Pop

Pop is a calling and collaboration service for people who need to work on a shared screen together. It is best suited to pair programmers and teams doing guided troubleshooting or visual walkthroughs. Its strongest case is combining remote control, voice and video, and screen markup in one meeting.

Overview

Pop goes beyond showing a screen: participants can click and type on another person’s computer, using their own mouse and keyboard. That makes it useful when collaborators need to make changes or guide someone through a task, rather than simply watch a presentation. Calls also include voice and video, and guests can join from a link before registering, including on a smartphone.

Pop says meeting traffic is encrypted in transit and meeting media is not stored or recorded as part of the service. Its privacy model changes with call size: one-to-one calls are end-to-end encrypted, while calls with three or more participants pass through an SFU that decrypts and re-encrypts media. Teams requiring end-to-end encryption for group calls should choose another service.

Key features

• Shared screen control: Participants can draw, click and type on the shared computer.
• Voice, video and visual markup: Low-latency screen sharing sits alongside voice and video, while drawing and highlighting let participants explain ideas directly on screen. These tools suit visual, task-focused sessions better than a call used only for conversation.
• Joining and integrations: People can join from a link without registering, using a laptop or smartphone. Pop supports Chrome, Firefox, Safari and mobile browsers, and says meetings can be started from Slack with a slash command or call button and then appear in the conversation. Google Calendar can be connected to manage scheduled meetings; Pop may view and edit calendar data for that purpose.
• Security and hosting: Pop uses SRTP and DTLS-SRTP for media and DTLS for real-time data channels, and says its service runs on Google Cloud Platform and Google Firebase. The group-call encryption distinction matters for teams evaluating confidentiality.

Pricing

Pop’s free plans make it possible to start without a subscription, but the plan names and included features differ. Pro is free while in BETA; it includes unlimited meeting creation and joining, unlimited hosting, no time limit and a public support forum. Starter is free and includes unlimited meeting joining, high-quality screen sharing, remote control, drawing and messaging. Starter is a useful no-cost option for joining and collaboration, while Pro explicitly adds unlimited hosting and a public support forum.

Enterprise costs $25 a month per user, starting at 40 licenses for $12K/year. It includes all Pro features, SAML single sign-on and Slack or email support. The 40-license starting point makes Enterprise a team-scale commitment, not a modest upgrade for an individual. Pro’s stated free pricing is tied to the BETA period.

Platforms

Pop supports Linux, macOS, web and Windows. Meetings can also be joined in mobile browsers, which gives guests a route in from a smartphone without requiring registration.

Who it's for

Pop fits pair programmers, distributed colleagues and support teams who need to collaborate directly on a computer while talking. It is less suitable for teams that only need a passive screen-sharing presentation, or those that require end-to-end encryption for calls with three or more participants.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Remote control, drawing and voice or video work together in the same session, supporting active collaboration rather than screen viewing alone.
• Pro: Link-based joining before registration lowers the barrier for guests, including smartphone users.
• Pro: Free plans include screen sharing and remote control on Starter, while Pro offers unlimited hosting and meetings without a time limit during BETA.
• Con: Calls with three or more participants are not end-to-end encrypted; the SFU decrypts and re-encrypts media.
• Con: Enterprise starts at 40 licenses, which may be more than a small team needs.
• Con: Pro’s free pricing is stated as applying while in BETA.

Alternatives

For a similar screen-sharing and remote-control focus, Drovio offers a free Basic plan with unlimited screen sharing and calls, but limits remote control to 30 minutes per day and two participants. Duckly may suit occasional sessions where video calls are unnecessary: its free plan has no video calls and caps sessions at two simultaneous participants. For a code-editor-centered option, Zed has a free Personal code editor plan with 2,000 accepted edit predictions and external-agent or API-key support.

Saros is a free, open-source option. Coterm is free under GPL-3.0-or-later and offers a macOS app with an optional self-hosted collaboration backend. Remote Collab is a free open-source SublimeText plugin for real-time project collaboration. Visual Studio is a Windows IDE with a Community plan for students, open-source work and individual developers. Codeshare is a web-based choice whose free plan includes 20 saved codeshares and unlimited collaborators. Browse the Pair Programming Software list for more options.

Verdict

Choose Pop if your work depends on talking while collaborators control and annotate the same screen; its free plans make that combination accessible, and link-based joining helps bring guests in quickly. Look elsewhere if group-call end-to-end encryption is essential or if Enterprise’s 40-license starting point is too large for your team.