Sharing your screen or desktop on Zoom

With Zoom, share your screen, desktop, or other content during a meeting, even while your video is on. 

Screen sharing during Zoom meetings is designed with a collaborative environment in mind. This feature gives only the users, who choose to share their screen, full control over their own screen and what other meeting participants can or cannot see. Additionally, meeting hosts cannot monitor your screen activities unless you choose to share your screen.

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Zoom video conferences allow you to share content including:

Notes:

Prerequisites for video conference sharing

Notes:

How to use desktop screen sharing

Sharing your desktop, screen, or content

To share your screen or content:

  1. Click Share Screen located in your meeting controls.
  2. Select one of these screen share options:
    • Basic: Share your entire desktop, specific application windows, whiteboard, or iPhone/iPad screen. Hold the Shift key (macOS) or the Ctrl key (Windows) to select more than one application.
      Note: Users can select multiple desktop programs at once instead of sharing their entire desktop, but all selected programs must be on the same screen to be visible. 
    • Advanced
      • Slides / PowerPoint as Virtual Background: Allows you to utilize a slideshow presentation as your virtual background, providing a more immersive presentation.
      • Portion of Screen: Share a portion of your screen represented by a green border. The border can be adjusted as needed during the share by clicking and dragging any side or corner.
      • Computer Audio: Only share your computer's audio (your selected speaker in your audio settings). Select the down arrow to the right of Computer Audio option to view audio options and switch between Mono and Stereo (high fidelity) audio options.
      • Video: Share locally stored video content through Zoom's native video player.
      • Content from 2nd Camera: Share a secondary camera connected to your computer; for example, a document camera or the integrated camera on your laptop.
    • Files: Share a file from a third-party sharing service like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive. Follow the on-screen prompts to sign in to the third-party service and grant Zoom access.
      Notes:
      • These options may be disabled by account Admins, so available options may vary.
      • Alternatively, you can open the file in a web browser then share the browser window. For example, to share a Google Doc, open the Doc in Chrome, then share the Chrome window. The end result is the same as using the sharing options in the Files tab.
  3. (Optional) Enable these features, located in the bottom-left corner of the share window:
    • Share sound: If you check this option, any sound played by your computer will be shared in the meeting. Select the down arrow just to the right of the Share Sound option to switch between Mono and Stereo (high fidelity) audio options.
    • Optimize for video clip: Check this if you will be sharing a video clip in full screen mode. Do not check this otherwise, as it may cause the shared screen to be blurry.
    • Share to breakout rooms: Allows the host or co-host to share their screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms.
  4. Click Share.
    When the sharing process is started and 80% of devices acknowledge receiving the shared screen, you will see a notification banner stating Participants can now see your shared screen, or whatever you have chosen to share.
  5. (Optional) On the meeting controls menu, hover over You are screen sharing, then click the drop-down arrow , to view the screen shared with your participants. To stop viewing the screen shared, click the up arrow .

Notes:

  • Zoom will automatically switch to full screen to optimize the shared screen view. To exit full screen, click Exit Full Screen in the top-right corner or press the Esc key.
  • To disable automatic full screen when viewing a shared screen, adjust the Window size when screen sharing behavior in your desktop client settings.
  • If you selected Content from 2nd Camera, click Switch Camera in the top-left corner to switch the shared camera.
  • The preview of your shared screen is available when doing a simultaneous screen share, and sharing a video.
  • Advanced screen sharing settings, controlling who and how many can share, as well as who can interrupt someone else's share, are also available for the host. 

Controls when screen sharing

When you start sharing your screen, the meeting controls will move into a menu that you can drag around your screen.
Note: Some of the options detailed below may not be visible due to account admin restrictions or the feature is only visible to the meeting host or co-host.

  • Mute/Unmute: Mute or unmute your microphone.
  • Start/Stop Video: Start or stop your in-meeting video.
  • Security: Access in-meeting security options.
  • Participants: View or manage the participants (if you're the host).
    • Click the down arrow down-arrow-button.png to access Invite, where you can invite others to join the meeting.
  • Polling: Allows you to create, edit, and launch your polls. The options to create or launch polls will open up the Zoom web portal in your default browser. When the poll closes, you can view the results and can download the full poll report. If a poll has already been created, both host and co-host can launch the poll, but only the host can edit or add polls to the meeting.
  • New Share: Start a new screen share. You will be prompted to select which screen you want to share again.
  • Pause Share: Pause your current shared screen.
  • Annotate: Display annotation tools for drawing, adding text, and so on.
  • More: Hover over More for additional options.
    • Chat: Open the chat window.
    • Record: Start recording locally or to the cloud.
    • Meeting Info: Shows the current meeting's ID, host, passcode, invite link, your participant ID, and encryption status.
    • Closed Caption / Live Transcript (only available to the host): If you have enabled closed captioning and live transcription for your account, click here to access those options.
    • Breakout Rooms: Start breakout rooms.
    • Enable annotation for others: Allow or prevent the participants from annotating on your shared screen.
    • Show/Hide Names of Annotators: Show or hide the participants' name when they are annotating on a screen share. If set to show, the participant's name will briefly display beside their annotation.
    • Hide / Show video panel
    • Hide / Show Floating Meeting Control
    • Share Sound
    • Optimize for video clip
      Note: Do not enable this setting if you are not sharing a full screen video clip, as it will blur your screen share. This should be enabled/disabled before and after the video you wish to play.
    • Live on Facebook: Broadcast your meeting live on Facebook.
    • Live on Workplace by Facebook: Broadcast your meeting live on Workplace by Facebook.
    • Live on Youtube: Broadcast your meeting live on Youtube.
    • Live on Custom Live Streaming Service: Broadcast your meeting live on a custom streaming platform.
    • End Meeting: Leave the meeting or end the meeting for all participants.

