How to Share Your Screen with Zoom, Teams, Other Apps

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Marc Saltzman,

AARP

En español

Published April 19, 2023

You don’t have to work in a company office or home workspace to realize the potential of video chatting. Tech support, book clubs, family meetings and even big purchases such as cars are being conducted entirely online.

Sharing your computer screen with others can help prove a point more easily. Maybe you’re noting the nefarious typo on page 67 of this month’s Kindle book selection, identifying what’s slowing down your operating system or pinpointing a missing cash rebate promised with your vehicle purchase on line 6 of a sales contract.

Screen sharing is a handy feature baked into most popular communication and collaboration tools like Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, Slack and the app that during the pandemic became a household name, Zoom. But not everyone knows how to pull it off smoothly. (And remember, for security reasons, meeting hosts can prevent users from sharing their screens.)

Here, we walk you through the steps for sharing your screen on desktop and mobile devices.

Google Chat, where former Hangouts users meet

Desktop

1. Start or join a Google Meet video conversation in Google Chat.

2. At the bottom of the screen, click Present Now. You can select your entire screen, a window or a tab.

If you choose a tab in Chrome, that tab's audio will be shared by default. To share other audio, you need to enable shared audio from your computer.

3. Click Share, and everyone on the Google Meet video call can see what you're sharing. This is great for collaborating on a file with a group. If you share a Google Slides presentation through a tab, you can control it from within Google Meet.

4. To take over or switch presenters, click Present Now at the bottom of the screen, select entire screen, window or Chrome Tab, and click Select Present.

5. When you're done sharing your screen, click Stop Presenting at the bottom right of the Google Meet window.

Mobile

1. Join a Google Chat meeting.

2. Tap your screen to bring up a menu.

3. Tap Share Screen to start sharing.

You can also record your video calls, or screencast, which is great for keeping a record of training videos, tutorials and lengthy presentations. Like a screenshot, a screencast is a visual record, so users can go back and watch it anytime.

Microsoft Teams incorporates PowerPoint, OneDrive

Desktop

1. Open Teams and start or join a chat.

2. Click the Share Content button at the top right of the screen, a square with an arrow pointing up.

If you need to share your computer's audio, you can toggle On at the top right of the screen. Be aware that those in your meeting will hear the dings of email dropping into your inbox and notifications of impending meetings.

3. Select what you want to share: your entire screen or an open window, such as an app, website or whiteboard. Since Teams and PowerPoint are both owned by Microsoft, you'll also see an option to share a PowerPoint Live presentation from the OneDrive cloud service or your computer.

4. After you select what you want to show, a red border surrounds what you're sharing.

5. When you're done, click Stop Sharing.

Mobile

1. Open Teams on your phone and join or initiate a chat.

2. Tap the three horizontal dots ⋯ at the bottom of your screen. A menu with options will appear.

3. Tap the Share button, a square with an arrow pointing up, and begin sharing your screen.

Slack huddles give a channel a voice

Desktop

1. Start or join a Slack huddle, a way to talk with some or all of the members of a Slack channel or direct message string.

2. When you want to share your screen, click the share screen computer monitor icon at the bottom of the left rail on your screen.

3. Select the screen you want to share, whether it's your desktop, an open window or app. System audio is enabled by default. Click the microphone icon to mute your mic audio if you want. On a Mac, you may be prompted to allow sharing in your system preferences, but you’ll only be asked to do this once.

4. Shared screens will appear in the huddles window, but you can click on a co-worker's screen to enlarge it to full screen, if desired, or click the little pencil icon to draw on it. This is only available in the Slack desktop app for Windows and Mac.

5. Click Stop Sharing when you're done or Leave to exit the huddle.

Mobile

1. Tap the three horizontal dots ⋯ at the bottom of your screen.

2. Tap the computer monitor icon to share your screen.

Zoom lets multiple people share screens at once

Desktop

1. Open Zoom and start or join a chat.

2. Click Share Screen at the bottom of the Zoom window, and a pop-up window with several options will appear. A pull-down menu beside this tab lets you allow multiple people to share screens simultaneously.

3. Now select the screen thumbnail image at the top left or another open window, such as PowerPoint or Excel.

4. To enable screen sharing with sound, first click the little box at the bottom of the Zoom window where it says Share Sound. A small arrow beside it allows you to select an option for better quality stereo sound.

If you're sharing a video with colleagues, you can open a full screen to optimize their view by clicking Optimized for Video Clip.

5. When you're done sharing your screen, click the red Stop Share option at the top of the screen.

Mobile

1. Open a Zoom meeting on your phone.

2. Tap anywhere on your screen to open a menu.

3. Tap the share icon, a square with an arrow pointing up.