Introduction

Virtual events are becoming more and more popular. Even though covid is over now, the trend for virtual and hybrid events has taken hold.

If you are looking for a chat solution to add next to your live stream video, you are at the right place.

In this article, we are going to evaluate different live chat solutions that are designed for audience engagement in a virtual live event.

With these tools you can add chat right next to your video, many are white-label solutions and offer varied levels of customization and moderation.

Parameters to evaluate the Live Streaming chat service

These are the parameters that we think are important in a live streaming chat service and we will be evaluating the solutions based on these parameters and give them a score.

1. Ease of adding the chat next to live stream

this parameter examines how easy it is to add the chat solution next to your live stream.

Not only that how much time it takes to customize the look of the chat to match the website and what moderation options are available.

Basically, how much time it takes to get the chat solution up and running.

2.  Scalability

Scalability is important especially when you are conducting large events.

Nowadays there are live streams with millions of online participants. Can the chat solution handle that?

What is the maximum number of concurrent connections can the chat solution handle. that is what we are going to establish with the scalability parameter.

3. Reliability

Reliability is definitely very very important. You have been preparing for the event for probably months and have spent a considerable amount of money in organizing the event as well.

On the day of the event, it is critical for everything to work properly, especially the chat solution.

That is why reliability is one of the most important aspects of the chat for live streaming

4. Support

Support is very important for that extra peace of mind

There are two types of support that we evaluate

1. When integrating and setting up the chat solution with the live stream if you have any questions/concerns. Does the chat solution have a team of experts to help you out.
2. During the event. You need to know the chat has your back with emergency phone/email support if something goes wrong.

Top 5 Live Streaming Chat services

1. DeadSimpleChat
2. SendBird
3. GetStream
4. Zegocloud
5. Twillio Chat

1. DeadSimpleChat

DeadSimpleChat is the live streaming chat solution. Specially designed for live stream.

DeadSimpleChat can handle 10 million concurrent participants and has 100% uptime SLA plus tools for customization and moderation

Let us analyze the DeadSimpleChat in light of our parameters.

1. Ease of adding

adding DeadSimpleChat next to your live stream is just pasting the embed code where you want the chat to appear.

Customizing the chat is also very easy due to its UI based chat customization tool.

Moderation can also be done with the help of UI based tools and you can also easily create moderators as well.

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

2. Scalability

DeadSimpleChat offers plans upto 10 Million concurrent participants and is by far the most scalable chat.

DeadSimpleChat has been used in event that have been broadcasted the world over and watched by millions of participants

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

3. Reliability

With Guaranteed 100% Uptime SLA and emergency phone and email support, you can sure the chat works on your event day.

having spent so much time money and effort in organizing the event, a lot depends on the chat working on the day of the event.

DeadSimpleChat offers 100% Uptime with SLA agreement and 99.99% uptime with the SLA

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Support:

DeadSimpleChat offer both kinds of support that we are looking for in a Live Streaming Chat solution

1. They offer integration support, you can email them or call them to get all your questions / concerns answers. If there are any special requests for example : with regards to customization or any other thing the customer success team is there to help you out
2. Phone support comes free with DeadSimpleChat for your peace of mind during events. There is also email support for any kind of questions / concerns you might have

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

here are some of the features of DeadSimpleChat :

1. Support for 10 million concurrent online users
2. Customization tool (UI based as well ability to write custom css)
3. Single Sign on (automatically sign in users that are on your website to chat)
4. 100% Uptime SLA and Guaranteed to perform during the event.
5. Chat API and SDK and Webhooks (Everything is UI based but if you need apis for precision customization)
6. Q&A Mode
7. Polls
8. Chat Analytics
9. 24X7 Phone and email support
10. Group and 1-1 chat
11. Moderation tools

2. Sendbird

Sendbird is one of the leading chat providers. they offer many other services besides live streaming chat like marketplace chat, customer seller chat, etc.

Sendbird also offers video calling and voice calling APIs to integrate voice calling in your apps.

Let us evaluate Sendbird in the light of our parameters

1. Ease of Adding

Sendbird provides chat API and SDK using which you have to build your own chat. This is quite difficult as compared to the pre-built solution by DeadSimpleChat.

You need to have a developer to built the front end of the application for you, customization is easy because you are building the whole front end of the application yourself

Sendbird does provide UI kits that could help with the development

The process of building the chat application itself can take from weeks to months

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

2. Scalability

The chat solution is scalable up to 20,000 concurrent participants. Though minuscule as compared to 10 Million concurrent participants capacity by DeadSimpleChat

It is fairly usable for most use-cases and small events

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

3. Reliability

Sendbird is a reliable chat solution, it offers 99.99% uptime and email support.

Sendbird does offer phone support but you need purchase it separately and you can also purchase the SLA agreement with Sendbird.

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4. Support

Sendbird does offer good documentation and UI kits but does not offer integration support through email or meetings with the customer success team.

DeadSimpleChat offers integration support with customer success team through email and meetings

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Total Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

3. GetStream Chat

Get Stream Chat is another provider of chat for various applications. You can create all sorts of chat with get stream like buyer seller chat etc.

Get Stream provides chat APIs and SDK for multiple programming languages and also provides the UI kit needed to build the front-end

GetStream is not a pre built chat application and you need to build out the front end yourself for your use-case.

Let us evaluate GetStream in the light of our parameters

1. Ease of adding

As getstream provide only chat api and sdk, you need to build the front end of the chat your self. It takes a lot of time, effort and money to build the chat application and then use it along with your live stream.

GetStream does provide UI kit that makes it easier to build out the chat but you need a developer and designer to design and build the chat application

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

2. Scalability

Get Stream chat scales up to 60,000 online concurrent participants that is great but tiny compared to the 10 million online concurrent users offered by DeadSimpleChat

Considering 60,000 is fairly good for medium events we can say getStream chat is good with regards to scalability

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

3. Reliability

Get Stream offers 99.99% reliability and you can purchase even more reliable 99.999% reliable server uptime with a price.

Thus you can say that Get Stream is a reliable chat platform

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

4.Support

Get Stream does offer good documentation but does not offer chat integration support via email or via meeting with customer success team

Get Stream also offer UI kit to help you build the application if you do not have a designer

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

4. Zegocloud

Zegocloud is a complete chat solution with in-app chat api and group chat feature.

Zegocloud provides chat api and sdk solution, again here as well you need to build the front-end on the application yourself.

Zegocloud provides chat UI kit that you can use to build out the chat.

Let us evaluate the Zegocloud chat using our parameters

1. Ease of adding

Zegocloud provides chat api and sdk but you need to build out the chat yourself. So the chat time to market is quite long

Plus you incur additional development time and effort and cost to build the chat application

It is difficult to add chat using zegocloud

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

2. Scalability

Zeocloud does not scale to large number of concurrent participants and is limited for up to 10,000 participants only

It is good for small events and basically mostly used for in-app chat but not streaming chat application

Star Rating: ⭐

3. Reliability

Zegocloud offers 99.99% reliability and does not have any other plans for more reliable chat.

Basically zegoclound is designed for in-app chat and also has other products like video call and voice call api and sdk.

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

4. Support

Zegocloud has good documentation but does not offer integration support through email and phone

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

5. Twillio Chat

Twillio is a formidable player in the communications space. It has a lot of products like video calling, SMS, Whatsapp chat etc.

But it also offers chat API and SDK, using which you can build your own chat for live streaming

Let is evaluate the Twillio chat in light of our parameters

1. Ease of adding

It is difficult to add Twillio chat to your website for live streaming. It offers API and SDK using which you need to build the chat by yourself

Building the front end of the chat application has considerable costs and delays your time to market.

And introduces other issues like development time and design costs.

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

2. Scalability

Twillio chat can handle upto 7000 participants in a group chat. Which is much less as compared to 10 Million concurrent users that DeadSimpleChat offers

But 7000 users are good for small events

Star Rating: ⭐⭐

3. Reliability

Twillio chat offers 99.99% reliability which is on par with what others have on offering

Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

4. Support

Twillio has to offer good documentation but you need to build the chat your self.

But its documentation is difficult to access as compared to others as it offers multiple products and you need to navigate to where your documentation is there

Star Rating : ⭐⭐⭐

Conclusion

In this article we have evaluated the leading chat providers in the live streaming space. Here the Pre-built chat is only offered by the DeadSimpleChat.

The main feature of Pre-built chat is that it greatly helps with time to market and is cost effective and fast in implementation

I hope you like the article and the review that we have done.

Thanks for reading.

This article was orignally published on the DeadSimpleChat Blog: https://deadsimplechat.com/blog/react-native-debugger/

In this guide we will learn how to debug a react native applications and the set of debugging tools available for us.

Debugging Expo Apps

Refer to this section if you want to debug the react native app using Expo. If you are already familiar with Expo you can skip to Step 3.

Step 1: Setting up expo app

For this debug demo we will create a basic expo application, with a button and we want to pause the debugger when the button is pressed.

