Share Your Screen With Friends Online (No Install) — and Fix the Sound
Start a private room, share one link, and fix why viewers cannot hear the video.
To share your screen with friends online without anyone installing an app, both sides only need a modern desktop browser. You open a room, pick what to share, and send one link. This guide uses the Haivix Watch Together room and focuses on the part that goes wrong most often: your friends can hear your voice but not the sound of the video you are playing.
Watch Together runs in the browser. You choose a screen, window, or browser tab, optionally turn on your microphone, and each friend opens the invite link to watch live. The stream passes through Haivix's media server for the session only; it is not recorded, and ending the room ends the session. The capture step uses the same Screen Capture API that other browser video tools build on.
Key takeaways
- The shared video's audio is a separate track from your microphone, so you must switch it on in the browser picker.
- Screen capture needs HTTPS and a current desktop browser; most mobile browsers cannot capture a screen.
- Tick Share tab audio or Share system audio before you press Share.
- Firefox and macOS often cannot capture system audio at all, so a silent share can be a platform limit, not a bug.
- If you are unsure your setup can share, run the Screen Share Test first.
What you need before you start
Both host and viewers need a current desktop browser such as Chrome, Edge, or Firefox over HTTPS. A secure context is a page served over HTTPS or from localhost, and browsers only expose capture there (see MDN on secure contexts). Screen capture and live media are not available in most mobile browsers. You will be asked to allow screen access the first time, and microphone or camera access only if you use them.
If you are unsure whether your setup can share at all, run the Screen Share Test first. It checks the browser, permission, device, and network pieces in about a minute.
Share your screen in four steps
Enter a name (optional) and select Start a room. A short room code and an invite link appear.
- Select Share screen and choose the screen, application window, or browser tab to share in the browser picker.
- If you want your voice, select Mic on; keep it off when the shared content already has the audio you want people to hear.
- Select Copy invite link and send it to your friends. They open it and land in the room automatically.
- When you are finished, select Stop sharing, or Leave to close the room for you.
Why viewers hear your voice but not the video
Your microphone and the shared screen's audio are 2 separate tracks. A media track is a single stream of one kind of data, either video or audio, and one share can carry both. Turning on the microphone captures your voice; the sound of the video or game you are sharing comes from the browser picker, and you have to opt in.
When you select Share screen, the picker for a tab shows a "Share tab audio" checkbox; sharing an entire screen on Windows and Chrome shows "Share system audio." Tick it before you confirm. If you skip it, viewers hear only your microphone — exactly the "I can hear you but not the video" symptom. The browser's getDisplayMedia() call returns the video track and, when the picker offers it, an audio track. The Screen Capture specification describes when that audio track is available. When no screen audio was captured, the room shows a notice telling you to re-share with audio enabled.
Some setups cannot share system audio at all. System audio is the sound your computer is playing, which is separate from your microphone input. Firefox does not capture it, and macOS often offers no system-audio option, so the shared video is silent for everyone. In that case, keep the source's volume low and use the microphone, or play the media where its audio can be captured.
The three audio routes in a share
| Audio source | What it captures | How to enable it |
|---|---|---|
| Microphone | Your voice. | Select Mic on in the room. |
| Tab audio | Sound from the shared browser tab. | Tick Share tab audio in the picker. |
| System audio | All sound the device is playing. | Tick Share system audio when sharing a screen. |
Read the live stats while sharing
The room shows a small panel with the connection quality plus the actual resolution, frame rate, bitrate, and codec. If the picture stutters or looks soft, this tells you whether the stream is thin (low bitrate or frame rate) or the network is struggling (poor quality).
Under the hood, the live stream travels over WebRTC, the browser standard for real-time audio and video. Use Theater for a larger picture, Fullscreen for the whole display, and Pop out to keep watching in a small window. The overlay controls fade out during playback and return when you move the mouse.
What Watch Together does not do
This is live sharing, not recording and not a scheduled meeting. Sessions are not saved, there is no cloud recording, and reaching a room needs only the invite code — treat the link as the key. For a work call, the CISA guidance for securing video conferencing adds access controls such as passwords and waiting rooms. Very restrictive networks can block live media, for example a corporate firewall that drops UDP traffic; run the Screen Share Test if connections fail.
If you need a file you can keep or send later, record instead — see Screen Recorder. If a problem is stopping the share entirely, the screen sharing troubleshooting checklist walks through each failure.
About this guide
This guide is maintained by the Haivix editorial team. You can read more about us and how Haivix tests its tools on our about page, and send corrections through our contact page.