What is co-browsing?
Co-browsing (collaborative browsing) is when two or more people view and navigate the same web browser at the same time, so everyone sees the same page and can take turns clicking, scrolling and typing. Instead of describing a website over a call, you all look at the same live browser together in real time.
How does co-browsing work?
One person opens a shared browser and others join it. Everyone sees the same live view, and control can be passed around so different people can drive. With a cloud-based approach like Waddle, the browser runs in the cloud and is streamed to everyone, so there's nothing to install and no one has to share their own screen.
Underneath, the shared browser is a real browser running on a machine that is not yours. Its screen is streamed to everyone in the room as video, and whoever holds control has their clicks, scrolls and keystrokes sent back to it. That round trip is why control is held by one person at a time — two people typing into the same box at once produces nonsense, in software as much as in life.
The two kinds of co-browsing
The term covers two quite different things, and knowing which one you are being sold saves a lot of confusion.
- Support co-browsing: an agent sees a customer's own browser session, usually one page on one site, with sensitive fields masked. It is a customer service tool and it is normally sold by the seat.
- Shared-browser co-browsing: everyone joins one browser that belongs to nobody, and can go anywhere. This is the social kind, and it is what Waddle is.
What is co-browsing used for?
People use co-browsing to hang out and watch things together, to shop or plan a trip as a group, to help a friend or family member follow steps on a website, and for support or teaching where it's easier to show than to tell. It turns solo browsing into something you do together.
The everyday version is the most common and the least discussed: helping someone who is stuck. Talking a parent through a form over the phone is miserable for both people. Being in the same browser, where you can point at the thing and then hand them back the controls to do it themselves, is a completely different conversation.
Co-browsing vs screen sharing
Screen sharing is one-way — you broadcast your own screen and only you control it. Co-browsing is shared and interactive: everyone sees the same browser and can take turns controlling it, without exposing the rest of your device or draining your battery streaming.
The privacy difference is sharper than it first sounds. A screen share is your desktop: your tabs, your notifications, your files. A shared cloud browser starts empty and belongs to the room, so the only thing anyone sees is what the room opened together.
Co-browsing for shopping, planning and helping
The three everyday uses look different but fail the same way without a shared browser. Shopping as a group means somebody pasting links into a chat while everyone else opens them separately and loses track of which one was being discussed. Planning a trip means five tabs of flight times that only one person can see.
In a shared browser there is one set of tabs and everyone is looking at it, so "this one" means something. Control passes to whoever is arguing for a particular option, they show it, and it goes back. It turns a group decision from a relay of screenshots into a conversation about a thing everyone can see.
Helping someone is the same shape with higher stakes. Rather than reading instructions down the phone, you open the page together, point at the part that matters, and then hand control back so they do it themselves and remember it next time. Showing beats telling, and doing it yourself beats both.
Is co-browsing safe?
The honest answer is that it is as private as the room is. Anything opened in a shared browser is visible to everyone in it, which is the entire point, and it means signing into a personal account in front of a group is a decision rather than an accident waiting to happen.
Two habits cover most of it. Keep a room private when it is meant to be private, and treat the shared browser as a screen in a room full of people, because that is what it is. If you would not open it on a projector, do not open it there.
Common questions
Is co-browsing the same as screen sharing?
No. Screen sharing broadcasts one person's screen one-way; co-browsing lets everyone view and take turns controlling the same shared browser.
Do I need to install software to co-browse?
With Waddle, no — the shared browser runs in the cloud and everyone joins from a link in their own browser.
Can two people control it at once?
No, and that is deliberate. Control is held by one person at a time and passed around on request, because two people typing into the same field at once produces nothing useful.
Can I co-browse and watch videos together?
Yes. Because you're all in the same browser, you can co-browse the web and watch videos together in sync in the same room.
Can other people see my own tabs or files?
No. The shared browser is a separate browser running in the cloud. Nothing on your own device is in the room unless you open it there.
Does co-browsing work on a phone?
Yes. A Waddle room opens in a mobile browser, and whoever holds control can drive the shared browser from a phone.