Slack Adds Collaborative Screen Sharing Capability

Slack is making it easier for customers to host meetings within its platform by adding screen share capabilities, one of its most requested call features, available for all paid users on its Mac or Windows desktop apps starting today.

According to Slack, users can share control of their screen with up to 15 participants, who are able to type, edit, scroll, and click through the contents of the shared screen. Viewing participants can temporarily draw over the shared screen to highlight content, such as a cell in a spreadsheet or a paragraph. The feature is particularly useful for remote teams who may edit documents or code collaboratively or work to address customer tickets.

The technology is based on its acquisition of Screenhero in 2014. Users will now have all of Screenhero’s functionality in Slack, and Screenhero will be shut down as a standalone app on December 1. For Screenhero users not already on a paid Slack team will be able to try it out for 60 days.

Slack currently has more than 2 million paid users, and 6 million daily active users, who spend approximately 2 hours per weekday in active use, on average, according to Slack.

While Slack has seen remarkable uptake within corporate settings, the nature of the application – quick to spin-up, freemium, browser-based – means it has historically remained in the shadows at organizations, outside of the control of IT. Slack has been making strides to comply with enterprise-grade security, however, adding new enterprise mobile management (EMM) security capabilities in September through a partnership with VMware Airwatch, MobileIron, and Blackberry Good.

Last month, Slack added dialogs, new interactive tools that allow developers to build forms, file tickets, and take surveys from within Slack.