How to show Zoom windows during screen share

By default, the Zoom window is not shared while sharing your screen. Showing the Zoom window during screen share can be useful if a participant is helping you use Zoom.

To show Zoom windows during screen share:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
  3. In the In Meeting (Basic) section, make sure Show Zoom windows during screen share is enabled. This setting will allow the setting to appear in the desktop client.
  4. Sign out of the Zoom desktop client and sign back in. Alternatively, you can exit the client and re-open it.
  5. Click your profile picture then click Settings.
  6. Click the Share Screen tab and make sure Show Zoom windows during screen share is enabled.

When using dual monitors

If you are using a dual-monitor setup, you can turn on the dual monitors feature to see the screen sharing on one monitor and participants on the second.

Note: On macOS 10.15 Catalina, you need to allow Zoom access to screen recording to share your screen. You can do this in your System Preferences. Select the Security & Privacy option, click the Privacy tab, scroll down to Screen Recording, and finally check the option for zoom.us.

Linux

Share your desktop, screen or content

To share your screen or content:

  1. Click Share Screen from your meeting controls.
  2. Select one of these screen share options:
    • Basic: Share your entire desktop, specific application window, or whiteboard.
      Notes      :
      • Sharing from an iPhone/iPad is not supported on Linux.
      • Linux sessions utilizing Wayland can only share an entire desktop or whiteboard. In order to share just a specific application, you will need to launch your Linux session with Xorg instead.
    • Advanced
      • Portion of Screen: Share a portion of your screen represented by a green border. The border can be adjusted as needed during the share by clicking and dragging any side or corner.
      • Music or Computer Sound Only: Only share your computer's audio (your selected speaker in your audio settings). Select the down arrow ˅ just to the right of Music or Computer Audio option to view audio options and switch between Mono and Stereo (high fidelity) audio options.
  3. (Optional) Enable these features, located in the bottom-left corner of the share window:
    • Share Computer Sound: If you check this option, any sound played by your computer will be shared in the meeting. Select the down arrow just to the right of the Share Computer Sound option to switch between Mono and Stereo (high fidelity) audio options.
    • Optimize Screen Sharing for Video Clip: Check this if you will be sharing a video clip in full screen mode. Do not check this otherwise, as it may cause the shared screen to be blurry.
    • Share to breakout rooms: Allows the host or co-host to share their screen from the main session directly into all open breakout rooms.
  4. Click Share.
    When the sharing process is started, you will see a notification banner stating Participants can now see your shared screen, or whatever you have chosen to share.
  5. (Optional) On the meeting controls menu, hover over You are screen sharing, then click the drop-down arrow , to view the screen shared with your participants. To stop viewing the screen shared, click the up arrow .

Notes:

  • Zoom will automatically switch to full screen to optimize the shared screen view. To exit full-screen, click Exit Full Screen in the top-right corner or press the Esc key.
  • To disable automatic full screen when viewing a shared screen, adjust the Window size when screen sharing behavior in your desktop client settings.
  • If you selected Content from 2nd Camera, click Switch Camera in the top-left corner to switch the shared camera.
  • Advanced screen sharing settings, controlling who and how many can share, as well as who can interrupt someone else's share, are also available for the host. 

Controls when screen sharing

When you start sharing your screen, the meeting controls will move into a menu that you can drag around your screen.

Note: Some of the options detailed below may not be visible due to account admin restrictions or the feature is only visible to the meeting host or co-host.

  • Mute/Unmute: Mute or unmute your microphone.
  • Start/Stop Video: Start or stop your in-meeting video.
  • Security: Access in-meeting security options.
  • Participants: View or manage the participants (if the host).
    • Click the down arrow to access Invite, where you can invite others to join the meeting.
  • New Share: Start a new screen share. You will be prompted to select which screen you want to share again.
  • Pause Share: Pause your current shared screen.
  • Annotate: Display annotation tools for drawing, adding text, etc.
  • Polling: Allows you to create, edit, and launch your polls. The options to create or launch polls will open up the Zoom web portal in your default browser. When the poll closes, you can view the results and can download the full poll report. If a poll has already been created, both host and co-host can launch the poll, but only the host can edit or add polls to the meeting.
  • More: Hover over more for additional options.
    • Chat: Open the chat window.
    • Record on this Computer: Start a local recording.
    • Record to the Cloud: Start a cloud recording.
    • Meeting Info: Shows the current meeting's ID, host, passcode, invite link, your participant ID, and encryption status.
    • Allow/Disable participants annotation: Allow or prevent the participants from annotating on your shared screen.
    • Show/Hide Names of Annotators: Show or hide the participants' name when they are annotating on a screen share. If set to show, the participant's name will briefly display beside their annotation.
    • Hide / Show video panel
    • Audio Settings: Open the audio settings in the client.
    • Video Settings: Open the video options in the client.
    • Share Computer Sound
    • Optimize Share for Full-screen Video Clip
      Note: Do not enable this setting if you are not sharing a video clip, as it will blur your screen share. This should be enabled/disabled before and after the video you wish to play.
    • End Meeting: Leave the meeting or end the meeting for all participants.

