Hi there,
You’re receiving this email because your account is using an integration which we are sadly removing from Zendesk.
“Screenr”, an integration for Screencasting within Zendesk, is unfortunately going away. The company behind Screenr, “Articulate”, will cease offering Screenr as a product by June, 2015 at the earliest.
This should not immediately affect you and there is nothing you need to do right now. Please keep reading to stay informed about what will happen.
What happened?
Screenr is based on Java, or more specifically Java RE (Runtime Environment) which you’ve likely used for other applications in the past, perhaps without realizing it.
Sadly, Java RE is becoming rapidly antiquated. To make this a little worse, Google and Apple have been somewhat vocal in their dislike of supporting Java RE. Google Chrome on Mac OSX doesn’t support Java RE at all, for example.
This causes obvious problems for both you and your customers. Some can’t use Screenr at all, some have constant problems.
What happens right now?
For the most part, nothing. If Screenr is working for you right now, it should continue to work until the inevitable end.
There is one exception. If you have not already upgraded to “Screenr Business”, which allows you to record Screencasts from and attach them to forum topics and their comments, you will no longer be able to upgrade to a Screenr Business account.
Screenr Business has an associated annual cost. As Screenr is not going to be in existence for a full year, it would be unfair for us to offer or encourage the upgrade.
Is there a replacement?
There is currently no 1:1 replacement for Screenr that Zendesk is able to offer at this time. We would like to find a replacement which is not Java-based, yet still has the same ease of use, “no download” capabilities of Screenr. And of course, we need to ensure we can record and store those Screencasts on Zendesk’s servers so you can share them easily with your customers.
We have been unable to find a replacement up to the job yet. However, there are a few products we would like to recommend, and remember that you can always record a screencast in one of these products and attach it to a ticket or article in Zendesk:
Jing - starts free and easy to use, and you can upgrade for more storage if you wish. Supports both Windows and Mac
SnagIt - the non-free and comprehensive alternative to Jing. Supports both Windows and Mac
CloudApp - starts free and easy to use. Supports both Windows and Mac
Firefox or Chrome user? You can find lots of apps and extensions in the Chrome Web Store and Mozilla Add-ons will get you started
There's lots of tools out there for screen capturing that will work well with Zendesk as attachments.
What will happen in the future?
Inevitably Screenr is going away. With it, the functionality of recording and uploading screencasts for both agents and end-users will disappear.
However, we will endeavour to keep the existing screencast videos and the ability to play them back, intact. So you won’t lose everything.
I still have questions
Not a problem. If you have any questions or concerns at all, all you have to do is reply to this email or email support@zendesk.com (don’t forget to include your subdomain) and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Regards, Jake Holman Senior Product Manager, Customer Support Team