To create the app we will type the following command:

npx create-expo-app react-native-expo

react-native-expo is the name of the app we want to create, you can change it to anything you like.

Once the app is created we will cd into the app directory

cd react-native-expo

Step 2: Running the application

Once our app is created, we will cd into app directory and run the application, to start the expo app we will type the following command:

npm run start

This will launch the Metro bundler. The Metro bundler allows us to run the application in multiple ways.

The easiest way is to run the app on your mobile device. To run the app on your mobile device go apple App Store or Google Play store and search for "Expo Go" application

Once the app is installed, launch the camera app on your phone and scan the QR Code displayed on the terminal window.

After scanning the QR Code, you app will launch inside the "Expo Go" application.

Now when you change the code in your app, the Expo Go application will automatically refresh.

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Step 3: Creating a button

Now we will edit the Expo app created by the cli and a button, want to call a function when this button is pressed, and in the later steps we will add a debugger  to the function.

To edit the button we will open the project in vscode, the easiest way to open the project in VSCode is running the code . command.

Make sure you can in the code directory and in the terminal type the command:

code .

This will open the project in VSCode, now inside VSCode open the file App.js

We will edit the App.js file and add the following code:

import { StatusBar } from 'expo-status-bar';
import { StyleSheet, Text, View, Button } from 'react-native';

export default function App() {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text>Debugging Demo</Text>
       <Button
          onPress={buttonPressed}
          title="Learn More"
          color="#841584"
          accessibilityLabel="Learn more about this purple button"
        />
      <StatusBar style="auto" />
    </View>
  );
}

function buttonPressed() {
  console.log("Button pressed");
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#fff',
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
});

We have added a "Learn More" button and when the button is pressed, we can see the log message in the terminal on our computer.

Now close the Metro Bundler terminal application by press Cltr+c command.

Step 4: Installing React Native VSCode Debug Extension

Our goal is to pause the debugger in VSCode when the button is pressed, to do this we will install the React Native VSCode Debug extension.

Step 5: Setting up the Extension to Debug Expo Apps

Once the extension is installed go to the run and debug menu by clicking this button on the sidebar, and then click on "create a launch.json file" link.

Then Select "React Native" from the list

Then another menu will appear, in the new menu makes sure everything is unchecked, and only "Debug in Exponent" is checked,  as shown in the image below.

Then click the "OK" button and it will automatically create a launch.json file and in the debug menu "Debug in Exponent" option will be visible.

Step 6: Launching the Debugger

To start debugging the application we will click on "Start Debugging" button where "Debug in Exponent" is written.

Before launching this make sure that Metro bundler is not running in the terminal, if it is running close it using Cltr+c.

Once you launch it, it will show the qr code, just scan the qr code on your mobile device to launch the app in the Expo Go application.

Step 7: (Important) Enable Remote Debugging

Now an important step remains, without this your debugger will not work.

You will have to enable remote debugging the Expo app.

iOS Device: If you are running the Expo App on iOS then Shake your iOS device to reveal the "In-App Developer Menu".

iOS Emulator: If the app is running in the iOS Emulator Device -> Shake option

Android Device: If you are running the Expo App on Android then Shake your Android device to reveal the "In-App Developer Menu".

Android Emulator: If the app is running in Android Emulator then press Cmd+M or Cltr+M button.

Once you have launched the "In-App Developer Menu" select "Debug Remote JS" option.

Once selected now the VSCode debugger can connect to the app running in Expo Go.

Step 8: Debugging the Button Press

Now we are all set to attach breakpoint to our buttonPressed() function.

Open the App.js file and and scroll down to line 20, and attach the breakpoint to the first line of the buttonPressed() method.

Now click on the button  and you will see that the debugger has paused the execution of the code.

Step 9: That's it!

That's how easy it is to add the debugger in the React Native Application created with Expo. If you have created the React Native application using the React Native Cli then, read the instructions below.

Debugging React Native Cli Apps

Refer to this section if you have created your react native app using the react native cli.

Step 1: Setting up the React Native Cli App

For the debugging demo we will create a button in React Native Cli App, and when the button is pressed a breakpoint will trigger and debugger will pause the code execution.

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React Native Environment Setup Guide -> React Native Cli Quickstart

After you have setup the environment we will create a sample app using the react native cli

npx react-native init AwesomeProject

It will take some time to setup the application, once it is done we will cd into the project directory

cd AwesomeProject

We will start the react native Metro Bundler using the command

npx react-native start

Now we will open a new terminal window, and cd into our project directory and run the command

npx react-native run-ios

OR

npx react-native run-android

To launch the app is android or ios emulator respectively.

Step 2: Creating a Button

Now we will update the code of our React Native application add a button, and a create a function that will be called when the button is pressed.

Open the project in VSCode, by cd into the project directory and using the code command

code .

Once the project is opened in VSCode, navigate to the App.js file create a button after the <View .. component

          <Button 
              onPress={ButtonPressed}
              title="Learn More"
              color="#841584"
              accessibilityLabel="Learn more about this purple button"
                />

Then near the bottom of the page create the ButtonPressed function

function ButtonPressed() {
  console.log("Button Pressed");
}

Here is the complete App.js code:

/**
 * Sample React Native App
 * https://github.com/facebook/react-native
 *
 * @format
 * @flow strict-local
 */

import React from 'react';
import type {Node} from 'react';
import {
  SafeAreaView,
  ScrollView,
  StatusBar,
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  useColorScheme,
  View,
  Button
} from 'react-native';

import {
  Colors,
  DebugInstructions,
  Header,
  LearnMoreLinks,
  ReloadInstructions,
} from 'react-native/Libraries/NewAppScreen';

/* $FlowFixMe[missing-local-annot] The type annotation(s) required by Flow's
 * LTI update could not be added via codemod */
const Section = ({children, title}): Node => {
  const isDarkMode = useColorScheme() === 'dark';
  return (
    <View style={styles.sectionContainer}>
      <Text
        style={[
          styles.sectionTitle,
          {
            color: isDarkMode ? Colors.white : Colors.black,
          },
        ]}>
        {title}
      </Text>
      <Text
        style={[
          styles.sectionDescription,
          {
            color: isDarkMode ? Colors.light : Colors.dark,
          },
        ]}>
        {children}
      </Text>
    </View>
  );
};

const App: () => Node = () => {
  const isDarkMode = useColorScheme() === 'dark';

  const backgroundStyle = {
    backgroundColor: isDarkMode ? Colors.darker : Colors.lighter,
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={backgroundStyle}>
      <StatusBar
        barStyle={isDarkMode ? 'light-content' : 'dark-content'}
        backgroundColor={backgroundStyle.backgroundColor}
      />
      <ScrollView
        contentInsetAdjustmentBehavior="automatic"
        style={backgroundStyle}>
        <Header />
        <View
          style={{
            backgroundColor: isDarkMode ? Colors.black : Colors.white,
          }}>

            <Button 
                onPress={ButtonPressed}
                title="Learn More"
                color="#841584"
                accessibilityLabel="Learn more about this purple button"
                />

          <Section title="Step One ">
            Edit <Text style={styles.highlight}>App.js</Text> to change this
            screen and then come back to see your edits.
          </Section>
          <Section title="See Your Changes">
            <ReloadInstructions />
          </Section>
          <Section title="Debug">
            <DebugInstructions />
          </Section>
          <Section title="Learn More">
            Read the docs to discover what to do next:
          </Section>
          <LearnMoreLinks />
        </View>
      </ScrollView>
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  sectionContainer: {
    marginTop: 32,
    paddingHorizontal: 24,
  },
  sectionTitle: {
    fontSize: 24,
    fontWeight: '600',
  },
  sectionDescription: {
    marginTop: 8,
    fontSize: 18,
    fontWeight: '400',
  },
  highlight: {
    fontWeight: '700',
  },
});

function ButtonPressed() {
  console.log("Button Pressed");
}

export default App;

After we have added the button the Metro bundler will recompile the application and it will automatically update in the simulator.

Step 3: Installing the React Native VSCode Extension

Open VSCode Extensions menu and search for "React Native Tools" and install the extension

Step 4a: Debug Android App

To setup the extension to debug Android app, click on the run and debug menu and select "create a launch.json" button

Then Select "React Native" from the dropdown menu

Then from the list make sure "Debug Android" is selected

And Click "OK" button and Click "Debug Android" button to launch the Android Emulator and debugger.

Step 4b: Debug iOS App

The step for debugging iOS App is very similar to debugging Android App.

After installing the extension, create the "launch.json" file

Then Select React Native from the dropdown

Then from the Select box, select Debug iOS, it will Add the iOS Debug configuation is launch.json file.

Click the "Debug iOS" button to launch the debugger, the debugger will launch the iOS emulator.

Step 5: (Important) Make sure remote debugging is enabled

In the Android emulator press CTRL+M or CMD+M and click the Debug button.

In case of iOS Emulor press CMD+D to open the Debug Menu and press "Open Debugger" button.

