Any way to provide full remote assistance to a BlackBerry 10 user (like Teamviewer Quick Support)

I've been trying to help my parents (both living in different countries) with a few issues on their BB10 devices. Although screen sharing is useful, it's a pain when my mom keeps inadvertently closing the BBM video active frame while I'm explaining what to do next. It's also pretty time consuming to spell out each step or menu item.

I use Teamviewer to help them out with PC issues all the time, and it works great. I see that Teamviewer also has a QuickSupport app that uses brand-specific add ons to provide mobile device remote assistance for iOS and Android. I actually tried the QuickSupport app and it runs fine on my Z30, connects to the PC client, and lets you view real time device stats, view/kill/un install android apps/processes and chat with the mobile user. However there is no BlackBerry-specific add on for remote assistance (who knows if it would even work), so I can't use it for my purpose.

Anyone know of any full BB10 device remote assistance alternatives?

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Originally Posted by AnimalPak200

I've been trying to help my parents (both living in different countries) with a few issues on their BB10 devices. Although screen sharing is useful, it's a pain when my mom keeps inadvertently closing the BBM video active frame while I'm explaining what to do next. It's also pretty time consuming to spell out each step or menu item.

I use Teamviewer to help them out with PC issues all the time, and it works great. I see that Teamviewer also has a QuickSupport app that uses brand-specific add ons to provide mobile device remote assistance for iOS and Android. I actually tried the QuickSupport app and it runs fine on my Z30, connects to the PC client, and lets you view real time device stats, view/kill/un install android apps/processes and chat with the mobile user. However there is no BlackBerry-specific add on for remote assistance (who knows if it would even work), so I can't use it for my purpose.

Anyone know of any full BB10 device remote assistance alternatives?

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AFAIK, no and it'll probably never come because of security reasons (people might try to record things you do on your phone through malware and the such and that's a breach of privacy). Right now, your best bet it to use bbm or even skype (put your phone in front of your pc's webcam)

I use BBM screen sharing, but as I mentioned,.. it gets old pretty fast.

I'm not sure how security concerns could be greater than on a full on PC, and the team viewer unique ID + instance-specific authorization model seems to handle all of this very well.

Also, for what it's worth, this has been possible for a long time with BBOS 4 to 7 devices using services like logmein and Bomgar.

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Originally Posted by AnimalPak200

I use BBM screen sharing, but as I mentioned,.. it gets old pretty fast.

I'm not sure how security concerns could be greater than on a full on PC, and the team viewer unique ID + instance-specific authorization model seems to handle all of this very well.

Also, for what it's worth, this has been possible for a long time with BBOS 4 to 7 devices using services like logmein and Bomgar.

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Okay so I just remembered that there are a couple of apps that record your screen and let you do whatever afterwards (so you can put them on youtube). Since I guess this is possible, you should contact the teamviewer devs and say that it's possible (and tell them about the apps that record screen). Then tell them that bb10 matured and has a lot more users than when they first started. And that there's no more concern of BB disappearing.

If they still refuse, tell them that the android app works (or so you claim) but that you need a remote assistance add on. They should consider this as it wouldn't be too much of a hassle for them.

Good luck

I wonder if anyone around here that better understands the Android runtime implementation on BB10 would take a guess as to whether an android app would be prevented from, basically, taking control of the device.

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Originally Posted by AnimalPak200

I wonder if anyone around here that better understands the Android runtime implementation on BB10 would take a guess as to whether an android app would be prevented from, basically, taking control of the device.

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I'm almost positive (99.99%) that android apps cannot record the screen in the runtime. I have extensive knowledge on the matter and I know for a fact android apps cannot exceed their runtime boundary (except of course notifications and access to camera and a few other minor exceptions) if you did find an android app to share the screen or even record, it would only be able to record within the boundaries (so if you had x app that could record. X app would be able to record candy crush, chrome, temple run or whatever app you run in the background, but they can't leave that boundary so they can't record anything outside of the runtime)
That's why team viewer (or whatever app can monitor the screen of another device) needs to be native in order for it to work.

Which is why I'm going to ask, what is wrong with screen sharing in BBM as it does exactly this?

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BBM screen sharing is great, except that it does not let you control the remote device. Instead you have to explain to the other user what to do. I know this may sound simple if you're a savvy user, but it's a very inefficient way of helping someone that isn't as proficient with the UI, location of menus, options, gestures, etc. Telling someone to "swipe from the top" may seem natural to you and me, but it's an abstract interface construct to which there aren't any visible clues guiding someone where to start or end, or what path to follow with the swipe.

I should also add that I communicate with my mom in Spanish, and believe it or not, the phrases we are so used to using to explain things (like "swipe from the top" or "just tap on the overflow menu"), just aren't easily translatable into something that conveys the same concise action.

So... just like with how I help them solve their issues on a PC via remote assistance, I would like to be able to do the same on their devices.

The irony is that while the capability is widely available for Android and iOS devices, it is actually less necessary on those platforms since nowadays you are very likely to find a proficient Android/iOS user anywhere around you that could help you in person (basically any teenager). BlackBerry 10 on the other hand, I have yet to bump into one user other than my direct family members (which I pushed onto then). Since I so fervently pushed BB10 onto them, I feel a certain responsibility (both towards them and towards BlackBerry) to make sure their experience is a positive one,.. even if I'm not physically right next to them.

I'm sure I'm not the only one.


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To your point logmein supports the legacy BlackBerry OS. I have just sent them a request to see if they will be supporting BlackBerry 10. I mentioned they have proven they aren't going anywhere and that with BES 12 it would be nice to support both BlackBerry 10 and legacy. If they respond, I will share here.


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Originally Posted by BB10_fan1

To your point logmein supports the legacy BlackBerry OS. I have just sent them a request to see if they will be supporting BlackBerry 10. I mentioned they have proven they aren't going anywhere and that with BES 12 it would be nice to support both BlackBerry 10 and legacy. If they respond, I will share here.

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Yeah, it seems that the major alternatives supported legacy devices (logmein, Bomgar), but nothing is available for BB10.

As was mentioned before, BBM screen sharing is already up and running,.. all that is needed is a way to send commands. I know BB10 devices support bluetooth mouse/keyboard, so I tried several "work arounds" using various android apps that can be used to control your phone from a PC,.. no luck. Last night I tried setting up a virtual Linux box on a laptop to run a virtual bluetooth touchpad emulator. This would be installed on my parents' computer, which I can control using teamviewer. I would then simply ask them to pair this virtual bluetooth touchpad with their BB10 device as a bluetooth mouse, run BBM video screen sharing, and I would be able to navigate their device using the mouse (ridiculous work around). Unfortunately I kept getting missing library file errors when I tried to compile the virtual bluetooth Linux program (and none exists for Windows!)

BlackBerry World actually has an app that lets you remote control a legacy BBOS device using a BB10 device, but not vice-versa!

I wonder if any devs around here would have any idea on whether it's possible to make an app that emulates an external bluetooth/USB paired mouse/keyboard. Then this could be run at the same time as BBM screen sharing, and would, in essence, enable remote assistance.

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