When using dual monitors

If you are using a dual-monitor setup, you can turn on the dual monitors feature to see the screen sharing on one monitor and participants on the second.

Web App

Sharing your desktop, screen, or content

To share your screen or content:

  1. Click Share Screen located in your meeting controls.
  2. Select the browser tab, app window, or entire desktop. 
    Note: The process and window for choosing what to share varies slightly by web browser.  Follow your browser's on-screen prompts to choose what to share. 
  3. (Optional) In the bottom of the share window, click the Also share tab audio toggle to include any sound played by this browser tab in the meeting. 
    Note: This option is currently only available with the Chrome web browser. 
  4. Click Share.
    When the sharing process is started and 80% of devices acknowledge receiving the shared screen, you will see a notification banner stating Participants can now see your shared screen, or whatever you have chosen to share.
  5. (Optional) On the meeting controls menu, hover over You are screen sharing, then click the drop-down arrow , to view the screen shared with your participants. To stop viewing the screen shared, click the up arrow .

Notes:

    • When sharing an application, live changes made to a document may not appear for others. If you experience this issue, stop sharing and restart the share or share your entire screen to avoid this issue. 
    • For Windows 10 users, if several applications are open, a limited number will be listed as an option to share. If the application you want to share is not listed, close unnecessary applications and try again.  

Android

Note: Some of these options can be disabled in your account settings, under Integrations.

How to share content

To share content:

  1. Tap Share in the meeting controls.
  2. Tap the type of content that you want to share.
  3. Tap one of the following options.
    • Photos: Share a photo from your file manager or photo apps (e.g. Google Photos). Depending on the apps installed on your Android device, you may see different share options.
    • Documents: Select a locally stored PDF or image to share it.
    • Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Microsoft OneDrive for Business: Select a file to share from the selected file sharing service. You will need to grant Zoom access to your account.
      Note: Only PDFs and images are supported.
    • Website URL: Enter a URL to open a browser and share the website.
    • Bookmark: Share bookmarks stored in the Zoom app.
      Note: Bookmarks are not synced with your account and are deleted when you sign-out of the mobile app. 
    • Screen: Share a view of your phone's entire screen.
    • Camera: Allows sharing of your video camera or an attached webcam.
    • Share Whiteboard: Share a whiteboard you can annotate on.

How to share your screen

To share your entire screen, including any application on your Android device:

  1. Tap Share share-screen-button-green.png in the meeting controls.
  2. Tap Screen.
    The Android system will display a notification informing you of what the screen share will have access to.
  3. Tap Start Now to confirm.
    The screen share will start and Zoom will continue to run in the background. You can now choose the app that you would like to share.
  4. At the bottom of your screen, tap Annotate to open the annotation tools or tap Stop Share to stop sharing and go back to meeting controls.

How to share device audio

Note: Ensure that the sound generated by the app you are sharing is allowed to be captured by non-system applications. Some apps may block sound from being shared for security and privacy reasons.

To share device audio:

  1. Follow the instructions to begin sharing your screen.
  2. Tap the Share Audio option, found between the options to Annotate and Stop Share.
  3. Tap again to disable or tap Stop Share to end the share completely.

iOS

On iOS, you can share the following options:

  • Screen (requires iOS 11 or higher)
  • Photos
  • iCloud Drive
  • Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or Microsoft OneDrive for Business: Select a file to share from the selected file sharing service. You will need to grant Zoom access to your account. Only PDFs and images are supported.
  • Website URLs
  • Bookmark
    Note: Bookmarks are not synced with your account and are deleted when you sign-out of the mobile app. 
  • Whiteboard (iPad only)

Note: Some of these options can be disabled in your Account settings, under Integrations. If you need to share your entire screen on an older version of Zoom, see sharing iOS Applications.

How to share content

To share content:

  1. Tap Share Content share-screen-button-green.png in the meeting controls.
  2. Tap the type of content that you want to share.
    For example, if you select Google Drive, this will bring up a series of documents that can be shared.
  3. Select the document you want to share and then Share in the top right corner.
  4. The content is now shared into the meeting.

Notes:

  • You cannot annotate when sharing your entire screen into the meeting through an iOS device. If you need to annotate when sharing an entire iOS screen, see sharing iOS Applications.
  • While sharing your screen, you can hide your self-view of your video by swiping the video preview window towards the edge of the screen.