: https://www.coscreen.co/pricing

Last but not least and to be clear: we have never sold and will never sell your data. Here's our policy: https://app.termly.io/document/privacy-policy/f8dd1607-7755-...

Re: CoScreen: Screen Sharing for Engineers

#49

Post by macintux »

woah wrote: post #27
corytheboyd wrote: post #15

I'm not sure how to ask this question in a way that doesn't sound snarky, so having said that I'll try: At the end of the day, is this beneficial enough to justify a completely new product versus just sharing your screen/window over Zoom (etc.)? When I'm pairing, I prefer to have a single "driver" where the pair is there to work through the bigger ideas and course correct code level decisions. I've never really wishe…

There used to be an app called ScreenHero, which did. this, and it was really great. For some reason Slack bought it and killed it, but I think it validated the use case

Yep. ScreenHero was the absolute bomb for a remote-only company like the one I worked at at the time. A sad day indeed when Slack pulled a MS/Skype on it.
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