That's it! Now we are ready to debug our application.

Step 6: Debugging the Button Press

Now we are ready to start debugging our application, we will add a breakpoint to our "ButtonPressed" function, and launch the app in the emulator.

The we will press the button in the emulator, and the debugger should pause the execution of the code at the line where we have added the breakpoint.

Press the "Debug iOS" button to lauch the App in the iOS emulator, if we want to debug the Anroid App we will select "Debug iOS" and it will launch the app in the Android Emulator.

Now open App.js file and add the breakpoint on the first line of the "ButtonPressed" method.

Now wait for the app to launch in the emulator, and once the app is live, press the "Learn more button" and you will see that the debugger has paused the code execution.

If the debugger didn't pause at the breakpoint make sure that you have enable remote debugging as shown in Step 5.

Common Problems

Here is the list of common problems that you might encounter when setting up the debugger and how to solve them:

error listen EADDRINUSE: address already in use :::8081

If you enouter this error then the npx react-native start program is already running in the terminal.

Terminate the program using Cltr+c to solve this error.

error occurred when launching application

An error occurred while launching the application. Failed to launch the specified activity.
Try running application manually and start debugging using
'Attach to packager' launch configuration. (error code 1205)
(error code 303)

This error usually occurs when react native debugger when timeout occurs when connecting to the emulator.

It occurs when the debugger launches the emulator for the first time.

Wait for the emulator to completely start, and the re-run the debugger to solve this issue.

Debugger not stopping at breakpoint

Make sure that follow Step 5 in case of React Native Cli Apps or Step 7 in case of Expo apps.

The remote debug must be enable for the debugger to work.

Enable remote debug then stop and re-run the debugger to solve this issue.

An error occurred while attaching debugger to the application.

An error occurred while attaching debugger to the application. 
Another debugger is already connected to packager. Please close it before trying to debug with VSCode. (error code 505) (error code 1410)

This error occurs when both iOS and Android emulator is open on the same machine.

Make sure only one emulator is running, and close other emulator windows and this error should go away.

If this error presist, uninstall the "React native tools" extension and re-install it. Then close VSCode completely and restart VSCode to solve this error.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have gone through the steps on how to setup a debugger for React Native application created using React Native Cli and also gone through the steps of debugging application created using Expo.

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1. Setup screen sharing on Mac
2. How to view the shared screen

Important Notice: If you are sharing your screen with another Mac, the user of that mac can see, edit and control your Mac Remotely.

First, we are going to set up the screen sharing on your Mac, these are the steps that you should follow:

1. On your Mac computer click on the apple logo on the top left corner of the screen, then select system preferences from the drop-down menu. A system preferences window will come up as shown in the image.

In the system preferences window click on the sharing icon. A sharing window appears, here on the left-hand side, there is a list of services that you can switch on. The first item on the list is screen sharing click on the checkbox to switch it on. Refer the image for more details. Note: If remote Management is selected, it must be deselected before selecting the screen sharing option.

If you are looking for a live streaming chat solutions check out our article: Top 5 best live streaming chat tools for broadcasting in 2023

Pro tip:  By default, only administrators are allowed to share the screen on Mac, you being the administrator will have that right. But if you want users with a guest account to also be able to share the screen, on the bottom right-hand side of the sharing folder there are radio buttons with the text “allow access for:” the switch it to all users from only these users. For more details refer to the image above.Here a quick video of how to setup screen share your screen on Mac (The steps taken till now):

Additional Options

There are two additional options which you can access by clicking on the computer settings button on the middle right section of the sharing window.When you click on this button a pop-up comes up with two options:1. Whether you would like anyone to request permission to view the screen and control the screen.2. VNC viewers can control the screen with password: you can set the password.

How to view screen of another Mac

Before you start make sure the Mac whose screen you wish to see has screen sharing turned on, as shown in the tutorial above.

Next steps:

1. Open a finder window. On the left-hand side menu, there is a section called “Shared”, you can see any available computers on the network here. If nothing is shown here put your cursor on the shared section and a button with label “show” will appear, click on the show button and you will be able to see available computers. Refer to the image below.
2. Double click on the computer whose screen you want to see
3. The moment you click on the computer you wish to see the screen of a bar appears on the top to the finder window with buttons share screen and connect as. Click on the share screen button
4. If both the computers are logged in via the same apple id the screen sharing will start. If not, then you will have to enter the username and the password of a user who is allowed to share the screen from that Mac. (We saw how to allow this in the section above) or you can request permission to screen share if the other computer allows it.
5. If someone is already connected to the Mac as a remote user, a dialog asks if you wish to share the screen with the other user or login simultaneously with a different username and screen.

Note: If you choose Log In, you share the Mac as a remote user, but you won’t share the same screen.

Another method of viewing the Shared Screen of the mac.

You need to know the IP Address or DNS name if the Mac you remotely want to see the screen off. To see the IP Address of a Mac go to system preferences and select network then on the top right-hand side you can see the IP address. Refer to the image below

To get DNS address and IP address click on the advance button on the bottom right-hand side on the network window. A pop up will come up, on the top there is a bar of buttons click on the TCP/IP button to get the IP Address and on the DNS button to get the DNS.

Now, open the finder window. On the top bar on you click on the go drop-down button, you will see a list of buttons from that select the last item “Connect to server”. A new window will open with heading connect to the server. In that, there is a text input for server address where you can write either

in the Server Address field.

Adjust Size and Quality of Screen Sharing

1. Start a screen sharing session with a Mac.
2. Once the session start’s click on the session window then on the top bar of your mac you can see screen sharing click on it, then click on preferences and a window will appear with settings for display quality and users

Under display, you can select

1. Scale to fit available space OR
2. Show full size

You can choose each one depending on the size of your display and how much of it you want to use it for viewing the shared screen.

Again, Under Display, you can select “Schroll the screen option” to decide how the screen sharing window behaves when you move your pointer there are three options here.

Under quality, there are two options

1. Adapt quality to network settings (faster). Use this option when you want seamless screen sharing, although the quality might improve or deteriorate the screen sharing will not stop or hang.
2. Show the screen at full quality (more detailed) Use this option when you want to see the details of the screen and have good internet connectivity.
3. Under blocked users, you can decide whether anyone can request a screen sharing using an apple id or just your contacts. To block users from specific apple ids click on the + icon and enter the apple id of the user and then click block as shown in the figure.

Misc Options:

Once you have started screen sharing you have a wide variety of options at your disposal:

Control or Observe: In the top left corner, there are two switch buttons as shown in the figure below. You can toggle whether you wish to control the mac which screen you are seeing or you just want to observe the screen.

Turn Scaling ON/Off: With scaling on the entire screen of the mac is displayed on your mac so if you want to have a birds-eye view of the screen switch it to scaling on.

If you wish to see minute details of the screen you can turn off the scaling and it will appear as big as it is and it might require you to scroll a bit to see the screen.

Displays: If the Mac whose screen you are viewing have multiple displays you can choose which display screen you want to view

Adapt quality: As I said above you can choose this if you prefer smooth screen share experience over slower networks. Adaptive quality adapts the quality of screen share to the bandwidth available.

Full Quality: Full quality screen sharing renders full quality screen sharing experience, not recommended over slower networks speeds.

Show/Hide toolbar: you can show and hide toolbar if you wish.

Enter Fullscreen: the shared screen expands to fill your screen to see the toolbar just take your cursor pointer to the top bar of your mac

Show tab bar: use this option to display or hide the tab bar

Customise toolbar: drag buttons in and out of the toolbar.

Share Clipboard Contents with Another Mac

With this option, you can also share a Clipboard with the computer that you are doing a screen sharing session with.

Some of the things which you can do here are:

1. Copy text from one computer to another
2. Copy images from one computer to another
3. Copy website url from the browser of your computer to the one which is sharing their screen with you
4. Copy text from a document on one Mac and paste in on another mac to create a clipping

An Easier way to Screen Share

Screen Sharing on Mac using apple’s screen share program is quite a deal. I mean there are lots of options and buttons. Granted, these are quite good and useful as well but what if you just want to get the job done and not mess around with network settings and IP Addresses.

Well, here is a screen sharing tool of your dreams. Just go to DeadSimpleScreenSharing.com and click on Get started button and Voila you are sharing your screen as simple as that or shall I say Dead Simple:

Dead Simple Screen Sharing is free but not only that:

1. You do not need to create an account SignUp OR Login.
2. Can conduct Audio Conferencing for free
3. Works out of the browser so no need to install anything
4. The viewer can be on Mac, Linux, Windows or even Mobile devices.

Here a quick video on how you can share your screen with Dead Simple Screen Sharing

So, here you go. If you have any questions queries or difficulty in sharing your screen, please feel free ask in the comment section below and I will answer them promptly.

Thank you.

It is difficult to find screen sharing software for Linux distros. Most of the popular ones like Join.me and GoToMeeting are only available for Mac OS and Windows

Well, DeadSimpleScreenSharing is available for Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android Mobile devices. Lets you share your whole screen or a part thereof right from your browser plus you can have an audio conference as well and all this is available for free.

