If you are looking for an easy-to-use screen sharing tool that can also help you boost up the collaborative potential of Skype, you might be very interested in checking out Unyte, the flagship product of WebDialogs, which surprised me for its ease of use, quality and free cost.

The brand new beta version of Unyte (2.5) comes with very interesting additions, such as the capability to start a remote support sessions, a brand new P2P viewer that can be used during screen / application sharing and enhanced image quality.

I have tested Unyte 2.5 beta on my Windows-based computer and on a Mac computer and here is what I found out:

Unyte: key functionalities

From what I have seen while testing Unyte, it seems like this tool might work better for small groups of people who want to communicate and collaborate by using a tool that lets them perform basic screen / application sharing activities and, in the same time, integrates very well with Skype.

Users can choose between creating a brand new Unyte account and using their existing Skype username. There is basically no difference between the two approaches, since users have access to the same features.

Screen / application sharing

Starting a screen / application sharing session requires to follow an easy procedure: if you use Skype, Unyte will automatically detect it and will request you to access your Skype contacts list.

If you allow that, Unyte will let you choose the users you want to share your screen / applications with (maximum four in the beta version) and you will be also able to share controls with them.

Viewers invited to join the screen / application session are requested to choose between two viewing options: the Unyte P2P Viewer and the browser-based viewer. The P2P viewer creates a direct connection between the host desktop and viewing participants (when the viewers also have Unyte installed on their computers).

This eliminates the need to go through a web browser and provides improved performance including faster screen updates. I have tried multiple times to figure out how to use the P2P Viewer but I wasn't able to make it work. I submitted a request to the support team of Unyte and I will update this review when I will get a reply from them.

(UPDATE: If you are in application sharing mode (by default), then both participant and host need to download/install Unyte version 2.5 in order to have peer-to-peer connection. The "Transport Info" window will display the number of direct clients ( or Peer to Peer clients) join in your session. You can open this window from Menu>Options>Advanced>select "Show technical info for sharing session"> OK.)

The image quality is very good and it is possible to view the screen in its real dimensions; viewers can also see the cursor of the presenter moving in real-time on the screen.

While screen / application sharing, the presenter can easily give controls to one of the viewers and take them back anytime she wants.

I tested Unyte on a broadband connection and the images refreshed exactly after five seconds, which is not bad considering the performances of similar tools.

Unyte can run only on Windows-based computers, but viewers can be using any OS. I invited my team mate to join my screen / application sharing session with his Mac computer and he could see everything perfectly and without any trouble.

The Remote Assistance feature allows any user to view a customer's remote desktop regardless of whether the remote "assistee" is a Unyte user or has a Unyte account.

Invitation management

Inviting users to join a screen / application sharing session is the simplest operation ever: the host just needs to click on the invitation tab and choose whether to send the invitation via email (once selected the default email client will pop up), by sending a link that can be also pasted into any IM and by providing a text that she can read to the attendees (assuming that the host is talking to them via phone).

If you are using Skype, there is another way to invite users: the host has to click on the name of the contact she wants to invite, push the orange button that appears in every Skype chat window and select the application she wants to share.

In addition, the host can click on the Menu button that appears in the main Unyte window and select "Quick share": a list of all the contacts available online will appear and she will be able to select the users she wants to invite.

System requirements

Unyte requires download. The host computer must be Windows-based, while viewers can be using any operating system.

Price

The basic version that I have reviewed (which allows maximum four users per session) is freely downloadable.

Learn more

Visit the Unyte support section to report bugs and ask questions.

Read the Unyte News section to stay updated with the latest news.

Try it out

Download Unyte Beta 2.5

Editor's comments

The latest beta version of Unyte (2.5) is a software-based tool essentially designed for small teams and comes with many interesting improvements that certainly make this product stand out among similar collaboration tools.

Among the positive aspects I have to mention the very intuitive interface and the possibility to start a screen / application sharing session in a couple of clicks. The navigation within the main window is facilitated by the presence of tabs that enable the non-geek user to easily find what she wants. The installation procedure is also very straightforward and the complete integration with Skype allows the user to launch the application anytime.

The invitation management procedure is one of the simplest I've ever seen and also the quality of images during the screen / application sharing session was really impressive.

Speaking of the negative traits, I could mention the lack of live annotation tools, which makes it hard to create opportunities for interaction while collaborating online. Additionally, the fact that users of operating systems different from Windows are unable to install Unyte and start screen /application sharing sessions is another drawback of this product. However, this is somehow compensated by the possibility for viewers to join collaborative sessions from any platform.

Unyte has very good potential, also because of its seamless integration with Skype; in fact, Unyte is available also as an add-on for Skype (called "Unyte Skype Extra"). With over 800,000 downloads of Unyte Skype Extra, Unyte has become one of the most popular partner applications of the famous VoIP tool and this will certainly foster its development.