How screen sharing works on Discord

One of the most valuable features of a service like Zoom is the ability to share your screen with other people. “Screen sharing” allows you to relay everything appearing on your screen, in real-time, to another party. You can also choose to stream the sound coming from your device and continue talking over your screen share. These screen-sharing features are often locked behind a paywall or limited to a certain amount of time. On Discord, you can easily share your screen in calls for free. Let’s go over how to do that.

Read more: How to add and assign roles on Discord

The screen share feature in Discord calls may have been born out of gaming-related intentions, but it provides value way beyond video games. Yes, if you want to chill in a call with friends and have them watch your gameplay, Discord is the best way to do that. At the same time, if you want to gather together with a group of co-workers and collaborate on a group project, screen sharing can expedite that process.

You can screen share on Discord when you are in a call with one or more Discord users or if you are participating in a voice channel. You can share your screen with others in the call when you are in either one of these situations.

How to screen share on Discord (desktop)

Screen sharing in a Discord call

To share your screen on Discord, you can start or join a Discord call. You can do this by right-clicking any Discord user and clicking Call.

In your Discord call, click the Share Your Screen button that looks like a computer monitor with an arrow swerving to the right.

Screen sharing in a voice channel

Go to your desired Discord server and click a voice channel to join it. Voice channels are separate from text channels because, instead of having an adjacent icon that looks like a hashtag, the icon looks like a speaker with sound coming out.

A small bar will appear at the bottom saying “Voice Connected.” Click the Share Your Screen button below it that looks like a computer monitor with an arrow swerving to the right.

How to screen share on Discord (Android and iOS)

Discord recently added a feature called “Mobile Screen Share.” As its name suggests, this will allow you to screen share your mobile device to any Discord call or voice channel.

Screen sharing in a Discord call

Start a Discord call from the mobile app. When the call starts, swipe up from the bottom tray, then tap Screen Share.

If prompted with a “Start recording or casting?” notification, press START NOW to begin sharing your device’s screen.

Screen sharing in a voice channel

Go to one of the Discord servers you’re a part of, then join a voice channel. Press Join Voice.

Tap the Share Your Screen button below that looks like a smartphone with an arrow swerving out to the right. If you’re using an Android device, you’ll likely get a pop-up message titled “Start recording or casting?” If you see this, press START NOW.

This will begin your screen share. Everyone else in the call will be able to join your stream and see what you are doing on your mobile device.

How to stream a game on Discord

If you are playing a video game that is recognized by Discord’s game detection system and you’re logged into your Discord account, you can screen share that game wherever you want.

To do this, launch your game and then navigate to the Discord server you want to stream your game to. The game you’re playing will appear in a bar at the bottom; click the Stream [insert game name here] button.

Select the voice channel you want to stream to, then select the settings for your stream quality. This includes resolution and frame rate.

When ready, click Go Live to start screen sharing your game to that particular channel.

Read more: How to stream on Discord from your Nintendo Switch

FAQs

Why does my Discord screen share not have audio?

If nobody can hear your screen share, you may have muted yourself.

There used to be an issue with sound not coming through when streaming a program in full-screen, but that should no longer occur. If it does, you may need to update your client.