If you are a presenter all you need is Google Chrome Browser, you can install the DSS extension and your viewers can be on Chrome Firefox Opera on computers or mobile devices and they can see your screen.

Moreover, DeadSimple also offers voice calls via Webrtc.

DeadSimpleScreenSharing is free and always will be plus you are not required to create an account or give your email address just install the extension and start sharing your screen. You can also embed DeadSimpleScreenSharing in your website or mobile app and if you need any help you can chat with us on the chat widget available on our website.

Sharing your screen with DSS is pretty straight forward, but if you need help you can refer to this article here

Or Refer to the video on the website here

If you wish to try DeadSimpleScreenSharing Click Here.

Screen sharing on Skype is pretty simple.

To start sharing your screen on skype you will need to create a Microsoft account.

To do that go to the https://www.skype.com and then on the top right hand side click on the sign in drop down button and then click on sign up

OR

Click on the Download button on the website. Download the skype and install it. After installing start the Skype app and you will come up with this page click on the Create one button next to No account text? as shown in the figure and you will be on your way to creating an account

You can create an account with your phone number or your email address or you can get an email address from outlook as well if you need one

Skype is available for the following operating systems

1. Windows
2. Mac and
3. Linux

You can download the Skype from official Microsoft website here: https://www.skype.com

Apart from screen sharing, you can also do:

1. Skype to Skype Calls
2. Group Video Calls
3. Instant Messaging
4. Call Phone numbers

To screen share you first need to call someone. It can either by a voice call or a video call.

To call some one you need to add them to your address book. You can do this by:

1 either sending them an invitation on their Skype ID. (You need to know the skype id of the person you are inviting). and they need to accept your invitation

2. You can receive an invitation from them on your skype id and you will have to accept it. (you will need to share your skype id with them beforehand).

Note: You can only share your screen with computers, you can view the screen on mobile devices but you cannot share your mobile screen with Skype.

The ability to share your mobile Screen (Android and iOS with others is available with Dead Simple Screen Sharing)

First, you need to start a call or a meeting. It can be either an audio call or a video call. You can do one to one calling or with a number of participants. You can call someone as shown in the figure below:

You can also start group calls if you wish to share your screen with multiple people, you can group call with upto 10 people on skype free plan

To start the group call first select a person then click on the top right-hand

side corner button to add more people as shown in the figure below:

Once the call is connected, it will be shown as below:

Then if you are on a Mac or Linux computer, On the top bar click on the Conversations button then click on the Share Screen Button as shown in the figure below:

OR

Alternatively, you can also press the plus button on the Skype window and a popup will come up and there you can click the share screen button. Like this

Both these methods work the same, After you click the  Share screen button, a popup will come up stating if you want to share the whole screen or just a tab. as shown in the VideoScreen Share skype below.

Screen Share skype

As you can see you can either share the whole screen or a window or tab of the screen. After selecting what you wish to share you can click the share button on the bottom right-hand side of the screen and start sharing your screen.

This is how the screen will look to the person you have

shared your screen with.

The whole process that is needed to share the screen on skype is given in the video below.

If you are looking for chat for live streaming solution check out our article: Top 5 best live streaming chat tools for broadcasting in 2023

If you are having multiple monitors you can choose monitor screen to display.

To close the screen sharing session simple click the plus button again and then click on the stop screen sharing button. Alternatively, you can also close the call to stop sharing your screen.

You can use the free version of skype with upto 10 people after that you need to purchase a skype business plan to continue adding members to the meeting.

Pros of Skype Screen Sharing

Popular.

Skype is quite popular software, it is used a lot of people because it was released in 2003. It is one of the oldest running communication platforms in the industry.

Available in a lot of languages: Since Skype is so popular it is available in 108 languages around the world

Available for Mac Windows and Linux: Skype app is available for all the major operating systems.

Cons of Skype

Old tech:

Skype uses old-school technology to do screen sharing and VoIP, since it’s been here for a long time it is difficult for it to switch. Newer companies like Dead SImple Screen Sharing use cutting-edge WebRTC technologies to do screen share and VoIP.

Need to install

To use Skype you need to install Skype app in your system, whether it is a desktop client or a Mobile app. Without installation, you cannot use Skype

Need to create Microsoft account.

To start screen sharing right away for new users is not that easy. You need a Microsoft account to start using Skype. It is understandable that some users might not want to create a Microsoft account but it is necessary to create one if you wish to use skype.

Participants Must also have Skype installed

Participants in your skype meeting must also have Skype installed, and you must know their skype name to start meeting.

This might get difficult if you are using Skype to give a sales presentation to your clients or customers. They might not have Skype installed, Even if they have you will have to take there skype id beforehand and invite them to add you to their address book just so you can sell them something.

And if they don’t have skype. You will have to ask them to install skype create a Microsoft account and repeat the above process.

In Modern Screen Sharing web apps you don’t need to install anything nor create an account to start screen sharing. Even your participants don’t need to do anyhting.

D just create a shareable link just share it with your participants via a chat client, email or anyway you want and when they click on the link they join the meeting as simple as that.

No screen share on Mobile devices

One of the Major flaws of skype is that it doesnt let you share your mobile screen to anyone. Because it is built up on ols school tech it is incapable of doing that.

But with Newer tech Dead SImple Screen Sharing can share you Android and even iPhone and iPad running on iOS 11 screens in a SO share your Mobile execl sheets and presentations on the go and get the work done.

bloatware

Years of writing code on code to keep it up to the times have made skype a recorce hog and bloat to say the least.

It hangs the system in older laptops and computers and even in the newer systems. It is a battery and processor drain.

While on the other hand Dead Simple Screen Sharing is only a browser extension in chrome and on firefox you don’t even need to install that.

You just need your web browser to conduct online meetings and screen sharing.

Bad UX

Skype involves a learning curve, its use function is not so apparent. this is one on the reasons I am writing this article. A lot of people have difficulty using basic functions of Skype like screen sharing. they only come up in certain scenarions and buttons are diffcult to find.

This problem isn’t just with skype a lot of todays software solutions are built by engineers who assume users will automatically know how to use the products.

The user experience and how the user will intutively use the products are never even considered.

With Dead SImple Screen Sharing the User Experience is based on years of reasech and use cases to determine how the user experience will be so that there is almost no learing curve involved.

Privacy Concerns

In the 2013 Mass surveillance discloseues it was revealed that NSA and FBI have unfettered ability to evesdrop on skype calls and instant messages. The NSA even has full access to the datacenter supernodes.

Skype has scored 1 out of 7 points in the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s secure messaging score card with 0 being the least score and 7 being the most secure.

On the other hand Dead Simple Screen Sharing has AES 256 bit encryption the same amount of security that banks have when they handle your money. Dead Simple Screen Sharing is completely secure.

Does not work on Chrome Books

Skype is not available for chrome books, but since dead simple screen sharing works out of the browser you can easily use it with chrome books.

An alternative method of sharing your screen.

If you wish to share your screen and do audio calls without installing any software, you can try DeadSimpleScreenSharing.com

DeadSimpleScreenSharing is free to use for anyone and works on any device PC Mac Linux even android and iOS mobile devices.

With a simple chrome extension, you can share your screen with anyone and do audio calls for free.

This article is written by Ali Asgher Lakkadshaw. He works for DeadSimpleScreenSharing.com

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What is audio conferencing ?

First , we will start with what is audio conference. Audio conference is meeting between people over the web instead of in person. Audio conference can be done online using software that provides this capability.

What is Screen Share ?

Screen Sharing is the ability to share your desktop or mobile screen with other people over the internet. You can share your screen with a person or many people over the internet.

What are the uses of audio conferencing and screen share ?

Audio conferencing and screen share when used in conjugation with each other becomes a very powerful tool, that a from customer support to health care. We list some of the most popular uses below:

1. Customer support and sales demo.

When you buy a product especially a software or a computing device such as a mobile phone or a laptop computer and it is not working as expected, instead of going to the store and returning it you can first try contacting customer support via audio conferencing and screen share.

You can share the screen and let the customer support executive see the problem himself, if it is a software that is not working properly or if you need some help using it. The customer support executive can see the screen plus you can explain the problem to him via audioconferencing.

If you are a Software as a Service (SaaS) company you can also demo your product to potential customers over the internet. For example, if you are selling accounting software you can demonstrate to the customer

1. how the software works.
2. What are its features/Benefits.
3. How it can help customer achieve his goals among others.

Giving an instant demo goes a long way in securing a customer, if a customer is on your site and he gets a demo and sees that the product full-fill his need. There is a high probability that he might buy the product otherwise he might go to competitors website or shop around.

Having an ability to go instant online demo exponentially improves customer conversion rate.

2. Remote teams.

Nowadays, software companies are increasingly becoming remote, with members of the team working in different parts of the world. It has become imperative to communicate with each other effectively.

