Mobile Phones

Control Panel

^{Please read about these icons below}

1: Host

Host is usually a participant who starts the Surfly session and so the first participant to enter the session. The Host is therefore also the person who has certain control over the session. For example, a Host can admit or deny other people entry into a session, switch between multiple open tabs, make other participants Host, accept or deny their request for Host rights and so on.

2: Control Permission

When your tab becomes active, you gain immediate control and can actively engage with its content. In simpler terms, once the Host switches to your tab, you have the freedom to scroll, click, and input keystrokes within the confines of your tab.

It's important to note that no one else can interact with your tab, not even the Host, unless explicit permission is granted by you.

If you wish to request control of the currently active tab or transfer control to someone else (relevant for the active tab's owner), simply click on the cursor icon. As the Tab Owner, you can view a list of participants to whom control can be transferred. If you are a following participant, initiating a request will send a notification to the tab owner, who can then choose to allow or deny your request.

Note that when granting control, you grant permission to all your tabs.

Keep in mind that you can also revoke those permissions at any time. You can do this by clicking the same button (Cursor icon).

3. Video Chat and/or Text Chat

Depending on your settings, you may plan to use video chat, text chat, or both during a session.

In the current state (with both text chat and video chat enabled), it provides you with the option to launch a video chat or adjust camera/microphone settings by clicking on it. You can close the open modal at any time by clicking on the 'X' in the top-right corner.

Based on the configured settings, you may see here a camera icon (if only video chat is enabled but not text chat) or a chat icon (if text chat is enabled and not video chat).

4. Tabs Preview

Besides giving an overview of all tabs open in the session, which are also numbered on the icon, this page also allows you to open a new tab by clicking on the + icon at the bottom.

5. Options

Options include switching to drawing mode, changing the screen size, and ending the session.

6. Smarter Mobile Zoom

When viewing shared content from a desktop on a mobile device, things can sometimes feel a bit... small. See the example below of how it looks for an iPhone user when a desktop user opens bing.com and doesn’t adjust the screen size for the mobile user — everything fits, but it’s tiny.

So now, when we detect a pinch-to-zoom gesture, we pause drawing and show simple zoom controls (+ / –) in the corner.

You can zoom in or out with a tap — smooth, no lag.

Once you return to the original zoom level and stop interacting for a few seconds, drawing is restored automatically.

Note: Zooming on the mobile side won’t be visible to the desktop user. Since the mobile user is following, the zoom happens at the mobile OS level and doesn’t actually affect the zoom of the webpage being hosted by the desktop user.