1 Overview

CareAR provides an augmented reality support platform that provides remote visual assistance, guidance, and compliance for service management teams.

This document is intended to enable end users and admin users better understand the functionality provided by the CareAR Assist applications and portal.

2 CareAR Assist App

2.1 Minimum Requirements

CareAR is available for mobile phones, tablets, and desktop. Eligible device requirements can be found on our System Requirements and Supported Web Browsers page.

2.2 Download/Install

Use the following links to download and install the CareAR Assist application:

CareAR Portal
- Link: https://carear.app/#/download
Mobile App from iOS App Store and Android Play Store
- iOS: https://apps.apple.com/mn/app/carear-connect/id1468965844
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.CareAR.connect&hl=en_US

2.3 New Users

News users can be either created manually by the tenant admin from the CareAR Portal or automatically using Single Sign On (SSO) based on successful authentication using your company’s SAML Identity Provider.

2.3.1 User Manually Created by Tenant Admin

The following flow is used to create a new user manually in the CareAR Platform:

The tenant admin creates a new user account from the CareAR Portal
The new user receives a verification email to activate the account
In the email, the new user clicks on “Activate Account” button and sets personal password
Mobile users are pointed to the iOS or Android app stores to download and install the app, if not already installed
Desktop users are pointed to a the CareAR download page to download the application and install using the desktop installer, if not already installed
Once installed, the user logs in to the CareAR Assist app using email and password

2.3.2 User Automatically Created during Single Sign On (SSO) using SAML

If your company is using SSO, take the following steps:

The user goes to the CareAR app download page or the iOS and Android App Store to download and install the CareAR Assist app
User clicks on SSO button to use Single Sign On method of auto-provisioning and authentication
User clicks the Company Code provided by Company Admin
User is re-directed to the Company’s Identity Provider webpage to login
Upon successful authentication, the user account is automatically created in the CareAR Portal. From here, the user can click on Login to CareAR Assist

2.4 Login

Authentication
- CareAR Platform Authentication
- Single Sign On / SAML Authentication
Forgot password
- A user who has forgotten their password can click on the ‘Forgot password’ link on the Login screen and they will be redirected to a screen where they can reset their password. The following link may also facilitate a Password reset: https://carear.app/#/user/forgot-password.
- Note: This is feature is only applicable for users whose authentication details are saved in the CareAR Portal. Users that use SSO/SAML authentication should contact their company admin to reset their credentials.

2.5 Options

Clicking the carrot icon next to your initials will open a list of options available from the home screen.

2.5.1 Profile

The profile screen allows the user to set:

Profile picture – The user can ‘Take Photo’ from the device’s front camera, ‘Pick Photo’ from device image gallery/photo roll, or ‘DELETE Photo’ so only the default icon is shown.
Primary Mobile Phone Number– The user can put their mobile phone number here to allow other users to quickly start a session simply by tapping the SMS icon to the right of the user’s name on the main screen. If this is not filled in, the SMS icon will not appear next to the user’s name on the main screen.
Secondary Mobile Phone Number-A secondary phone number for an additional device to be contacted at.

2.5.2 Languages

The Languages option allows the user to change the language used within the application. The supported languages are:

English
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Portuguese
Indonesian
Japanese
Malay
Chinese(Mandarin)

2.5.3 Settings

The following is a brief description of the settings available to the user in the settings directory:

Microphone –Select the preferred microphone device to be used for Assist Sessions
Speakers – Select the preferred Speaker device to be used for Assist Sessions
Default Save Folder – Select the default folder to which screenshots will be saved during Assist Sessions
Always mute microphone on start - Always mute microphone when starting a session.
Always turn off my video on start - Always turn off video at start of session.

2.5.4 Help and feedback

The following is a brief description of the options available in the help and feedback directory.

Help: This option provides a link to our help website help.carear.com for assistance and guidance to various CareAR related topics.
Report an Issue - This option provides a link to our support site outlining how to report an issue and get into contact with the CareAR Support Team.
Test Connection – This option provides a quick network test to determine the health of the network used for your CareAR Session.
Go To Web Portal – This option provides a link to the CareAR User Web Portal discussed in a later section.

2.5.5 System Updates

Updates about current release feature inclusions can be found here.

2.5.6 About

This option opens a screen that shows the version of the app and provides links to

Version Release Notes
Frequently Asked Questions
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Open Source Software Notices

2.5.7 Sign Out

The Sign Out button logs the user out of the application. Unless the user performs this action, the user’s credentials persist, eliminating the need to log in every time the app is launched.

