Share a tab
Start a room and pick the tab to show. Its sound comes along. The tab keeps working as usual for you.
Peer to peer co-browsing
Browse one tab together.
Share a browser tab. Up to four friends watch it live with its sound, talk with you and point at it with their own cursors. No account, no install, no server of ours.
Free and open source. Works in desktop browsers; friends can join from a phone.
Lino and Lua, two parakeets, dance tango in a spotlight while three colored cursors dance across a shared browser tab
Three steps
From one tab to five people in under a minute
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Friends join three ways
One button shows six words, a QR code and an invite link, all carrying the same words. Friends type the words, scan the code or open the link. You both compare six confirmation words, then you let them in.
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Point, talk and follow
Everyone sees everyone else’s colored cursor, click ripples and a laser pointer over the stream. Talk through strong noise suppression, turn on cameras, chat, share a window or screen instead, and send the page you are on so friends can open it themselves.
Optional extension
The app works on its own. The extension puts cursors on the real tab.
A web page cannot see or draw on another tab, so without the extension your friends’ cursors appear in the app, on top of the stream. With the small extension installed in your browser, they also appear right on the tab you share.
The web app alone
- Share a tab with its sound, or a window or screen
- Invites by six words, QR code or link, confirmation words
- Pointer layer in the app: cursors, ripples, laser
- Voice with noise suppression, cameras and text chat
- Send a page address to guests by hand
With the extension
- Everything the app does
- Guests’ cursors and click ripples drawn over the real shared tab
- Follow me: the address of the shared tab is offered to send as you browse
- A check that the overlay sits on the tab you are actually sharing
Download
The tabtango extension
One small folder. You install it by hand, because it is not in any extension store, and you can read every file before you do.
Download the extension- Version
- 0.1.0
- Size
- 62.8 kB
- File
tabtango-extension-0.1.0.zip
SHA-256 11c15ee47917a09582e87e01f218019ae9d03cb3982e2465d1fccc5ee8fe9ff6
Compare it with the file you downloaded, for example with sha256sum or certutil -hashfile.
What it can do
- Draw your guests’ cursors, names and click ripples on the tab you share
- Offer the address of that tab, so you can send it to guests
- Check that it sits on the same tab you are sharing
What it cannot do
- Click, type or scroll for anyone: guests never control your browser
- Read the content of your pages or your other tabs
- Send anything anywhere except to the tabtango app in your own browser
Works in desktop browsers that can load an unpacked Manifest V3 extension from a folder. Browsers that only accept signed extensions are not supported yet.
Install it in three steps
1Unzip
Unzip the download into a folder you keep. The browser loads the extension from that folder.
2Turn on developer mode
Open your browser’s extensions page from its menu and switch on developer mode.
3Load the unpacked folder
Choose Load unpacked and pick the tabtango-extension folder. Then, in a room, click the tabtango button on the tab you share.
The pictures are drawings of the steps; the words on your browser’s page may differ a little.
Every permission, and why
activeTab- Lets the extension draw on a tab only after you click its button on that tab. It gets no access to your other tabs.
scripting- Puts the overlay script on that one tab, when you ask for it.
storage- Remembers which tab shows the overlay while the browser is open, so a restart of the extension keeps working. Nothing is kept after you close the browser.
Site access on the tabtango app only- A small bridge script runs on the tabtango app pages so the app can hand cursor positions to the extension. It runs nowhere else.
Optional: access to sites- Asked for only if you turn on Follow me across pages. It lets the overlay come back after the shared tab loads a new page. You can turn it off in the extension at any time.
No remote control, on purpose
Guests can point, but nobody can click, type or scroll in your browser, with or without the extension. Letting other people drive your logged in browser would put your accounts at risk, so tabtango does not do it.
Honest limits
What a browser allows, said plainly
A web page cannot touch other tabs
tabtango sees the shared tab only as video. It cannot read or change the page. That is the browser keeping you safe.
Hosting needs a desktop browser
Sharing a tab works in desktop browsers. Phones and tablets join as guests, and the guest view is made for them.
Tab sound needs a tick
When you pick the tab, keep the option to also share its audio switched on, or friends hear only your voice.
Some networks need a TURN server
Most connections go straight between browsers. A few strict networks block that; add your own TURN server in settings.
The host carries the room
Video goes from the host to each guest, so the host’s upload matters. Five people is the most a room holds.
Meeting points are public relays
To find each other, both sides pass one encrypted handshake through public MQTT relays. They see only a random topic and ciphertext, and are left as soon as you connect.
Private by design
Straight between browsers
No server of ours
The site is static files. Video, voice, chat and cursors go straight between browsers over WebRTC.
Encrypted end to end
Every connection is encrypted with DTLS. The six confirmation words come from both ends’ certificates, so a stranger cannot slip in unnoticed.
No account, no tracking
Pick a name and go. No sign up, no analytics, no ads. Your name and settings stay in your browser.
Questions
Is tabtango free?
Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT license.
How many people fit in a room?
Five: you and four friends.
Can my friends click on my tab?
No. They can point, ripple and laser, and you see it, but they cannot click, type or scroll in your browser. That is on purpose.
Do I need the extension?
No. Without it, cursors show up in the app on top of the stream. The extension adds them to the real tab and offers the page you are on to send to guests.
How do friends join?
Three ways, all with the same six words: type them, scan the QR code with a phone camera, or open the invite link. The link keeps the words after the #, a part browsers never send to any server. The words last ten minutes, and both sides compare six confirmation words before you let anyone in.
Can we talk and see each other?
Yes. Voice runs through a strong noise suppressor that works inside your browser, with a mic test. Cameras show as small tiles, and you can pick your microphone, camera and, where the browser allows it, your speaker.
Does it work offline?
The app installs and opens offline, but a room needs the internet to connect.
