element-hq
Users don't know when to expect audio from screensharing
Steps to reproduce
Try to screenshare with audio
Outcome
We're not clear enough about the fact that some browsers (Firefox) don't do audio with screensharing. As a result, users blame the application when they are unable to share audio in these environments. Chrome does its own expectation management around sharing of audio (when you're trying to share a tab versus a window), but we need something additional to this.
On the other hand it's not clear what we could do. A warning pop-up every time you go to share your screen could be a bit over the top.
Operating system
No response
Browser information
No response
URL for webapp
No response
Will you send logs?
No
Should Element Desktop allow screen sharing with audio?
that's very hard to get right since you need to get:
- access for system-audio output
- Being able to "subtract" the actual video-conference audio such that it is not constructing an "echo/feedback" signal
Getting access to system audio is already a challenge depending on the platform (Windows, Linux, macOS). Going forward those platforms restrict access more and more due to privacy...
I think that is also the reason why Chrome "only" allows sharing audio from Chrome-tabs...
Alright, thanks :) I think discord just got that right for Linux/Wayland in one of their latest nightly builds. Shame that their solution isn't open source.
I think discord just got that right for Linux/Wayland in one of their latest nightly builds. Shame that their solution isn't open source.
Finally, it's been broken for such a long time!
Why is this still not a priority?
This is the only part of element that has forced me to use discord, every other basic feature is at parity with discord & I don't need anything fancy, but being able to share audio streams is one of the things that needs to be there for me to recommend Element to my friends.
