Show me and Take over · coview docs

Point and draw on a visitor's tab, or click and type for them, after they say yes on their screen. What they see, the tools, and how it stops.

Watching a visitor's tab is silent. Touching it is not: each level of help is asked for on the visitor's screen, every session, and nothing happens without their yes.

Show me: you point and draw on their page. Their mouse and keyboard stay theirs. Needs the Show customers on their screen (point and draw) permission.
Take over: you click, scroll and type in their tab. Needs the Take over a customer's tab (click and type) permission.

Co-browsing rides on the live recording, so the visitor must be on your site and being recorded. See Live now and watching a visitor.

Ask to help

Click Request control in Live now, on a customer's profile, on a ticket or in the conversation's Co-browse tab. If your role may only draw, the button is Point & draw. Already watching? Use Request control, or Point & draw instead, at the top of the screen.
The console shows "Waiting for … to allow it" with Cancel.
The visitor answers on their screen. A request nobody answers goes away after 2 minutes.

You asked for	The visitor sees	They can choose
Show me	"… wants to show you something here. They can point and draw on this tab. You stay in charge. Esc stops it."	Allow or Deny
Take over	"… wants to control this tab. They can click, scroll and type, in this tab only. Passwords and card numbers stay hidden. Esc stops it."	Allow, Only let them point or Deny

While you help, a pill at the top of their page says who is doing what ("… is showing you on this tab" or "… is controlling this tab") with a Stop · Esc button. The badge next to the visitor's name in your console reads Pointing or You're in control. While pointing, Request control asks for more; the visitor can allow it or keep it to pointing.

Show me: point and draw

A toolbar at the bottom of your view of their tab holds the drawing tools. Each has a key:

Tool	Key	What it does
Point	V	Your pointer, with your name on it.
Laser pointer	L	A red dot that trails behind your pointer and fades.
Pen	P	Draw freehand.
Highlighter	H	A wide, see-through stroke over text.
Arrow with a note	A	Drag an arrow, then type the note it carries.
Box	R	Draw a box around something.
Text	T	Place a short text.
Numbered steps	1	Each click places the next number: 1, 2, 3.
Spotlight	S	Drag over what to show and the rest of their page dims; click once to lift it.
Undo last mark	Z (or ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z)	Takes your last mark off their page and yours.
Erase all marks	E	Clears every mark from their page and yours; numbered steps start again at 1.

Marks stay pinned to the page: when the visitor scrolls, each one moves with the content it points at, and it stays until you undo or erase it, or the session ends. If your workspace prefers marks that fade, change Marks stay in Settings › Co-browsing to 4 or 10 seconds.

Pick a colour from the toolbar. Your name rides on your pointer unless your workspace turned that off. With Visitors can circle things back on, the visitor's pill has a Circle button: they mark something on their page and you see it in your view.

Take over: click and type

Once the visitor allows it, your mouse and keyboard work on their tab, in that tab only:

Click and double-click, scroll with your mouse wheel or trackpad, and type into text fields.
Keys such as Enter, Tab, Backspace, Delete, the arrows, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down.
On the session screen, click the page address at the top to open another page of the same site on their tab.
Switch on Draw to draw instead; your clicks stop clicking while it is on.

Some things stay out of reach, whatever the visitor allowed:

Password, card, bank and tax-number fields, and fields inside elements marked data-coview-mask: the visitor types those themselves.
Anything marked with data-coview-noclick, and the elements listed under Elements agents never click.
Pages listed under Pages where agents never take over. Drawing still works there.
Pages of another site, and coview's own chat widget.

<button id="approve-payroll" data-coview-noclick>Approve payroll</button>

How it ends

You click Stop (or Stop control), or leave the session screen.
The visitor presses Esc or clicks Stop. Only the visitor's own key counts: a key you send can't stop or start anything.
Nothing comes from you for the quiet stretch set in Settings (10 minutes by default).

A session carries on when the visitor moves to another page of your site in the same tab. Each request and each end is written to the audit log.

Settings

Settings › Co-browsing, per site, for owners and admins:

Ask before watching: visitors approve even a silent live view.
Show the agent's name and photo: off, the request says "Someone from support".
End after a quiet stretch: 5, 10 or 30 minutes.
Pen colour: the default pen on the visitor's screen.
Visitors can circle things back: the Circle button on their pill.
Pages where agents never take over: up to 20 paths, one per line, * for anything, such as /checkout/*.
Elements agents never click: up to 20 CSS selectors, one per line, such as #approve-payroll.