2.6 Contact List Screen

The Contact List Screen provides the following functionality:

Search Contacts

User can search the entire contact list of the tenant users using text that is part of other users’ display name or description field.

Contact List

List of all the users that are part of that Tenant. Each user is represented using:

Profile picture
Full Name
Primary Phone Number
Secondary Phone Number
Email

Contacts can be sorted into Favorites using the Star next to the Profile Name in the contacts list. For ease of use, recent contacts you’ve interactions with will be found in the Recents tab.2.7 Starting a Session

A user can start a session by tapping the START SESSION button ( )on the contact list screen, this will automatically send an invitation to the contact selected.

2.7.1 Inviting a Guest

To invite a guest, the user simply inputs the guest’s mobile number or the guest’s email address and tap INVITE. In this scenario, the host invites the guest.

After tapping INVITE, the invitation is sent, and the session is automatically started.

When the invited guest joins the session, the user will be alerted that the guest has joined.

2.7.2 Inviting Multiple Guests

We support multi-party sessions. This feature allows the host to invite additional guests to collaborate in a remote solve session. After establishing the session, the host can add Additional users by tapping/clicking the Add Participant icon in the lower left screen (). From there, the host can either invite via SMS or email (as described in 2.7.1) or use the 6 (or 8) digit character session code found on the bottom right corner of the screen, by inputting that code into the prescribed area.

Alternatively, a link to your session can be copied to your clipboard using the following icon () from the participants list. Anyone provided with the link will be able to join your CareAR session.

If a guest is joining via smart glass, a QR code can be generated with the following Icon () from the participants list.

Participant controls are provided to the host to manage the session and to assign collaboration roles using the pencil icon () Viewer roles do not have the ability to share their screens.

2.7.3 Responding to an Invitation

When someone receives an invitation to a session via SMS, email, or as seen below, via another means, there will be a link presented in the invitation. The invited party is met with a landing page, provided that the options are enabled within the admin tenant options the invited party may choose between join via app, join via browser, or join via Smart Glasses.

If the guest does not have the CareAR Assist app installed, upon pressing join by app the guest’s default browser will redirect them to the appropriate app store or web page to download the app.

If the guest does have the CareAR Assist app installed, then the app is launched. If the guest has a named user account in the tenant (that is, the guest is a registered user), then the app automatically uses the user’s name to join the session. If the guest does not have a named user account, then the guest will be prompted to enter their name before joining the session.

Selecting join by browser will redirect the invited party to a browser based session with limited functionality. Similarly join via Glass will do the same.

Upon successful joining of a session, the app notifies all other users already in the session that the guest has joined. Note that the participant icon (lower left) indicates a badge counter of all participants currently in the session.

2.7.4 Starting a Solo Session

A solo or standalone session is useful when the user is in an area with no network connection, poor network connection, or simply to create an annotated image. In the solo session, all the annotation tools are available, and the user can use those to anchor annotations and take snapshots that are synchronized with the backend as the client is connected back to the network.

To start a standalone session, tap the new session button(), scroll to the bottom of the page, and tap ”START WITHOUT PARTICIPANTS.”

Note that in this mode, the user can convert the session from solo to 1-1 or to multi-party by inviting other users to join the session. The host can do this via SMS, email or join by code.

2.8 Remote Session

Once the host and guest are in the session, they experience ‘See What I See’ where both users have two-way audio and one-way live video from the guest to host to establish visual context. Both users can mute/un-mute their microphone at any time.

2.9 Tools

2.9.1 Tool Menu

Clicking or tapping the Tool Menu icon raises or lowers the tools menu. Additional tool options such as color, thickness or direction can be accessed by hovering mouse over the tool of interest.

2.9.2 Zoom

On desktop selecting the zoom tool will reveal a slider on the bottom of the video stream. To zoom into the video stream, move the slider left to right. Subsequently moving the slider right to left will zoom out.
On mobile, one may zoom in to the video stream by un-pinching the screen. Subsequently pinching the screen will zoom out.

2.9.3 Flashlight Toggle (iOS only)

The Flashlight Toggle allows either party to turn the flashlight of an iOS client on or off.

Note: Android clients currently do not support this feature due to limitations of the Android Platform.

2.9.4 Arrow

Short press of the Arrow icon transitions from disabled state to enabled state. This annotation allows the user to anchor an arrow on the frozen view or on any real-world 3D object.
Long press of the Arrow icon (press Icon for more than 3 seconds) shows the above pop-up window. This annotation allows the user to select the direction of the arrow annotations.