One way to do that is via Screen Share + Audio conference.  Team Members can show their work to each other via screen share and discuss milestones and other things via audio conferencing.

Team meetings can easily be held anywhere and at anytime and unlike video which hogs a lot of internet bandwidth and cpu, audio and screen sharing can work with almost any device and even with slow internet connections.

There are many benefits of going remote. You get access to top talent from across the world. You can have around the clock working hours.

For example: A team in North America can work on the server while a team in Asia could work on the front-end while the North American team sleeps

Costs decreases dramatically. Having remote teams in developing parts of the world where wages are lower decreases costs to a great extent

3. Healthcare.

Health care professionals can also use audio conferencing and screen share solution to benefit their patients . They can easily explain patient’s health care situation via screen share and audio calls.

One thing to understand here is that when you are transferring patient data over the internet, it needs to comply with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996.  The Act lays out some guidelines when transferring w pin over the internet : for example that the data should be encrypted among others.

So, while doing screen sharing and online meeting one should only relay on HIPAA compliant screen sharing software for example https://deadsimplescreensharing.com

4. Education.

Screen sharing has brought an revolution in the education sector. Now teachers and students are not bound by geographical boundaries. Platforms like tutor me and remote tutor have come up as remote education hubs.

Where you can learn anything from high school syllables to collage subjects from tutors located anywhere around the world. With it has become an interactive experience with teachers explaining subjects on digital white boards and student s following up on their screens at home or in class

Many nations in the developing world have also come to realise the power of online teaching and have adapted screen sharing and audio conferencing solutions to teach students in remote areas.

With a crunch of good quality teachers in the developing world schools have adapted s a to reach undreds and thousands of students thus enabling th education revolution in htese countries.

If you have something to say please leave it in the comments section below.

This article is written by Ali Asgher Lakkadshaw. He works at DeaDsimpleScreenSharing.com : Share you screen with audio calls for free.

Screen sharing is sharing your computer screen or part of the screen with one or many people.

Audio conferencing and screen sharing can be done on the internet via use of software. There are many audio conferencing software available today,  many are paid software but some of them are free.

One of the free software for doing audio conference and screen share is DeadSimpleScreenSharing. We are choosing deadsimple because it does not require you to create an account does not have any ads and is free to use.

One thing to remember though. To share your screen and do audio conferencing you need to be on google chrome though your users can be on any one of Chrome, Firefox or Opera. DeadSimple also works with mobile devices.

to do screen sharing goto : http://deadsimplescreensharing.com and click on the Share your screen button. as shown in the image below:

You can alternatively watch the video that is available on the site. Now a popup will come up like this :

Then click on Host a Meeting button. as shown in the figure. If you are facing any issues or want any help you can also click on the shaded yellow text at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Next, a text box will appear which will ask your name, write your name in it and click on the Host button:

after this the page will change and another popup will appear where you can select whether you want to share your entire screen or just an application screen, if you want to share your entire screen select share button on the bottom right-hand corner or if you want to share an application screen select application window button on the top right-hand side, After selecting the Application window you will be shown the number of applications open in your device you can select the application which you want to share and then click on the share button.

After this the share your screen popup disappears and you are left with the chrome extension popup, there are two important things here

1. there is a meeting URL in a shaded box, share this url with anyone you wish to share your screen with. When they open the URL in their browser they will be able to see your screen. This works in mobile devices as well.
2. The audio conference is muted by default, if you wish to conduct audio conference click on the unmute button and audio conference will start.

Again if you are facing any issues click on the bottom left hand corner button to chat with DeadSimpleScreenSharing executive to sort out the problem.

Clicking on the stop meeting button will stop the meeting alternatively closing the tab will also stop the meeting.

This article is written by Ali Asgher Lakkadshaw. He works at DeadSimpleScreenSharing.com

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Thanks.

So here are the best software alternatives to skype so that you can compare and choose what’s best for you.

1. Google Hangouts
2. Dead Simple Screen Sharing
3. WhatsApp
4. Viber
5. Facetime
6. Telegram
7. Discord
8. Slack
9. Join.me

Dead Simple Screen Sharing:

As the name says Dead Simple Screen Sharing is well Dead Simple. With nifty features like Audio calling, Screen Share and presenter switch all done from the comfort of your browser.

No need to install pesky plugins or any software for that matter just go to the website https://deadsimplescreensharing.com and start sharing your screen or voice calling

Almost all browsers are supported including Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Plus you don’t even have to create an account or Sign Up just go to the site and click on the “Click here to get started” viola you are on your way to screen sharing and online meeting goodness.

Dead Simple Screen Sharing also has slack integration so you can just type /screenshare and start screen sharing with your colleagues

Advanced features like

1. Recording the meetings
2. Scheduling the meetings
3. Inviting participants in advance through email
4. 50 Gb of cloud storage and
5. Many more

Are also available through paid plans starting $9/mo paid monthly.

Pros:

1. Very easy to use.
2. No install required
3. Works on mobile devices
4. No need to create an account Signup
5. Awesome support
6. Many advanced features available
7. Uses next-generation technology for High-quality HD Screen Sharing and Voice calling
8. Works with almost every browser

Cons:

1. No chat or IM available yet. (Coming Soon).
2. Lacks Video Calling

Opinion: Dead Simple Screen Sharing is a good solution for small as well as large businesses. It is easy to use and works every time across browsers and operating systems.

Is ideal for office communication as well as meeting with a potential client or customer. You can just share a link with your customer or client via email or IM or any way you prefer and once they click on that link they are in your meeting

There are awesome scheduling and recording features also available with Dead Simple Screen Sharing. You can record your office meeting with your client and view it again at a later point in time or send it to someone else.

It is easy to use for both the presenter as well as the attendee and works great every-time you use it.

Pricing: Freemium

WhatsApp

Whatsapp is a Mobile application that lets you chat plus do audio and video calls. There is a web version also available, but you need to have your mobile with you to be able to use Whatsapp.

It is basically a mobile-centered application you don’t need to create an account, in this app your mobile number is your unique identifier and it automatically takes your contacts and checks if they are on WhatsApp or not and those who are on WhatsApp are can be easily contacted with WhatsApp application. In this application, both the presenter and the attendee needs to be on Whatsapp

Pros:

1. Easy to use application through mobile
2. Good for keeping in contact with friends and family
3. Additional features like status and stories

Cons:

1. You need to have your mobile to use WhatsApp.
2. Apart from audio video and chat no other features like screen sharing recording etc
3. Application focus is for personal use
4. No group calling is available only one to one audio and video calls
5. You can contact only those people who have WhatsApp on their mobile and are on your contact list.

Opinion: Whatsapp is good for personal communication and that is what it is made for. Keep up with your friends and family, easily create group chats and call your loved ones from your phone wherever you are.

It is not meant for business purposes because of the inherent informal nature of the application as well as lack of critical features for business meetings.

Though, many solopreneurs use it to conduct meetings with their clients or customers.

Pricing: Free

Viber

Viber is a free audio video conferencing tool for both business and personal communication. It comes with apps for Windows, Mac and Linux along with mobile apps for iOS, Android and Windows phone.

It is an easy to use app similar to whatsapp with additional features for businesses like :

1. Ability to call people that do not have viber app for a fee
2. Business chat for customer support and engagements ( Customers can contact businesses with Viber public account and talk or chat with a customer support executive).
3. Viber ads are also available so that businesses can advertise on the VIber network.

Pro:

1. Support for all the operating systems, Desktop as well as mobile apps are available
2. Easy to use
3. Ability to call non viber users
4. Stickers and many customizable options available

Cons:

1. Has ads
2. Does not have business centric features like screen share recording etc
3. No group calling feature available

Opinion:

Viber is a good option for personal calling and messaging purposes, it is a good alternative to whatsapp with additional features like support for desktops and games etc. But downside is the presence of ads.

Pricing : Free with ads

Facetime

Facetime is a good alternative if you want to do video calls on iOS or Mac devices. It comes bundled with iOS and Mac OS. It is easy to use and free for all apple users. But it lacks many of the features present in other products mentioned above like: chat audio calling group calling etc.

You can only do video calls and that oo only with other apple compatible devices that is a major drawback of this application.

It is only for personal use and not for business.

Pro:

1. Easy to use
2. Comes bundled with apple devices
3. Integrated with the apple eco system

Cons:

1. Works only with apple products
2. You can do only video calling and no other feature is available
3. You can contact people only in your contact list.

Opinion:

Facetime is a good product for video calling but there are major disadvantages to it. It is basically for personal use, that is if everyone in your family uses apple products

Pricing : Comes bundled with new apple devices.

Telegram

Telegram is a chat application focused on security, it’s available for all the platforms and is easy to use. You can send messages and conduct audio calls with telegram.

In an age of NSA spying if you need an open source and secure alternative to send and receive your messages Telegram would be it.

