Use the Web App (browser)

The Parsec Web Client is a convenient way to access your computer with a Google Chrome or Chromium browser, without having to download the Parsec application. Your computer will use the web client for invite links whenever the Parsec application isn't running or can't be detected by the site.

Logging in is optional when opening invite links on the web app, however, you can still log in through Parsec's homepage to connect to computers available for your account. Joining macOS computers is not possible with the web app at this time.

web_app_invite.png

The performance and stability on the web client is not as good as the downloadable version of Parsec. If you're having issues, like experiencing lag or getting errors like 6200 or 3200X, we highly recommend that you download Parsec for your computer. We also provide portable versions for Windows in case you do not have administrator privileges.

 

Technical notes and caveats

The web client does not have access to low-level hardware optimizations or hardware decoding, it's just not possible today because browsers do not give direct access to it. We're also using WebRTC and have a lot less control over the networking causing issues with low bandwidth connections and increased lag. We built our own networking protocol for game streaming on the native client because off-the-shelf technology, like WebRTC, doesn't cut it for the most demanding gaming experiences. The best Parsec experience will still be on the downloaded version of Parsec.

The web client is only available on Chrome, as 82% of our homepage's visits are from Chrome browsers, and the next closest one is Firefox with just about 5%. We haven't taken the time to implement Firefox because it works very differently from Chrome for handling video. Chrome has also implemented a ton of features to make low latency video streaming possible for things like Google Hangouts and Google Stadia.