Remote Control via Desktop Sharing

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 673

Just as with the request for multi-user simultaneous sharing, what about having an option
for a presenter to give away control of desktop to another attendee (when making them
the presenter possibly?).  Would seem very logical to have an option to allow viewers
to "contribute" to work being done on the presenter's machine, such as working through
a problem.

Reported by matthew%mpwita.com@gtempaccount.com on 2010-10-21 19:09:30

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

Changed to an enhancement request. 

We've had a few request for this capability (mostly from commercial companies wanting
to incorporate BigBlueButton's desktop sharing into their products).  

But it's low on our priority list.  At the moment, any future work on desktop sharing
will focus on improving its speed.  See

  http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/IdeasPage#Desktop_Sharing_Optimizations

Reported by ffdixon on 2010-10-21 19:31:20

• Labels added: Type-Enhancement, Priority-Low
• Labels removed: Type-Defect, Priority-Medium

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

Reported by ffdixon on 2011-02-06 14:38:30

• Labels added: Component-DeskShare

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

I also wanted this feature...............

Reported by gaurav.gupta1286 on 2011-04-20 09:30:57

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

A "light" version of this feature is to just let the viewers point at stuff.  This way
at least adds some communication in the reverse direction.

For example, Ii Teamviewer, when the non-presenter clicks on the shared desktop view,
the location of the click is temporarily shown to everyone including the presenter.
 This lets a viewer point at something and ask a question like "what is this over here?".

Reported by fongpwf on 2012-02-23 21:05:57

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

I desperately would like to see this feature.
We want to provide to our students the ability for them to host their own study groups
through bbb where they can collaborate with each other to study and complete assignments
amongst themselves. Being able to give remote control to other user/s screens to work
on a document together I view as crucial in this effort.

Reported by mcardioj on 2012-12-08 22:18:40

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

Just to set expectations, at the moment, this feature isn't on our road map for 1.0,
see

  http://code.google.com/p/bigbluebutton/wiki/RoadMap1dot0

In the absence of any customer pull for this feature, there are many other features
that are a higher priority that are ahead of it.

Reported by ffdixon on 2012-12-09 02:41:28

[bigbluebutton-issue-import]

I too would like to see remote control.  I would be very helpful to be able to show
someone how to do something on their computer.  Thanks!

Reported by bhotrock on 2013-03-21 16:10:52

[tobiasgoecke]

+1

[ffdixon]

We're shifting to a pure HTML5 client that is will use the browser's capabilities to send/receive audio and video. With the HTML5 client, there will not be a need to install any plugin.

However, the browsers do not give you the ability to remotely control the user's mouse and keyboard -- for good reason!

As such, for BigBlueButton 2.2-beta, which we're working on now, we won't have any ability to remotely control a computer.

We'll leave this open so we can investigate for future versions of BigBlueButton.

[Josecarpeniet]

Hi @ffdixon,
Vectera has a cool feature that would be nice at least for collaboration between users. They call it cobrowsing. You can see it here https://help.vectera.com/en/articles/3347286-how-do-you-set-up-co-browsing

It basically opens a shared browser screen directly on the application. That way, all attendees can use their mouse and keyboard here.
It's not desktop control, but it would be fantastic to have it. Nowadays almost everything is on the cloud so this might be a feasible feature that would be more than enough.

[uka-support]

#8929 might cover this requirement partially: if there was an ability to point at things (or mark things), you're almost at remote control but without the security risk. Requires a second screen, though.

See my comment there: Real remote control via browser is pretty much impossible for security reasons.

[larsbrinkhoff]

I have a use case for this. I'd like to exhibit retro games. I would share the game window and then allow users to send keyboard events to play the game.

[frankneumann]

I have just tried this feature in Zoom and I would like to see it also in BBB. As this feature would be my only reason for using Zoom in exercise with students.
Any chances to get this implemented?

[matiasilva]

There was someone interested and who I believe even successfully implemented this in the developer mailing list, though I have not heard from them again.

[frankneumann]

Thanks, so you mean there might already be something in the github repo?
Could you please send me the link to the post in developer mailing list.

[matiasilva]

No, I don't think they ever implemented it. The thread to follow is this one: https://groups.google.com/g/bigbluebutton-dev/c/_Mtmbv6kuOY/m/Zt6P0OkbAgAJ. It would be nice to get an update and see how we can get their code into the code base.

I expect such a big feature like this will not happen in the time frame you're hoping it to, not least because it has to be tested extensively.

[frankneumann]

I looked on the fork of the github repo of Brent W. Baccala: https://github.com/BrentBaccala/bigbluebutton
He implements a sharing based on VNC. Let's see whether that works out...

[GhaziTriki]

I confirm that BrentBaccala/bigbluebutton is made with VNC and it works 😄

[Josecarpeniet]

@frankneumann and @GhaziTriki thanks for letting us know.
I don't understand how we can use the fork of BrentBaccala/bigbluebutton and at the same time get the updates from the original version here 🤔
Any guidance on how to proceed here guys, please?

[digitalrevisor]

Hi. We are sourching for remote support control software added to bigbluebutton. Thanks for sharing this feature. Has anyone tested a solution on bbb?

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[thomas-mc-work]

Activity 👻

[ScriptFanix]

Hi. At HAProxy Technologies, we regularly have screen-sharing sessions with our customers, and sometimes have to take control of the customer's screen. For this, we currently rely on Zoom, which is a bit of a shame for a company publishing free software.
Having this feature in BBB would allow us to finally stop using Zoom. Without this, BBB cannot be an alternative to Zoom.

[ffdixon]

Remote control of the user's computer would need an extension -- likely some binary, platform specific code -- as the browsers do not have permissions to control to the user's computer. The core team doesn't have any plans to implement this in the near future.

[thomas-mc-work]

How much effort would it cost to use the code of the Jitsi desktop app and adapt it to Mattermost? If possible at all.

[ffdixon]

We (the core developers) would welcome the answer if someone familiar with those components to explore adapting it to BigBlueButton.

[SAShapeShifter]

Any update of if there is a plugin or addition to roadmap for this feature