Telegram is not as polished as some of the other alternatives but supports all the platforms desktops (Windows Mac Linux) and Mobile (ios Android and Windows)

Pro:

1. Focused on security
2. Supports all platforms
3. Open source

Cons:

1. Plain vanilla design
2. Lacks business features like screen sharing and video calling

Opinion:

Telegram is a good app if you are security conscious not that others apps on the list are not secure or encrypted. Telegram is just one of those apps that are built with security in mind from the ground up plus it’s open source meaning you can checkout the source code and learn what it’s doing with your data a luxury which is not afforded by any of the apps on the list.

So, if you have security in mind Telegram is the app for you

Pricing: Free and Open Source

Discord:

Discord is the chat application for gamers, IF you use skype while playing games you might consider switching to discord. With dedicated apps for windows and mac osx as well as browser based apps for voice chat as well as written chat.

Pros:

Focused towards gamers. Cool features specifically tailored towards gamers like low cpu usage etc.

Ability to create as many chat rooms and servers as you want

Cons:

Not much of use for other purposes besides gaming

Pricing: Freemium

Slack:

Slack is another skype alternative focused purely on chat for teams and chat happening inside organisations. WIth added features like voice and video calls, screen sharing etc.

It’s a freemium app with limited features for the free version, Only chat is supported in the free version that too with storage for the latest 10000 messages only.

If you only want to use Slack as a free version there are other options also available that offer on par or better functionality.

Alternatives like flock and hipchat could also be considered.

Pros:

1. Focused on enterprise chat
2. Business features like screen sharing audio video calls
3. Easy to use

Cons:

Not good for communication outside the company with clients or customers

Price increases exponentially with number of users.

Opinion:

Slack is a great enterprise chat tool, but now others have also come up with me too products that offer cheaper alternative or compete with better features for the same pricing e.g.:-

Flock, Hip Chat, Stride

Pricing :

Freemium

Join.me:

Joinme is a communication tool that is suited for both internal as well as external communication. It’s been around for ages and like skype it’s plagued by its use of old technology

It has all the features you need like screen sharing voice and video calls etc but you need to install pesky java plugins to be able to use the functionality and the quality of screen sharing is not that great as compared to other alternatives like Dead Simple Screen Sharing.

It is a freemium product so you are able to use it with only 3 people at a time and it’s quite expensive as well with no monthly plans available and the most economical plan starts at $216 per year with competitors like Dead Simple Screen Sharing starts at $9 per month paid monthly

Pros:

1. Full featured solution
2. Customer support is good

Cons:

1. Unreliable and does not support a lot of browsers
2. Expensive
3. Breaks down a lot with a lot of downtime.
4. Runs on old technology

Opinion:

Join me is a good solution but its showing its age. It is a full features solution but its use of old java technology is undoing some of its charm.

Pricing: Freemium

So, here is the list of some of the great Skype alternatives for 2017. Let me know what oyu think if it in  the comments below.

Well, we have the solution for you that is Dead Simple Screen Sharing.

Just go to https://deadsimplescreensharing.com and click on the getting started button as shown in the figure below.

It prompts you to install a chrome extension just install it and a button appears in your browser.

Whenever you wish to do audio conferencing and screen sharing just click on that button and start the session, just like that and if that isn’t dead simple I don’t know what is.

Features :

1. Simplicity
2. Screen Sharing
3. Audio Conferencing
4. Video Conferencing
5. Scheduling
6. Invite participants Via Email
7. Recording and Cloud storage
8. Security
9. Presenter switch
10. No Signup Required.
11. For Free for Real
12. Cutting Edge technology.
13. Works with Mobile devices

Simplicity:

Dead Simple as the word implies is very simple, User Experience has been based on years of research in human cognition. So, that anyone can perform screen sharing and audio conferencing as quickly and as easily as possible in a way that the software just disappears and it’s just you and your work at hand.

From carefully selected fonts to the placement of buttons and aesthetically pleasant background colors every tiniest of the details have been thought of to give you the best experience possible.

Joining a meeting is also as simple as conducting one. Once you start a meeting you get a special meeting URL. Just give this URL to your meeting participants via Chat or Email or On the Phone and Once they visit the said URL they are in the meeting with you.

Screen Sharing:

You can obviously do screen sharing with dead simple screen sharing .com. You can choose either to share your full desktop or a single window to your attendees.

Screen Sharing technology used in Dead Simple Screen Sharing is cutting edge, it automatically recognizes the speed of internet connectivity as well as the processing power of your computer or mobile device and accordingly gives you the best mix of quality and speed for your device.

For example, if you have a very fast computing device as well as good internet connection you will get the native resolution but if you are on a mobile device with 2G connectivity you will get a lower resolution screen viewing experience. It will optimise the feed so that you get a smooth screen sharing experience but at a lower resolution.

Video / Audio Conferencing:

With Dead Simple Screen Sharing, you can also conduct HD audio conferencing. When you start a meeting just click on the unmute mic button and start talking with your attendees.

You can see who is talking and the list of people in the meeting on the right-hand side box. Whenever someone is talking their name would light up as shown in the image below:

The quality of sound you hear is crystal clear and in High Definition,  even with slow internet speeds.

Scheduling:

With advanced scheduling and user management tools that come with the plus and pro plans of Dead Simple Screen Sharing, you can easily invite users in advance on a specific date and time.

You can schedule multiple meetings with different users at different dates and at different time periods and with every meeting available in a beautiful web interface.

Your scheduled invitees are all sent an email with the meeting URL and the time and date of the meeting

So, with everything set managing your meetings and conferences have never been so easy.

Invite Via Email:

Invite via email feature is available to both paid as well as free subscribers. Once you open Dead Simple Screen Sharing just type the recipients email in the box provided and press the sent button.

Dead Simple Screen Sharing sents them an email with your meeting URL and when they go to the URL they are added in the meeting

A simple image of how this works is given below:

Recording and Cloud Storage:

With Metered Video you can also record your meetings and store them in the cloud for easy access. With up-to 5GB of storage with plus plans and 50GB storage for pro plans, there is plenty for everyone.

You can also easily share recorded meetings with your clients, colleagues or boss for an easy reference.

Security:

All the communications in Dead Simple Screen Sharing is AES 256 bit encrypted that the same amount of security banks use to store and transfer your money digitally.

And with end-to-end encryption, Dead Simple Screen Sharing also helps with being HIPAA compliant. So, if you are a medical practitioner with access to pertinent patient information you can easily use Dead Simple Screen Sharing to communicate with patients regarding their health requirements.

Along with this the paid plans of Dead Simple Screen Sharing also offers advance scheduling and user management features and dashboard. So that the administrator and control who sees what and hierarchical access to employees keep information safe.

Presenter Switch:

When you are talking to your colleagues or customers/Clients sometimes you need to give them control or wish they could share their screen with you without restarting the meeting. Well with Dead Simple Screen Sharing you can do it with the press of a button using the presenter switch button.

To do this just start your meeting, and when you need to switch the presenter just press the button and select the user to whom you wish to transfer the control from the right-hand side panel, that’s it.

No Signup Required:

In Dead Simple Screen Sharing if you wish to conduct free meetings you don’t even need to create an account. No need to give us your email and no need to remember passwords and usernames.

Just click on our button and start the meeting We truly are Dead Simple.

For Free for Real:

Unlike others offering screen sharing and audio conferencing services, Dead Simple Screen Sharing is truly free. We do not offer ads nor will we ever disrupt our audiences with ads.

Cutting Edge Technology:

We have made Dead Simple Screen Sharing with the help of the latest and best technology available. We are compatible with almost all browsers including

1. Safari
2. Chrome
3. FireFox
4. Opera
5. Microsoft Edge Browser

Other ways to share your screen on Google Chrome.

Works with Mobile devices:

Dead Simple Screen Sharing works with mobile devices right out of the box whether you have Android or iOS, phones or tablets Dead Simple Screen Sharing supports anything and everything with a web browser.

Even old Nokia phones with a web browser will work fine with Dead Simple Screen Sharing.

So Now you don’t have to worry what device/ OS / Phone or computer your customer has. If they have a web browser you can screen share to them. ain’t that awesome.

Chrome Remote Desktop:

Another solution that works right out of Google Chrome is Chrome Remote Desktop.

Chrome remote desktop is a bit complicated to use but offers a lot of functionality that you may or may not need. It lets you control your computer remotely. Definitely not a solution for online meetings but I will give you an overview of it below:

How to beam your computer:

You can download the chrome remote desktop from the chrome app store it opens as a desktop app on your computer

Once you launch it you need to configure your computer so that it could be controlled remotely. Just click on the “enable remote connections” button and follow the process to install the chrome host installer.

Once you have done that and a bit of simple configuration your computer is now ready to be beam through the internet or on your local area network.

How to View a Remote Computer:

Now on your computer from which you need to access the remote computer, you need to install chrome remote desktop again from the chrome app store and then login with your Google account and you should be able to view your remote computer or computers.

