How to Use Slack Screen Sharing

Slack is a great instant messaging and video conferencing service for teams and individuals to stay in touch through chat and video calls, but it's also a good resource for collaboration. One of the coolest features of Slack is screen sharing during video calls with other participants. There are a few things to know before you get started, though.

Who Can Use Slack Screen Sharing?

Slack is available for free to lite users who don't need all the features that are available in the service. There are also three paid tiers of service—Standard, Plus, & Enterprise Grid. It's these three levels of paid subscribers who have the ability to use Slack screen sharing. It is not available to users of the free service.

Slack screen sharing is also not available on Android and iOS devices, or to to Chromebook users. It's a feature that is limited to Windows and macOS computers.

If you're using Windows 7 and you want to use Slack screen sharing, go to Start > Control Panel > Personalization and enable the Aero theme before you start Slack. Slack requires a level of transparency that's not available in other Windows 7 themes.

How to Share Your Screen on Slack

If you're using one of the supported versions of Slack, sharing your screen is easy. It's just as easy to stop sharing your screen, too.

Only one person at a time can share their screen. If multiple people plan to share screens during a video call, one will have to finish and stop sharing before another can begin.

Start (or join) a Slack video call.
When you're ready, click the Share Screen icon at the bottom of the call window.

The presenter's (person sharing their screen) screen video will be disabled during screen sharing. Slack message notifications will also be muted.
If you're using a computer that has more than one screen, an option will appear for dual screens. Select the screen you want to share.

Once you start a screen share on Slack, the screen you are sharing becomes the default active window. That means even when others are speaking, the focus for all participants will remain on the screen you're sharing.
When you're finished sharing your screen, click the Share Screen option again to stop sharing. You'll then be taken back to the normal video mode used for Slack calls.

How to Use Slack for Work

Drawing on Your Screen While Screen Sharing

Slack screen sharing makes it easy to present to other call participants. You can even draw on your screen while you're presenting and allow others to draw on your screen to further collaboration.

To enable drawing on your own screen, click the Draw icon (represented by a pencil). You can then use your mouse, stylus, or finger on touchscreen devices to draw on your screen while presenting.

If you want to change the color of the pen while drawing on screen, press the Command option on Mac or Control option on Windows.

By default, screen drawing for other participants is enabled, which means they can draw on your screen while you're sharing without you doing anything to enable it. That can be distracting. So, if you want to disable this feature, click the Group Drawing icon to turn it off.