New free collaboration service for Flash-friendly phones

LogMeIn have launched a new free screen-sharing, file-sharing and conferencing service that’s small enough to work on a smartphone, but unfortunately not an iPhone or an iPad

LogMeIn have launched a free beta service Join.Me that allows you to share your PC or Mac screen with anyone connected to the internet, and to set up ad hoc web conferences on the fly. The Join.me service has had all of the usual excess functionality stripped out of it – LogMeIn claims it’s stripped 80% of the web conferencing features people never use” – so it’s now very smartphone friendly, both in terms of the size of the initial Flash download and the data shared. Unfortunately the client-end of the system requires a Flash player so it won’t work with iPhones and iPads.

Users wanting to host a session online can simply head to the Join.Me website and download an application to their Mac or PC. This then allows them to share a unique conference code with people they wish to collaborate with. By entering that code into the “Join” side of the Join.Me website, users are able to view the host’s screen in real time. It’s completely secure and viewing the presentation is all done using Flash.

As well as a streamlined shared-screen experience, Join.Me allows you to chat with other people involved in the collaboration. The presenter can share files with viewers and allow viewers to take control of their PC. It also provides the presenter with the option to cut off certain viewers if necessary.

The service is currently in Beta, and is free, with details of the pricing structure for the full version coming soon. We tried it out for just a few minutes and it seems to work very well. Let’s hope the pricing is right, because we can really see this taking off in the mobile arena, and particularly in the Slate and Mobile Broadband space.

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