[323454]

We use Tandem extensively: the killer feature is that during screenshares you get to control a pointer that the other person can see on their screen, which makes pair programming over Tandem feel basically the same as in person.

It was especially useful when onboarding a dev onto a new section of code that they had never touched before, and also when unblocking someone who was having trouble learning to use the IDE.

[papa_bear]

Is this different from what Slack and Zoom can do already? Not trying to knock it, just curious. My office is about to get a little more remote, and I was considering getting everyone into Discord, so I'm very interested in trying this.

[rajivayyangar]

Compared with Slack and Zoom, it's way faster - just click and start talking!

Think of it as push-to-talk, 2.0, with a richer sense of presence (seeing what work app, so you know if you're interrupting anything).

[pj_mukh]

Push-to-talk was the killer feature for us. We've been using it extensively.

There are no silver bullets in managing (and being) remote teams, but Tandem helps a lot along the way!

[o-__-o]

So they created the tap-you-on-the-shoulder problem for remote workers?

I prefer being scheduled not someone blaring audio at me because it’s convenient for them... but it’s what the business owners want

[rajivayyangar]

The maker-manager dilemma is real - which is something we try to address with the prominent Focus mode. At the same time, a big reason we show the app status is so that the "business owners" can hopefully take cues and minimize their interruptiveness. For example, as a product manager, I will often decide not to bother my co-founder Tim because I see he's in a coding editor (and thus in deep-focus).

[com2kid]

> We use Tandem extensively: the killer feature is that during screenshares you get to control a pointer that the other person can see on their screen, which makes pair programming over Tandem feel basically the same as in person.

NetMeeting did this way back when. It has been annoying watching things regress and then slowly work back to what NetMeeting used to be able to do.

In retrospect NetMeeting was way ahead of its time, the largest issue it had was that NATs become super popular around the same time, back NAT breakthrough tech wasn't there yet, so using it involved lots of firewall bypass rules on the switch/router.

[rajivayyangar]

Well-said! Not sure who this is, but thank you!