Support session

Chat with the Android user during a session

Once a session is established, the BeyondTrust chat interface opens, and a BeyondTrust indicator icon appears at the bottom of the device's display. While a session is running, the icon remains in the indicator area even if your customer is not in the BeyondTrust app itself.

You may continue to access files and system information while the customer is doing other things. If you send a chat message to the customer, the message will appear as a pop-up at the bottom of the device's screen.

Throughout the support session, you can chat with your remote customer. You do not need to have screen sharing permissions before beginning a chat session. If you have uploaded your photo or any avatar image, it displays on the customer's chat window once the chat begins.

Click the arrow icon at the top left of the sidebar to collapse the sliding sidebar. If the sidebar is collapsed, hover over the arrow by the hidden window to reveal it. Click the pin icon that replaces the arrow icon at the top left of the sidebar to re-pin the sliding sidebar.

When typing in English, misspelled words are underlined in red. Right-click to view spelling suggestions or to ignore that spelling for the current console login.

If your administrator has configured canned messages, you can on the Messages button at the lower left of the chat input area to insert previously written messages into the chat. Click the arrow to the left of a category name to see its messages and subcategories. Type in the search box to find a specific message.

Messages appear as plain text in the chat input area. You can add or edit BBCode tags within a message to add text formatting. Formatting is applied when the message is sent.

The chat window records not only the messages and the time they are sent; it also serves as a running log of everything that happens throughout the session, including files transferred and permissions granted.

Pushing a URL through the chat interface automatically opens the designated site. Depending on the device, the site opens in the default browser or the Web view of the BeyondTrust support client. In order to push a URL, the web address must be the only text in the field.

You can also add notes about the session. If the session is shared or transferred, these notes can be submitted by one representative and pulled by another for a quick, private review of the situation. These notes are also available in the session report. Notes can be added both during the session and also after the remote connection has been terminated.

At the bottom right of the session window is information about the remote system along with any other information the customer may have provided in the issue submission form. This can include the following:

• Type: The session type.
• Priority: The priority level (Low, Medium (default), or High) of the request, depending on the support issues defined by your BeyondTrust administrator.
• Queue: The Personal queue of the representative who owns the session.
• Session Status: Waiting (no rep has joined), In Progress (rep and customer have joined), or Customer Absent (rep has joined but customer has left).
• Customer Name: This is either the name entered by the customer when starting the session, the username of the logged-in user, the hostname of the customer machine (for pushed and pinned sessions), or service (for elevated sessions).
• Computer Name: The hostname of the customer's machine as reported in System Settings.
• Platform: The operating system of the customer’s machine
• Support Issue: If an issue was selected, this reports the name of the issue the customer selected.
• Time in the System: This tracks the amount of time from the moment the session entered its first queue.
• Public Site: Typically, this is listed as Default; however, if non-default sites are present, other sites may be available.
• Required Skills: Skills associated with the specific issue selected by the customer. Skills are created and associated with issues by the BeyondTrust administrator from the BeyondTrust /login interface.
• IP Address: The public and/or private IP address of the customer’s local system.

If your administrator has enabled the XML API, you may designate an external key for use in session reports. Any custom session attributes enabled by your administrator will appear in a Custom Info tab. Click Copy to copy all information to your clipboard.

You may continue to access files and system information while the customer is doing other things. If you send a chat message to the customer, the message appears as a pop-up at the bottom of the device's screen.

If you are in a screen sharing session, remember that any action the customer takes, such as entering passwords or accessing private information, can be seen by the representative and is recorded if session recording is turned on. To prevent private information being seen and recorded, you can stop screen sharing when the customer enters information and resume afterward.

Screen share

From the session window, click the Screen Sharing button to request to view the remote device. Once the customer has granted permission, the remote device appears in your window.

To begin screen sharing, customers may need to accept a unique system prompt. View-only screen sharing allows no control of the device and restricts the representative to a limited set of support tools.

The customer can choose to grant view-only access or, if your permissions allow, full control of the pointer and keyboard, enabling you to work on the remote device as if you were physically present. You can request to elevate your permission level at any time during the session. The screen sharing tool bar provides helpful features for support representatives.

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Note

Full screen sharing (capturing video of the device while the Support app is in the background) may not be supported on all Android devices, due to vendor modifications.

If you are in a screen sharing session, remember that any action the customer takes, such as entering passwords or accessing private information, can be seen by the representative and is recorded if session recording is turned on. To prevent private information being seen and recorded, you can stop screen sharing when the customer enters information and resume afterward.

Screen sharing tools

• Stop screen sharing.

• While viewing your customer’s device, request or stop control of your customer’s keyboard and pointer.

• While screen sharing, capture a screenshot of the remote screen or screens at their full resolution, saved in PNG format. Save the image file to your local system or to your clipboard. The capture action is recorded in the chat log with a link to a locally saved image. The link remains active even after the customer has left the session, but it does not persist in the BeyondTrust session report. You can adjust the directory where screenshots are saved by going to the File > Settings > Support Tools menu in the representative console. This feature works on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

• View the remote screen at actual or scaled size.

• Select the color optimization mode to view the remote screen. If you are going to be primarily sharing video, select Video Optimized; otherwise select between Black and White (uses less bandwidth), Few Colors, More Colors, or Full Color (uses more bandwidth). Both Video Optimized and Full Color modes allow you to view the actual desktop wallpaper.