Select the computer from the list and enter the passcode and you will be able to see the screen and control the screen. Just refer to the image below:

Chrome Remote Desktop is good if you have multiple computers in multiple places and you need to access them remotely.

Chrome remote desktop is also useful for IT customer support, things like configuring software for your customer or in the IT department of a company to remotely install software in all the computers of a company by the IT guys and things like.

Chrome remote desktop works with Mac, Windows and Linux also has apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

So, Here goes this is how you do screen sharing on the Chrome Browser. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

This article is written by Ali Asgher Lakkadshaw. He works for Dead Simple Screen Sharing .com Here a link for you:  https://www.deadsimplescreensharing.com

GotoMeeting is a great tool for conducting meetings. It has many of the traditional features that companies require. But there are many alternatives available to suit a variety of needs and use cases.

In this article, we are going to go over what the alternatives are and what features they offer, plus go over pricing and what I consider to be my opinion regarding each one of them.

So, here goes,

Dead Simple Screen Sharing:

Dead Simple Screen Sharing .com as the name suggests is dead simple to use. It is a audio and video conferencing and screen sharing solution for teams as well as with clients and customers and friends and family.

It’s the whole idea is to be as simple and easy to use as possible. For starters, you dont even need to create and account or download anything to start using it.

Just go to the website: Deadsimplescreensharing.com and there click on the get started button and voila you are on your way to your online meeting.

If you are on chorme ot will prompt you to add an extention but if you are on firefox you can start the meeting right away. So once you click the get started button if open up a new page with a meeting id you can copy this meeting id and send it to someone to start the meeting when they go to the link the meeting starts.

you can also just type in their emal address and dead simple screen sharing will send them an id on their email.

The quality of screen sharing and voice and video calls is HD (High Definition) you can hear crystal clear sound and video plus screen sharing even in low bandwidth situations.

My Opinion: If you need a simple solution for voice and video calls plus screen sharing that works every-time as compared to bloatware that hogs your computer’s resources and has features you don’t ever need then Dead Simple Screen Sharing is for you.

Price: Freemium Most of the features are free paid plans are starting from $9/mo paid monthly.

Cisco WebEx:

1. Cisco WebEx is great that is focused towards enterprise chat and video calls. In Cisco WebEx there are five different software packages aimed at different use cases namely:
2. WebEx Meeting Center
3. WebEx Event Center
4. WebEx Training Center
5. WebEx Support Center
6. WebEx Assist Services

The software package closest to Goto Meeting is the WebEx meeting center. Here are some of the features of Cisco WebEx meeting center:

Get the same address the always the same:

In Cisco WebEx, you get a web address (URL) that always remains the same so anyone who wants to contact you can go to the address at the scheduled time and meet with you online. The benefit is that you don’t need to generate new URLs everytime you wish to conduct a meeting. That saves you a lot of time and effort.

Schedule or send a link at the time if the meeting:

With Cisco WebEx, you can schedule a meeting in advance with the web-based scheduler or just send them a link when the meeting starts via email or chat.

Ability to lock in the participants :

If you so wish the meeting participants can be limited to the people you have invited or you can allow anyone who clicks on the link to join the meeting.

So, it’s up to you whether you want to keep the meeting private or let anyone who wishes join the meeting.

Document and Screen Sharing:

With Cisco WebEx, you can share your screen as well as share and annotate documents during a meeting. The presenter can also pass the control to any of the attendees and they can also share documents and applications with everyone.

Desktop Integration suite:

WebEx also integrates with Microsoft office/outlook lotus notes and a variety of other IM solutions.

A variety of integrated audio options:

With Cisco WebEx you get a variety of audio options you can choose a toll-free or toll, or call-in/call-back option, you can also connect over (VoIP) with your computer’s built-in equipment.

Call-Me

Your meeting can call you at the scheduled time. Just put in your phone number and that of other attendees and at the scheduled time the meeting will call everyone and no one misses out plus no need to enter passcides and no dialing.

Meeting Playback and support with Recording

With Cisco WebEx, you can easily record your meetings and edit them or send them to anyone you wish to send.

My Opinion:

Cisco Webex is a great tool that is focused on enterprise remote meetings. That is it is good for the internal company meeting or meeting with groups of people and not focused towards one-to-one meetings and for small enterprises.

Pricing: Pricing is custom and you need to talk with Sales for that.

Join Me

Join me is another great alternative to GoToMeeting. While both are now owned by the same company that is LogMeIn. Both have a bit different approach in how they Go about online meetings

Here an overview of the features of JoinMe:

Audio conferencing with toll-free numbers:

Just like cisco webex join me also offers toll-free numbers to call from the USA and  50+ other countries and you can also use (VoIP) and with unique features like individual mute and ability to put on hold until everyone joins in Join Me seems like a Good alternative to GoToMeeting.

One Click Scheduling Features:. Join me also offers web-based online scheduler to schedule meetings. The scheduler also integrates with Outlook and Google Calendar.

Mobile Apps:

There are Mobile apps from Joinme for Apple as well as Android devices, for video calling but iOS apps lack a lot of functionality like Screen Sharing. Apps are also available for Amazon Fire tablet and other devices.

Presenter Swap and Screen Sharing:

Just like in Cisco WebEx you can also swap presenter in Joinme, and share your screen as well but you cannot share your mobile screen with Join me. The quality of screen share that you get is also not that great plus support for browsers is limited to firefox and chrome.

Whiteboard

You can also write stuff that is also visible to other participants on a whiteboard with join.me. This is quite a useful feature if you are a creative and shares your work with others on the internet. Others can also work with you simultaneously on the whiteboard in join.me.

My Opinion:

Joinme is a great tool for collaboration with lots of exciting features and a good alternative to GoToMeeting but browser support is bad. It only works great with FIrefox and Chrome other browsers it just crashes or some other problem appears. Screen Sharing quality is also not that great.

Price:

JoinMe is a freemium service there is a free account with limited functionality and limited use with only three participants and availability of some basic features, most of the features are locked for paid users.

Skype

Skype is a good alternative to GoToMeeting and has many features that GoToMeeting does not have Apart from the group audio and video calls some of the unique features of Skype are as follows

1. Skype number
2. Forward calls
3. video messages
4. ability to send SMS
5. ability to send files
6. contact me button
7. Skype Manager
8. Skype Translator
9. Skype to Go

Skype Number:

Skype Number is your personal number which anyone can call you can get a Skype number for up to 50 countries worldwide.

If you are doing business over the internet and you need a number from a foreign country that rings your skype account then skype number is for you skype charges a nominal fee for this but it is a good service if you need it.

Forward calls

If you are unable to receive skype calls for some reason you can set it up so  that if you are unable to receive your skype call it will ring up your mobile number and you can conduct your meeting easily.

Video Messages:

If someone is unavailable right now and you don’t have the time to type up a message simply send then a recorded video message telling them whatever you need to say and they can view the message n their own leisure time

Ability to send SMS

Someone you are meeting isn’t on skype but you have their number and you wish to send them some text. Whats better than good old SMS right.

Now, you have the ability to send them SMS with your SKype account.

Ability to send files:

Now you can also send files during a meeting right from your skype software just drag and drop the file in the meeting window and all the people who are at the meeting will get the file.

Contact Me Button:

Skype also gives you a contact me button which you can put it up in your website or app and if you visitor swishes to contact you they can simply press the skype contact button and ring you up directly.

Skype Manager

Skype manager is an account management tool that lets you create accounts at your home or at your workspace. With SKype Manager you can become an account manager and easily distribute accounts skype credits as well as features so that everyone can get the best out of SKype

Skype Translator

Want to chat or talk with someone who speaks another language skype can translate your text voice on the go. The Skype voice translator can work with 8 languages and the text translator works with 50 languages.

Skype to go:

With Skype to go, you can easily call an international phone number with low calling rates. You can also top up work account using easy payment solutions.

my opinion: Skype is a great altGoToMeeting GoToMeeting with additional features, it is certainly more capable and cheaper option  in some areas than GoToMeeting

Pricing:

Freemium.

Using a Chromebook and wish to use Skype. We have got just the guide for you. Basically we will be using Skype for web, there are two ways to use Skype for web

1. Just go to the site : web.skype.com
2. Download a Chrome extension for Skype via the chrome App Store.

Both the solutions does the same thing Chrome extension for Skype just opens the page web.skype.com. All the features are not available in Skype for web basically only chat and audio calling are available in Skype for the web.

The layout is the same as normal Skype application with a list of people on the left and conversation tab on the right.

Skype for web does work a bit slow as compared to normal Skype plus you need to download plugins before you can start audio calling.

There is also an awesome new feature where you can invite guests that is someone who is not in your contacts list on Skype or not even on Skype.

You just get a link and you can send this link to anyone via chat or email and they can join the conversation on Skype similar to DeadSimpleScreenSharing.com

On the Skype chrome extension there is a share on Skype button as well where you can share any website to your Skype contacts easily.

Another method of conversation for chrome-books:

If you want an alternative to Skype for web then you can also. consider Dead Simple Screen Sharing. It is a simple tool for doing screen sharing, audio and video calls and chat.

