What you can do with pulpCrew
- Start a meeting in one click. A link, a 9-character key or a QR code is enough to invite people, with no sign-up.
- Keep a team together. A regular team finds its chat and files at every meeting; administrators and moderators can mute a microphone.
- Share your screen or an app. Show a screen or a window, or present a pulpSuite document directly while the meeting continues in a mini window.
- Exchange files. Drop a file into the chat: it goes from browser to browser, with no storage server.
- Draw together. An infinite shared whiteboard you can use with a mouse, a stylus or even your hand in front of the camera.
- Look your best. Blur, your own image, scenes, green screen: background removal runs on your device.
- Transcribe with everyone's consent. Live captions or a written transcript: each participant chooses whether their voice is transcribed.
- Never miss a meeting. Teams, Meet, Zoom and pulpCrew invitations from your pulpInbox calendar show up under My meetings today.
Who is it for?
pulpCrew suits small teams who want to meet face to face without forcing anyone to create an account or install an app: a nonprofit, a small firm, a project team, a teacher with a few students, a family. A guest only needs a recent browser and the link.
It's an alternative to Teams, Zoom or Google Meet for meetings of a few people. Meetings are peer-to-peer: each participant sends their video to everyone else, which works well for small groups but not for large conferences. A connection service, provided by your pulpSuite installation, puts browsers in touch; it doesn't carry audio, video or messages. On a very locked-down network, a relay may pass the streams along, still encrypted.
Your files
pulpCrew passes any type of file through the chat, along with documents saved by other pulpSuite apps. Chat, received files, whiteboards and transcripts stay on each device. The whiteboard exports to PNG or SVG, and the transcript to text or .vtt subtitles. Meetings aren't recorded as video.
pulpCrew does not read files: it works on the documents you have open in the suite. Format details and known limitations
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an account for a video call?
No. You enter a name, then share a link or a key. Anyone with the link can join, so only share it with the people you expect.
Can pulpCrew replace Teams or Zoom?
For meetings of a few people with screen sharing, chat, files and a whiteboard, yes. It doesn't offer video recording, private messages, breakout rooms or large conferences, and it can't join a Teams or Zoom meeting: those open in their own service.
Do my conversations go through a server?
Audio, video, chat and files travel directly between browsers, encrypted. Only the initial connection goes through the connection service. When a relay is needed, it passes along encrypted streams it can't read.
How does transcription work?
A host starts it, then each person chooses whether their voice is transcribed. Recognition is done by each participant's browser: depending on the browser, the audio may be processed online by the browser maker, which pulpCrew clearly shows. The text is automatic and needs reviewing; always let participants know.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in a recent mobile browser. Scan the invitation's QR code with your phone camera to join a meeting.