Run your first Support session

A Support session is attended help: someone at a Windows PC or a Mac asks for help and lets you in with a one-time code. Nothing is installed on their computer.

This walkthrough takes you from creating a code to ending the session. To try it on your own, use a second computer as the “customer”.

Before you start:

• You can sign in to the console and have a role that lets you create Support sessions, such as Technician. See Invite your team.
• On your own server, the license is active and the Agent builds card lists agents. See Activate your license.

1. Create a Support code

1. Sign in to the console and select the organization the customer belongs to.
2. In the sidebar, go to Sessions.
3. Click Support code.
4. Optionally, give it a Label, for example Printer at front desk, so you can tell sessions apart later. If your organization uses groups, you may also be asked to choose a Group.
5. Click Create code.

A card appears with Give the customer this code, the code in large type, and buttons to Copy code and Copy join link.

Codes expire

An unused code expires 15 minutes after you create it. The card shows the exact time. Each code works once. By default a code is nine digits; your administrator can change the format.

2. Send the customer to the join page

Tell the customer, by phone or chat:

1. Open your Blink address in a browser, for example https://yourname.onblink.cloud. The page says Join a support session.
2. Type the code and click Download the support tool.

Copy join link copies the address of the join page (your Blink address followed by /join), ready to paste into a chat. The customer still types the code.

3. The customer runs the support tool

The join page detects whether the customer is on Windows or a Mac and gives them the right tool, with steps to follow.

On Windows

1. Open the downloaded file. Its name starts with blink- and ends in .exe.
2. If Windows shows a warning, choose More info, then Run anyway.
3. Keep the window open while you work. Closing it ends the session.

On a Mac

1. Open the downloaded app from Downloads. Safari unzips it automatically. In other browsers, double-click the zip first.
2. If macOS will not open it, go to System Settings › Privacy & Security and choose Open Anyway.
3. When macOS asks, allow Screen Recording and Accessibility for Blink, so you can see and use the screen.
4. Blink shows in the menu bar while the session is live. The customer chooses End session there to stop.

Caution

Support works on Windows PCs and Macs, not on an iPad. A customer who opens the join page on an iPad is asked to use a computer instead.

4. Connect

When the tool connects, the session’s row on the Sessions page shows it as connected, with the remote computer’s screen size.

1. Click View on the session’s row. The viewer opens in a new tab.
2. The viewer asks Is this your customer’s computer? and shows the computer’s name, the signed-in user and the operating system. Check them with the customer.
3. Click Confirm and take control.

Until you confirm, your mouse, keyboard, clipboard and files do not reach the computer. If the customer does not recognize the details, end the session.

You now see the customer’s screen and control it. The viewer’s toolbar has buttons to switch monitors, send files and change quality, and the bottom strip shows the connection’s frame rate and bitrate. See Use Blink for every viewer tool.

What the customer sees

On Windows, a banner sits at the top of each screen you watch. It says a technician is viewing the screen, shows a Recording indicator, and has End and Hide buttons, plus Send file while the support tool is not running as administrator. The customer can drag it anywhere on the screen. On a Mac, Blink shows in the menu bar.

5. End the session

Any of these ends it:

• In the viewer, click End, then End session. The support tool on the customer’s computer closes and, if the session is recorded, the recording is finalized.
• On the Sessions page, click End on the session’s row, then End session.
• The customer clicks End on the banner, closes the tool on Windows, or chooses End session in the menu bar on a Mac.

6. Find the recording and log

The session stays on the Sessions page after it ends. With Blink Pro, every session is recorded automatically and keeps a session log: the session’s row has buttons for its recording and its log, and you can also find the recording under Recordings. On Blink Core, sessions are not recorded and keep no log. See Understand your plan and its limits.

If something goes wrong

• “That code was not found or has expired.” The customer typed it wrong, or more than 15 minutes have passed. Create a new code.
• “The support tool is not available yet.” The instance has no support tool to hand out yet. On your own server, check Instance › License.
• “The download did not start.” Ask the customer to enter the code again, or create a new one.

See Troubleshooting for more.