Feature Spotlight: Zoom Screen Sharing

Periodically we like to spotlight one of our features, giving you a full breakdown on why the feature matters and how you can use it to make better experiences for yourself and your meeting participants. Today we’re spotlighting the wonderful world of screen sharing. After being able to see and hear other meeting participants, screen sharing is definitely the most important part of Zoom. Screen sharing allows for true collaboration. From working together on a proposal to demoing your company's new app, so much work gets done on Zoom's screen sharing. That's why we've put so much work into making it full-featured and versatile. Let's take a look at the different platforms and scenarios of Zoom meeting screen sharing...

If you've joined a Zoom video conference from your Mac or PC, simply click Share Screen, and then select the option you want to share:

• Your desktop - This shares your entire desktop. If you have two screens, it will label them Desktop 1 and Desktop 2.
• Any open window - A good option if you don't want to share your entire desktop for reasons of professionalism and privacy. 
• Your iPhone or iPad - If you click this, you will receive some quick instructions. Basically, you just have to make sure your iPhone or iPad is on the same network as your desktop, and then select Airplay, Zoom-[your name], and enable Mirroring.
• Options for video clips: Select the boxes at the bottom of the sharing options to share your computer sound - which allows you to share the audio of a streaming video (a feature unique to Zoom!) - or to optimize the sharing for a full-screen video clip.

If you don't want to join the meeting to share from your desktop (because, say, you're already in the meeting from another device), but you want to share your desktop nevertheless, Zoom's still got you covered! Just visit share.zoom.us, enter the Zoom meeting ID, and share your screen without ever joining the video or audio components of the meeting.

iPhone and iPad: Use the totally unique Airplay mirroring method discussed in section 1 to share any application. And guess what? You can also screen share photos, webpages, and cloud content from Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft OneDrive by just pressing "Share" on your iPhone or iPad Zoom interface during your meeting. Android and Blackberry:  Not an iOS user? No worries, you can still share your home screen and apps on Zoom with Android devices running 5.0 (Lollipop) and above and on Blackberry 10.1 and above. You can also screen share photos, webpages, and cloud content from Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive on these devices by pressing "Share" during your meeting.

There are three methods for sharing during a ZoomPresence meeting:

• Wireless sharing via the share.zoom.us method for your Mac or PC laptop discussed in section 1.
• Wireless sharing via Airplay mirroring for Mac, iPhone, or iPad as discussed in section 1.
• Wired HDMI sharing via a BlackMagic Intensity Extreme.

If you're meeting from a traditional H.323 or SIP conference room system, such as Polycom, Lifesize, or Cisco Tandberg, you can also screen share. Zoom supports H.239 ITU standard for content sharing on a H.323 device and BFCP for content sharing on SIP device. This allows you to view a video stream as well as a content stream through your H.323 or SIP device if you have dual monitors. Follow the instructions from our Support Center to set this up.

There are some more great features we've put out related to screen sharing.

• iPad Whiteboarding: Online whiteboards enable the meeting host to draw on an empty canvas. It uses the same concept as screen sharing, except that you’re sharing a blank drawable surface from your iPad rather than existing content. From your iPad, just click "Share," and then "Share Whiteboard."
• Annotation and Co-Annotation: By moving the mouse around during screen sharing, you will see a menu pop up at the top of the screen. If you click "Annotation" on this menu, you'll be able to choose from various tools: Mouse, Draw, Spotlight, Eraser, Color, Undo, Redo, and Clear. Any Attendees in your meeting can start co-annotating on a shared screen. The Attendee can access "Annotate" in the upper meeting toolbar.
• Remote Control: Zoom provides remote screen control from desktops and mobile platforms. If one user is screen sharing, they can allow remote control of their desktop and other attendees can also request to control the desktop.
• Co-annotation and remote control work across our mobile and desktop platforms.

This has been just a quick overview of the various types of Zoom screen sharing. We recommend checking out our Support Center for more - just search "screen sharing" and you'll find a wealth of information. You can start screen sharing, meeting, and more by signing up for your free Zoom account today!