# See the customer Blink View lets you see through the customer's phone camera during a session, for example to look at a router's lights, a cable or a label on the back of a printer. The customer opens a web page on their phone: there is no app to install. Blink View shares the phone's camera only, never its microphone or its screen, and nothing streams until you accept the phone. Blink View works in Support sessions and in Access sessions. To share this with the customer, send them [Blink View on the customer's phone](/use/blink-view-phone/). ## Before you start - **Your license includes Blink View.** Blink View is an add-on to your license. Without it the button does not appear, or creating a code shows **Blink View is not included in your plan**. - **Your role allows it.** You need **Blink View (support)** for Support sessions and **Blink View (access)** for Access sessions (see [Roles and permissions](/configure/roles/)). Without the permission, the **Blink View** button is not in your toolbar. - **The phone can reach your Blink address over HTTPS.** The camera page on the phone is served from your own Blink address, so the customer's phone needs to reach it, usually over the internet. If your server uses a certificate that phones do not trust, the customer sees a certificate warning first; a Let's Encrypt or uploaded certificate avoids that (see [HTTPS certificates](/configure/certificates/)). The **Blink View** button disappears once the session has ended. ## Create a code 1. In the viewer toolbar, select **Blink View** (the camera icon). The panel says what Blink View does. 2. Select **Create code**. 3. Read the code to the customer. The panel shows: "Ask the customer to open **view.blink.izt.app** on their phone and enter" followed by the code, written as `123 456`, and a QR code under "or scan this with the phone’s camera:". The customer can either open view.blink.izt.app, type the 6 digits and tap **Continue**, or scan the QR code with the phone's camera. Scanning opens the same page with the code already filled in; they tap **Continue** once. About codes: - A code lasts 10 minutes. The panel counts down with **Expires in**. - A code works for one phone, once. If it expired or was used, create a new one. - A session can have up to 3 codes waiting at once. A fourth shows **This session already has 3 codes waiting. Cancel one first.** - A code stays in the panel until it is used, cancelled or expires. If more codes are waiting in the session, the panel shows the newest one and notes how many older codes are still open. - **Cancel code** withdraws the code shown in the panel. How the customer uses the page on their phone is covered in [Blink View on the customer's phone](/use/blink-view-phone/). ## Online and offline instances How the customer reaches Blink View depends on how your Blink license was activated. **Instance** › **License** shows it in the **Activation** row (see [Check and renew your license](/configure/license/)): - **Online** (activated over the internet): Blink View uses 6-digit codes on view.blink.izt.app, as described above, plus a QR code. - **Offline** (activated with a license file): there is no 6-digit code. The panel shows **Scan the QR code** with a QR code that opens your Blink address directly, and **Copy link**. Have the customer scan the QR code, or copy the link and send it to their phone, for example by text message. Only the technician who created it sees the QR code and the link; other technicians in the session see "The QR code is shown to the technician who created it." Activating or renewing the license online later switches the instance to codes. On an online instance, Blink creates codes over the same outbound connection it uses for online activation, so your server needs outbound access to `build.blink.izt.app` on port 443. If that service cannot be reached, the panel shows **Blink View service unreachable** and offers **Use a direct link instead**, which gives you a QR code and **Copy link** as on an offline instance. The direct link is offered for about 10 minutes after the failure; outside that time, asking for one shows **A direct link is only offered while the Blink View service is unreachable**. ## Send the QR code to the customer's computer In a Support session you can show the QR code on the customer's computer, so they only have to point their phone at the screen. 1. Confirm the computer first (**Confirm and take control** on the **Is this your customer's computer?** card). Before that, sending shows **Confirm the machine's identity first.** 2. Create a code, then select **Send QR to computer** in the panel. The customer sees a window titled **Scan this with your phone camera** with the QR code, the line "Or open view.blink.izt.app and enter 123 456" (on an online instance), "Sent by technician:" with your name, and a **Close** button. The window closes by itself when a phone joins, and when the code is cancelled or expires or the session ends. Your toolbar reports what happened: **QR code shown on the customer’s computer**, **The customer closed the QR code window**, or **The QR code could not be shown**. While the window is open, the panel shows **Close QR on computer** to take it down again. **Send QR to computer** is not offered in Access sessions, or when the customer's support tool is too old to show the window. In those cases give the customer the code or the link yourself. ## Accept the phone When the customer enters the code or opens the link, their phone waits for a technician. Everyone in the session with the Blink View permission sees a prompt in the viewer: - **iPhone, Safari wants to share its camera** (the phone's model and browser, as the phone reports them). - Below it: the code (**Code 123 456**) or **Direct link**, who created it, and the time left. - **Accept** and **Deny**. The phone waits 2 minutes for an answer. If nobody answers, the request expires: your toolbar shows **Blink View: nobody accepted iPhone, Safari in time** and the phone shows **No answer from your technician**. While a phone is waiting, the **Blink View** button shows a dot. The first technician to answer decides for everyone. After **Accept**, the toolbar shows who accepted it and the customer's phone asks for camera access. After **Deny**, the customer sees **Your technician declined**. ## Work with the camera Once the phone is live, its camera appears in a tile in the viewer, with the phone's model and browser as the caption. Everyone in the session sees the tile, including technicians without the Blink View permission. - **Make larger** and **Make smaller** change the size of the tile. - **Swap with the screen** puts the camera in the main area and the computer's screen in the tile. Select it again to swap back. - While the picture loads, the tile shows **Connecting to the camera…**, and **Reconnecting…** if the connection drops. The customer chooses what the camera points at: they can switch between the front and back camera and turn on the flashlight where the phone supports it. If they switch to another app or lock the phone, you see a still picture until the page is back on screen. If the phone loses its connection, it has about 30 seconds to come back before the camera ends. Only one phone camera can be live in a session. While one is live, the panel shows **End camera** instead of **Create code**, and accepting another phone shows **A phone camera is already live in this session**. ## End Blink View Any of these ends the camera: - **End camera** in the Blink View panel. - The X on the camera tile (**End the camera**). It is there for technicians with the Blink View permission or the permission to end the session. - The customer taps **End** on their phone. - The session ends. The toolbar then shows **Blink View ended:** with the reason, for example "a technician ended it" or "the customer ended it". If the customer taps **Cancel** while their phone is still waiting, you see **Blink View: the customer cancelled**. ## Recording and history The phone camera is recorded as its own file next to the session's screen recording. It plays in the session player and can be downloaded from **Recordings**. See [Play and manage recordings](/use/recordings/). Every code, accept, deny, start and end is written to the session's timeline and to **Activity**. See [Review session history](/use/session-history/). If something does not work, see [Fix Blink View problems](/troubleshooting/blink-view/).