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Comment by mikelinington | Hacker News Reader

I see mentions of Screen Hero in a way that makes it sound like it's dead, but my team still uses SH daily (via Slack's `/hero` command). It's easily the best _remote pairing_ tool that I've found.

This new Slack feature seems like something different, for presenting content to everyone on a call, not for collaborating on code.

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You are correct that Screen Hero still works and all, but it is technically "dead." No one new can sign up for the service. You can only use it if you already had it setup. I would personally consider that "dead" if it's now closed off for anyone to signup with. It's not like you can recommend this as alternative to what Slack is doing with their screen sharing.

On https://screenhero.com/login they even say "New signups are closed while we integrate with Slack." - I consider that "dead."

I've dropped the Screen Hero binary to a few people (even outside of my Slack org) and they were able to sign up via the app even after that message appeared, but you're totally right, we're on borrowed time.

I typed /hero in slack It gave a link to "add the Screenhero Integration" I clicked that link and it took me to a Slack prompted me to create a "free account", which it did using my Slack information. Then I was able to download screenhero.

So, anyone new can sign up for the service via Slack.

No, when I try I get

You do not have a Screenhero account for your Slack email <redacted>

I get the same as the previous commentor... I get a link to add the Screenhero extension.

Do you have a paid slack account? If so, the add app screen will include a link to setup and link the screenhero account.

If you're part of a paid Slack org, you can go to [ORGNAME].slack.com/screenhero to create a ScreenHero account.

If you're not part of a paid org, a lot of times nonprofits have free premium Slack orgs, and you can use your membership in one of those to get Screenhero.

I heard on The Bikeshed podcast that if you have a Screen Hero account you can invite others to sign up.

You can sign up with your slack account though. They shut down general sign-ins but I just set this up for a project and it requires a paid slack account to be a new user to Screen Hero. I really hope all the killer features of SH (users having unique mouse/keyboard via screenshare) make their way into Slack before it is shut down entirely.

I also still use SH extensively. However, it's clearly at best in maintenance mode. A few weeks ago it was broke from some time Saturday to Monday afternoon. I spent probably the hours in total on two different projects with two different pairs to get sooner other acceptable solution to work before SH became functional again. I'd rather pay for it and have it be reliable. Signing up for it is also not creating trust when I try to bring new people to use it with me.

ScreenHero is being mentioned because they were acquired by Slack a few years ago. So, this feature is literally just ScreenHero.

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