1639803 - When attempting to start sharing the screen, camera sharing is being stopped (on linux, MacOS and windows 7)

Status: NEW

(Firefox :: Site Permissions, defect, P2)

Description

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Note

• When the user is in a video call and attempts to start screen-sharing, the camera sharing stops; the camera permission is simply killed.

Affected versions

• nightly v78.0a1
• beta b77.0b8

Affected platforms

• Windows 7
• Ubuntu 18.04
• MacOS 10.12
• does NOT occur on Windows 10

Steps to reproduce
Precond:
privacy.webrtc.allowSilencingNotifications - true
privacy.webrtc.legacyGlobalIndicator - false

1. Engage in a video conference.
2. Allow the microphone and camera sharing.
3. Also, start screen sharing.

Actual result

• The camera sharing stops.

Expected result

• The camera should not stop sharing.

Regression range
It is NOT a feature issue as this also occurs with the feature off OR on a build without the feature altogether (like Release v76.0)

Additional notes

• This issue is found to reproduce in Zoom on Windows 7, Ubuntu 18 and MacOS (but not on Windows 10). This appears to be specific to Zoom.
• On Hangouts, the camera share appears to be stopped intendedly and the app automatically asks again for permission of camera share after the screen-share is stopped. The flow is found on ALL OSes.
• On Talky, the camera share does not stop when the screen-sharing begins. Happens with the feature on and off and also happens on all OSes.
• The camera can, however, be permitted (again) after the screen-sharing has started.
• This bug description will suffer changes in the next few days until feature testing is completed.

Comment 1

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hi danibodea, this sounds similar to something vchin was hitting and that I was unable to reproduce. When you have a moment, can you post a screen recording of yourself reproducing the issue? I wonder if I'm missing a step.

Comment 2

[Vicky Chin [:vchin]]

I have the same issue even when not changing the prefs, i.e. with
privacy.webrtc.allowSilencingNotifications -false
privacy.webrtc.legacyGlobalIndicator - true
privacy.webrtc.sharedTabWarning - false
I can still reproduce the problem where starting screen sharing will stop the camera.

Comment 3

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

Sorry, I do not believe that a screen recording is necessary. When the user is in a working audio-video conference and he clicks the Share Screen button (Zoom web-app's screen-sharing button), the camera sharing permission is killed and the screen-sharing permission door-hanger is displayed.

I have updated the description (as I initially mentioned in Additional Notes). As a conclusion, it appears that this bug is specific to Zoom, and it occurs on Ubuntu, MacOS and Windows 7, but not on Windows 10.
Also, it is a previously existing bug, not a feature regression.

Comment 4

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Also, it is a previously existing bug, not a feature regression.

I believe this is sufficient cause to not block bug 1639879.

Comment 5

[Daniel Bodea [:danibodea]]

(In reply to Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️) (Extremely busy) from comment #4)

Also, it is a previously existing bug, not a feature regression.

I believe this is sufficient cause to not block bug 1639879.

That's right. This is not a regression. The issue is also reproducible on a build with the feature off and on a build without the feature.