Screen Sharing Setup & Usage

Screen sharing is a great way to share content to other hosts/participants in the room.

To keep an optimal level of performance in the room, screen sharing will broadcast from 1-5 FPS (frames per second) by default, and up to 1080p based on network and CPU restraints.

Depending on the browser being used, there will be different options for what can be shared.

Screen sharing on Mobile (both phone and tablet) devices is not currently available.

Setup and Management

As the platform holder, there are few options you have for managing the available screen sharing feature.

• Enabling screen sharing for all rooms via a dashboard preference

• Enabling screen sharing on a per room/user basis with a URL parameter

• Listening for the screen sharing event with our Web Component to facilitate in app messages or notifications

• Using the browser method for stopping/starting screen sharing

Browser sharing options

Chrome/Chromium

You can share an image of your entire screen. If you have multiple monitors, you can also select which one you'd like to show.

If you select the "Window" section, you can select a specific application like Word or Chrome that you want to share.

lastly, you can use the Chrome Tab option if you only want to share one tab from your Browser.

Firefox

Firefox allows for the sharing of an entire screen, or of an app window. Options are not divided into sections.

Safari

Safari allows for the sharing of an entire screen, or of an app window. When selecting the "Share Window" option, you'll hover your mouse over and click the window you'd like to share.

Screen sharing additional features

Screen sharing with audio

Sharing computer audio is possible while screen sharing and using Chrome or Chromium browsers.

Depending on the sharing option selected and the operating system, a checkbox that says "Share Audio" will be present that you can check to share audio.

Tip: Many audio and video files (eg mp3, mp4, webm) can be opened into Chrome for viewing and playback. Simply drag and drop the local files into a new tab, and share tab audio as previously mentioned

macOS

macOS

On macOS, users are only able to share a specific Chrome tab. Sharing audio for the entire computer or a specific application window isn't possible at this time due to browser/operating system permissions.On Windows machines, you'll have the option to share audio from any Chrome tab, and you can also share the audio for your Entire Screen.

Windows

On Windows machines, users have the option to share audio from any Chrome tab or share the audio for the Entire Screen.

Sharing the audio of the entire screen that contains a Whereby room will cause an echo effect. To prevent this issue from happening, try sharing the audio of a Chrome tab or a separate monitor instead.

Picture in picture

Due to a bug in Safari for macOS, we've temporarily disabled our Picture in Picture feature for versions 17.x

Allowing the use of "Picture in Picture" can be helpful for users that want to screen share content and still be able to view others within the room.

This activates a pop-out of the currently active videos within the meeting room.

Annotating Screen share

Users can extend the capability of screen sharing by installing extensions in Chrome or Chromium browsers. Tools like "Draw on page" or "Paint" work well to highlight and indicate content in your browser while screen sharing.

Troubleshooting Screen Sharing

"Could not start screen share"

If you are seeing the above error message, it could mean a few things. Either the request was canceled or your browser doesn't have permission to access screen sharing.

Windows Permissions: At the moment Windows doesn't have any system-level permissions for screen access. if you're running into problems or getting an error, double-check your browser settings.

Chrome and Chromium: At the moment Chrome doesn't have any specific settings related to screen access.

macOS permissions

In the more recent versions of macOS, Apple has introduced system-level permissions for applications like your browser for accessing screen sharing.

If you've recently updated or upgraded your device and can't screen share anymore, you'll need to update the preferences by doing the following:

1. Open up System Settings on your Mac

2. Click on the "Privacy & Security" section

3. Scroll to the "Screen & System Audio Recording" section, and ensure that your browser is toggled on

4. Restart your browser

Safari Permissions

In some cases you may have accidentally blocked screen sharing for the site at a browser level. In Safari you can fix that with the following:

1. In your menu bar, select Safari->Settings

2. Select the "Websites" option

3. Scroll down to the "Screen Sharing" section

4. Find your website and verify it is set to "Ask"

FireFox Permissions

When using screen sharing in Firefox, you'll see a pop up that asks if you'd like to allow Whereby (or your site) to access your screen

If you accidentally selected "Always block", Firefox won't show this prompt again. In this case, you'll need to manually reset the permissions for screen access by doing the following:

1. Click on the "Site information" area, just to the left of the website address

2. Locate the "Share the Screen" item in the list, and select the "X" next to Blocked

3. Refresh the tab

"Screen share is hard to read"

If you're having trouble reading smaller text on a screen share, try making the window or content that is being shared smaller. That might mean instead of sharing the entire screen, share a browser window/tab that has been resized slightly. Or, if you have a large monitor try to not use an app window or browser tab that is stretched to the full size of the monitor.