2.9.5 Highlight

Selecting the Highlight icon allows the user to anchor a pulsating sphere on the frozen view or on any real-world 3D object.

2.9.6 Undo

Tapping/clicking the Undo icon undoes the last annotation action that was done with drawing, arrow, highlight or text box annotation tools. Each successive tap/click of the Undo icon undoes the previous action.
Long Press of the Undo button will remove all annotations from the live Stream.

2.9.7 Laser Pointer

Long press will display a red dot on the screen wherever the curser is located. This displays a laser pointer like behavior for a see what I see experience shared through the live stream.

2.9.8 Drawing

Short press of the Drawing icon transitions from disabled state to enabled state. This annotation allows the user to create and anchor a free styled drawing on the frozen view or on any real-world 3D object.
Long press of the Drawing icon (press Icon for more than 3 seconds) shows a pop-up window. This allows the user to select the color and thickness of the drawing annotations.

2.9.9 Text Box

Selecting the Text Box icon allows the user to anchor a text box on the frozen view or on any real-world 3D object with customized text inside the text box.

2.9.10 Snapshot

Selecting the Snapshot icon takes a snapshot of the current view including all the annotations and saves it to the following three places:
The device’s photo gallery/photo roll under the “CareAR” folder;
CareAR portal under that specific session record; and
If the call was originated from a ServiceNow ticket, or an alternative CRM software configured with CareAR, the snapshot is pushed to the Activity feed of that ticket
Saved snaps can be found in the Default Save Folder, to find out in app see Settings

2.9.11 Sharing Local Content

Short press of the Sharing Local Content icon allows the user to load an image from their local photos in the session for all parties to view. From here, the users can annotate on top of the shared image

2.9.12 Freeze Mode

Selecting the Freezemode icon can be done by any user in the session. It freezes the camera view and shows this view to all participants in the session.
Annotations done during the live view are retained as part of the screen freeze and
Annotations can be done by either of the users on top of the frozen view
Annotations made in the frozen view persist when transitioning back to Live view.
Clicking the “Live” button exits the “Freeze mode” and takes both the user back to live view

2.9.13 Recording

Once a session is established between the Host of the CareAR call and the host is ready to begin recording the session the host can enable the recording by tapping on the recording button.
You will be notified that the recording is started indicated by the recording symbol displayed on the top left corner of the screen in red.
Once you are satisfied with your recording in order to stop and save the recording. Press the same button you used to initialize the recording.
After doing so you will be met with a notification informing you that your recording has been saved.
If any of the mentioned options are unavailable, please contact your administrator for assistance.

2.10 Session Control

2.10.1 Audio Device Management

Selecting the ellipses found in the bottom the Desktop Session will open the Audio Device Management Menu.
From this menu the user may choose which audio device (microphone or speaker) to use during the CareAR Session.

2.10.2 Mute Microphone

Microphone Mute Off: In this state, the microphone is active, and the audio path is transmitted into the active session.

Microphone Mute On: In this state, the microphone is disabled and there is no audio path transmitted into the active session. This is the default setting when joining a session.

2.10.3 Mute Camera

Camera Mute On: When the first guest first joins the session, they are a collaborator. This is the default state of the guest’s mobile device back camera. The guest will need to “unmute” the camera to begin streaming video. Note that at the start of a session, the host’s default state is also for the camera to be muted.

Camera Mute Off: Clicking the enabled state icon will toggle it to disabled state where the camera will be un-muted.

2.10.4 Screen Share

Selecting Screenshare will provide the user with the option to share their Desktop Screen, or a window on their desktop. Users may stop sharing, simply by selecting ‘Stop Sharing.’

Limitations:

The screen share capability in an Assist session requires that the host be running version 24.02 of the CareAR application.

Note that users who have joined an Assist session using the CareAR Assist for Browser mobile web app will not be able to share their screen. However, the browser- based user can view a shared screen when a host or collaborator has shared from the desktop or CareAR native mobile app.

The CareAR screen share feature, by design, does not permit remote control of another user’s screen or device.

Users who share an application that includes audio (e.g., streaming a video) will not be able to share the audio into the session.

2.10.5 Disconnect Session

Tapping or clicking the disconnect icon will disconnect the user from a Remote Session with another user. If the user was in a standalone session, this action ends the session.

Effective date: 12/16/2024

CareAR Assist Version 24.04.001