• View the remote desktop in full screen mode or return to the interface view.

Stream video using BeyondTrust InSight

By tapping on the Camera icon in the top right of the chat window, the customer can stream live video with VP9 technology to the representative from their mobile device. Sharing live video footage of a desktop, device, appliance, kiosk, etc. while an issue is taking place provides the representative with an additional way to assist the customer in finding a resolution to their problem.

To view the customer's live stream, the representative must first be screen sharing with the customer's device. Then, the customer must tap the Camera icon in the BeyondTrust customer client app. It is not possible for the representative to initiate BeyondTrust InSight within the Android customer client app.

When the customer's screen appears in the representative console, the representative can select the video quality from the Select Quality dropdown.

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Note

For best results, use the More Colors or Full Color quality options.

While streaming, the customer can use the native Android camera controls to enhance the screen sharing experience. For example, the customer can switch between the front and rear cameras, turn on the camera's LED flash, and adjust the zoom level.

While viewing the footage, the representative can make annotations on a frame using the Annotations dropdown from the representative console. When the representative makes an annotation, the frame freezes, allowing the customer to view the annotation and take any necessary action. Once the representative clicks on the Clear option from the Annotations dropdown, the video begins streaming again.

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Annotations are not available in the web rep console or the mobile rep console.

To end the session, the customer can tap the screen and then tap the X button that appears in the upper right corner of the screen, or they can tap the Back button. This prompts the end-user to confirm that they want to end the support session.

File transfer

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Note

For Android 11 and later, file transfer is available only with the BeyondTrust Support+ Client app. This is available by logging into the BeyondTrust Customer Portal.

The Support+ Client includes all the features of the Support Client. Devices can have both clients installed. If both clients are installed, users must select Support or Support+ when using a link to enter the support portal. Select Support+ to enable file transfer.

During a session, representatives with appropriate privileges can transfer files and directories to and from the remote device, with read privileges for the Android file system and read/write privileges on the SD card. You do not require full control of the customer’s device in order to transfer files.

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Newer versions of the Android OS restrict access to some file paths.

Depending upon the permissions your administrator has set for your account, you may be allowed only to upload files to the remote system or to download files to your local computer. File system access may also be restricted to certain paths on the remote or local system, thereby enforcing that uploads or downloads occur only in certain directories.

Transfer files by using the upload and download buttons or by dragging and dropping files. Right clicking on a file brings up a context sensitive menu from where you can, among other things, create a new directory; rename, open, or delete the file; or download it directly to your machine.

File transfer tools

• Stop access to the remote device’s file system when it is no longer needed.

• Go up a directory in the selected file system.

• Refresh your view of the selected file system.

• Create a new directory.

• Rename a directory or file.

• Delete a directory or file. Note that deleting a file or folder permanently deletes it. It is not sent to the recycle bin.

• Show hidden files.

• Select one or more files or directories and then click the appropriate button to upload the files to the remote system or download to your local system. You can also drag and drop files or folders to transfer. Drag and drop functionality works for: <ul style="text-align:left;">

• file transfers from local to remote
• file transfers from remote to local
• file or folder transfers from local to File Manager
• file or folder transfers from File Manager to local
• file or folder transfers from File Manager to remote

If a file of the same name already exists in the location to which you are attempting to transfer a file, choose whether to respond by automatically overwriting the existing file, canceling the transfer, or prompting for each file of identical name. Note that if the content of the files is identical, the upload will be skipped and will result in a warning message.

Preserving file information will keep the file’s original timestamp. If this option is disabled, the file’s timestamp will reflect the date and time when it was transferred.

If automatic file transfer is enabled, transfers will begin as soon as the upload or download button is clicked or a file is dragged from one file system to the other.

If automatic file transfer is not enabled, select from the transfer manager the files you wish to transfer and then click the Start button to begin the transfer.

From the transfer manager, select a file and then click the Details button to view information such as the date and time of the transfer, the origin and destination of the files, and the number of bytes transferred.

Select one or more files from the transfer manager and then click Cancel to stop the transfer from completing.

Clear all information from the transfer manager.

System information

Privileged users may view a complete snapshot of the remote device's or computer's system information to reduce the time needed to diagnose and resolve the issue. The system information available varies depending on the remote operating system and configuration. Representatives with appropriate permissions may also kill processes and uninstall apps.

Because the large amount of data that can be pulled may result in slow transmission times, you can choose to start your view with only the Overview tab or to pull data for all tabs. If you choose to start with Overview Only, you can gather data from the other tabs by going to the section you need to view and clicking the Refresh button at the top of that section.

System information tools

• Stop pulling information about the remote system. Stopping will leave the last updated information available to view but will not pull current data.

• Refresh your view of system information or pull information for tabs to which you did not initially request access. Refresh can take place for individual sections or for all sections of the selected tab.

• Auto-refresh a category of system information.

• Copy the information to your clipboard. Copy individual sections or all sections of the selected tab.

• Save a text file of the system information to your local computer. You can save individual sections or all sections of the selected tab.

• End a running process on the remote system.

• Uninstall an app on the remote system.

End the session

To end the session, the customer can tap the Back button. This prompts the user to confirm that they want to end the support session.

When the session is ended by either the customer or the representative, an alert notifies the customer that the representative can no longer access their device. The BeyondTrust support client app remains installed after the termination of a support session so that if the customer needs support at a later time, the BeyondTrust app does not need to be reinstalled.