It works out of a chrome extension so it is best suited for Chrome books plus no signup/account creation is required and it is free to use application. With simple and easy to use UI and HD quality audio and screen share.

This article is written by Ali Asgher Lakkadshaw. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below

Thanks

1. Dead Simple Screen Sharing
2. Metered Video
3. JoinMe
4. Skype
5. Google Hangouts
6. Mikogo
7. ScreenLeap
8. Zoom
9. AnyMeeting
10. Slack
11. GoToMeeting free

Dead Simple Screen Sharing :

Dead Simple screen sharing is the easiest and the best screen sharing solution available right now, To Share your screen just go to the deadsimplescreensharing.com and click on the

and voila you are on your way to screen sharing. There are many benefits that Dead Simple Screen Sharing has over other. Here are some of them

1. HD quality screen sharing
2. Video Chat
3. works on all mobile devices
4. Free to use
5. Works out of the browser (No need to install separate software)
6. No signup login required
7. Easy to use interface
8. Many other features like audio/video conferencing, chat etc
9. Active Speaker functionality

HD quality screen sharing:

DeadSimpleScreenSharing provides high definition screen sharing that runs smoothly with beautiful video quality that is sure to impress the most ardent to critics

The smooth rendering on screen with high color accuracy is sure to leave your audiences wowed

Works on mobile devices:

Dead Simple Screen Sharing works on all iPhones and Android phones and tablets without the need to install an app. Now isn’t that awesome.

Free to use:

With Dead Simple Screen Sharing, you get unlimited free to use screen sharing with Video Calling

Works out of the browser

Dead Simple screen sharing works out of the browser so no need to install any software or plugin just go to the website and start sharing. As easy as that

No signup/ Account creation required:

You don’t need to create an account to share the screen with dead simple screen sharing just click on the start sharing button and the screen sharing session starts.

Easy to use interface:

The User interface of Dead Simple Screen Sharing is made through years of research in usability and ease of use. It has been made such that people from all walks of like can easily use and enjoy using Dead Simple Screen Sharing

Active Speaker Technology:

Active speaker technology focuses on who is talking right now and displays the current speaker’s video in the central active speaker window.

Other Features:

There are many other features in Dead Simple Screen Sharing Like:

1. Audio Conferencing
2. Video Conferencing
3. Chat/IM
4. Presenter switch
5. Schedule meeting
6. Invite participants via email
7. Screen Sharing

Works with Android and iOS devices. Works out of the browser does not need apps.

Pricing: Completely Free

Metered Video:

Metered Video is a Pay as you go solution. Where you can embed video calling and audio chat to your website and app and come with the following  advanced features:

1. ✅ Embed on your Website / APP

2. ✅ Custom and Fixed URLs

3. ✅ Cloud Recordings

4. ✅ Customization with Colors and Custom       Font to Match your Website / APP

5. ✅ Moderation Features

6. ✅ Video APIS to create rooms

7. ✅ Many More

Pricing: Pay as you GO. $30 USD credit on Sign Up

JoinMe

JoinMe is another good screen sharing solution. It is also quite easy to use.  JoinMe provides free usage of up to 3 participants in a meeting. There are paid plans also available if you want to increase the number of participants plus ads.

JoinMe using java to do screen sharing and audio conference, which is quite an old technology and requires you to download its software which runs a Java applet in your system that slows down your computer over time.

Pricing: Freemium (Free for 3 participants with limited features)

Skype:

One of the oldest and most used audio calling and video calling solutions of all time is the Skype. Launched in 2011 it is still widely used.

Skype has a vast variety of features for free users as well as business users including Screen Sharing, telephone integration, ability to send SMS and calling international numbers.

One of the weak points of Skype is that you need to install Skype in your system and your attendees also need to have Skype install and have a Skype account to be able to conduct and participate in meeting

that is only Skype account holders and conduct meetings over Skype.

It is not a problem if you are doing meetings with friends and family or internal team meetings. But if you are doing a sales call or presentation then it becomes quite cumbersome to ask potential customers to create a skype account to be able to have a meeting.

Skype also has apps for iOS and Android devices plus integrates with Xbox as well

Pricing: Freemium. (Max participants for audio calls is 25 for video is 10)

Google hangouts is the google answer to the audio and video conferencing problem. Google hangouts is awesome and also works out of the browser like Dead Simple Screen Sharing does. Only problem it only supports google chrome.

If you or your attendees are on any other browser, bad luck it does not work with other browsers plus you need to install plugins so as to do audio and video conferencing

Free plans are also limited to 10 participants per meetings and everyone is required to have a google account in order to participate in the meeting

If you are into google hangouts a much better alternative would be to just switch over to dead simple screen sharing. It has all the features plus more and works with Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari and some features even support Internet Explorer or Edge browser.

Google Hangouts have apps for iOS and Android device

Pricing: freemium

Mikogo

Another good screen sharing solution, Mikogo is from Germany and is run by a small team. Mikogo offers much of the same features as other but also requires you to. download its software so as to conduct meetings

Mikogo also offers a free account with only one participant per session, as the paid plans go it is expensive than Dead Simple Screen Sharing but cheaper than some of the others.

Mikogo has apps for Android and iOS.

Pricing: Freemium

Zoom

Zoom is a comprehensive suite of meeting solutions primarily aimed at the enterprise section of the marketplace. There are a lot of features in zoom focused on the large-scale enterprise clients. like zoom rooms and ability to connect SIP systems with zoom.

Zoom is primarily aimed at internal team meetings installation of zoom software is required to conduct meetings, in zoom, there is a limit of 40 minutes for free meetings but on paid plans, there are unlimited meetings available.

Apart from meetings, you can also host webinars. Pricing for webinars starts from $54.99 for 100 attendees.

Apart from meetings, you can also host webinars. Pricing for webinars starts from $54.99 for 100 attendees.

Pricing: freemium

Any Meeting:

Any meeting is also a good alternative for group meetings and screen sharing. Any meeting is available in two flavours

1. group meetings
2. webinars

Group meetings: Group meeting is for team meetings with plans starting at $18 per month and $180 per year. Any meeting is on the expensive side of the video calling spectrum.

Webinars:

In the Webinar offering you get webinar specific features like advice scheduling, upto six presenters, Audience reactions live polling audience Q&As etc.

Like others Any meetings also offer a free plan with upto 4 attendees and limited features like audio video conferencing  and chat

Slack:

Slack is a business chat application with advice features for audio and video conferencing. Slack is primarily for internal team meetings and offers free chat and one to one audio calls. But for feature like group audio, video and screen sharing there are paid plans available starting from $6 per month per team member

If you wish to conduct free screen sharing and audio video calls out of Slack there is an option available. Dead Simple Screen Sharing has a slack extension that you can get here: https://www.deadsimplescreensharing.com/slack-integrations.html

Just go to the site and install the extension and whenever you wish to screen share just type /screenshare on the chat box in Skype and start sharing.

GoToMeeting Free:

The popular solution GotoMeeting also offers a free plan with Web Audio, Screen Sharing and one Click meetings that works out of the Chrome browser.

GotoMeeting also offers professional screen sharing and conferencing solutions starting at $19 per month paid yearly with features like HD video and audio and more or less the same as others

Cisco WebEx:

Cisco Webex is the enterprise-focused solution that offers a suite of solutions for web meeting

Cisco has a variety of different flavours such as

1. WebEx meeting center
2. WebEx Event center
3. WebEx Training center
4. WebEx Support center
5. Webex assist services

Each is aimed at a different customer segments. For internal company meetings there is the webex meeting center. Which offers screen sharing and collaborative meeting rooms desktop integration, integrated audio and video conferencing, email invites and mobile apps to easily facilitate the meetings

Pricing: Freemium

So Here are the top 10 screen sharing software for 2017. Let me know what you think in the comment section below.

Thanks

Step1: Go to the website

Go to the website: https://www.deadsimplescreensharing.com/ and click on the “share your screen button” as shown in the figure below. It will take you to the meeting room and ask you to install the chrome extension if you are in chrome or ask you to allow screen share if you are in Firefox as shown in the figure below.

Step 2: Enter The meeting

Once you have given the requisite permissions you enter the meeting room where you have can see how others will see your screen and can adjust what you wish to show.

To enter the meeting write your name in the text box and press the “Enter meeting” button as shown in the figure

Step 3 Invite Participants:

Once you have entered the meeting you can invite participants to your meeting by two ways:

Invite by URL:

1. There is a meeting URL given in the text box just copy and send the url to the meeting participants by any means via chat or by phone etc and when they go to the Url they will be able to join the meeting.

Multiple Screen Sharing:

Multiple participants can share their screens with others in a meeting in Dead Simple Screen Sharing.

Whosoever wants to share their screen just click on the share screen button in their meeting room and their screen will be visible to all the other participants in the meeting.

If you need any help or have questions feel free to write to us here:  Contact US