How can 2 people use one computer display together, at the same time?

August 4, 2020 9:06 PM

Here are some examples: 1) Each user has a joypad. Both users share the screen but are pretty much limited to playing games and stuff designed specifically for this scenario. 2) Each user uses a section of the keyboard. The device sits between them. What else is possible?

Here's what DOESN'T seem to be possible

A) Each user has their own mouse and can interact with things on the screen at the same time

B) Apps are designed with multi-touch in mind. A tablet is shared between users. Users can interact with the same screen together

The reason I ask this is because I meet with people online and I want to work together with them but the technology just seems to get in the way.

For example, I give a presentation over Zoom. I need that person to interact so I give them remote control of my mouse. But then I don't have any control. I can't even point to anything.

posted by jago25_98 to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Pre corona I believe most technology was leaning toward 1 to many (presentation style), 1 to 1 remote support and also on a local level “multiseat” setups (1PC, multiple desktops, multiple users) which have been possible since Windows 7 and after.

In regards to same time usage of one screen, but how about the whiteboard function in Zoom? A simple test with my smartphone and PC shows me that it does allow same time usage/input on the board.
posted by Bodrik at 10:10 PM on August 4, 2020

Microsoft Teams has the "remote user has their own cursor" ability you're looking for, with most software. I've noticed that the "guest cursor" can't interact with Blender, but that's the only thing I've had trouble with so far, and I use a lot of moderately esoteric computer graphics/software development stuff). My employer provides us with Teams through Office 365 -- I'm not sure if you can easily get it as an individual user, or if Skype has similar features. I noticed a similar feature while using the remote assistance mode of TeamViewer recently, but that's less suited to meetings.
posted by Alterscape at 10:28 PM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

Annotate in Zoom also does this. Google docs lets you get some forms of it. Basically if one user is remote then you can do it using specific apps designed for it.
posted by Lady Li at 11:25 PM on August 4, 2020 [1 favorite]

The design tool Figma supports multi-user editing of the same document. It's free if you only need to have two people editing at once.
posted by panic at 2:09 AM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

Most video conferencing software have tools to allow viewers to draw on the screen (Zoom and Skype at least both have this feature). If you want to do something like real time editing of documents by multiple people, then I think you need to look in to using Google Docs or some sort of version control or development tool - we use Smartbear at work, which is designed primarily for code reviews but will work for any document. You would still need to run the video conference in another application.
posted by backseatpilot at 6:01 AM on August 5, 2020

Looks like you got good suggestions there. I'll add one suggestion that is slightly different from the others. Parsec is a remote desktop software specialising in co-op gaming applications. I've used it to play 4-player games (Overcooked, specifically), where we were sharing the same screen but had to individually control a separate character. We had to make sure that keyboard bindings don't clash (e.g., one person moves with arrow keys, another with WASD, and so on), but the game worked well otherwise. Parsec pairs well with Discord for voice chat.
posted by tickingclock at 7:59 AM on August 5, 2020

If everyone involved has Macs, I've heard good things about Tuple. It's designed for software developers working on code together in the way you mention, and should work for other cases too.
posted by introcosm at 9:18 AM on August 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Check out collaborative whiteboard tools. I use Mural pretty regularly with folks with varying tech abilities to view and edit collaborative documents. It also has a lot of built-in templates. Nice thing is that everyone doesn't need an account to contribute, just the link you send out.
posted by homesickness at 9:34 AM on August 5, 2020

A) Each user has their own mouse and can interact with things on the screen at the same time

That is actually possible.

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multi-pointer_X

"Xorg servers starting from version 1.7 have a feature called "multi-pointer". Basically it allows to have multiple mouse cursors (each with its own keyboard focus) on the screen and control them with separate physical input devices."
posted by bdc34 at 10:06 AM on August 5, 2020 [1 favorite]

I meet with people online and I want to work together with them but the technology just seems to get in the way

Yes, it does.

The vast majority of GUI application software is designed around the assumption that there is THE mouse cursor and THE keyboard rather than multiples of these things. So even if the underlying OS or remote control software does provide some degree of multi-pointer support, then as soon as you get two pointers over a screen region controlled by a single app they're almost certain to fight with each other for control in ugly ways. Software that doesn't exhibit this restriction is quite rare.

I need that person to interact so I give them remote control of my mouse. But then I don't have any control. I can't even point to anything.

The standard workaround for this unfortunately completely standard issue is social rather than technological: "May I drive?" and "You drive" messages sent over whatever side channel you have available.
posted by flabdablet at 1:21 AM on August 6, 2020

Response by poster: I'm going to answer my own question here with a link to the thread about Slack killing remote control after acquiring ScreenHero:
https://dev.to/ben/slack-is-killing-screen-sharing-2og7

I wouldn't have been able to get this far without all your help though so, thanks!
posted by jago25_98 at 4:18 AM on August 8, 2020