Sharing Your Screen on a Live Stream
How to share your screen: full screen, a specific window, or a single browser tab, in Live Studio, with tips for clean demos, presentations, and tutorials.
Introduction
Screen share is one of the most-used Live Studio features. Walk through a deck. Demo a product. Teach a tool. React to a video. Show what's on your screen, to your viewers, in seconds.
This guide covers how to share, what to share, and the small things that make a screen share look professional instead of awkward.
How to Share Your Screen
Open your Live Studio stream
Click Sources in the sidebar
Click Add Screen Share
Pick what to share, Entire Screen, a specific Window, or a single Tab
Click Share
The screen share appears as a source on your canvas. Drag it, resize it, layer it.
Screenshot suggestion: Browser screen share dialog showing the three options, Entire Screen, Window, Tab.
Three Ways to Share, Three Different Trade-offs
Browsers offer three sharing modes. Pick the right one for what you're doing.
Entire Screen
Shows everything on a monitor, windows, desktop, dock, notifications, everything.
Use when: you need to switch between several apps mid-share.
Watch out for: notifications popping up, accidentally showing private content, busy desktops.
Specific Window
Shows just one application window. Other windows stay private even if you switch focus.
Use when: demoing a single app or showing a deck.
Watch out for: if the window doesn't focus correctly, the share can look frozen.
Browser Tab
Shows one specific browser tab. The cleanest, most private option.
Use when: demoing a website, walking through documentation, sharing a single web app.
Watch out for: can't switch to other tabs without losing the share.
For most live demos, share a single window or tab, not the entire screen. Less risk, less clutter, more professional.
Pick the Right Layout
Click Layout in the sidebar and choose:
Pip: screen share fills the canvas, host camera tucked into a corner. Great for when the screen is the star.
Showtime: host on one side, screen share on the other, in equal parts. Great for "I'm demoing while talking" segments.
Spotlight: screen share full screen, no host visible. Use sparingly, viewers want to see your face.
For a full breakdown see Live Studio Layouts Explained.
Pre-Share Checklist
Before you click Share, take 30 seconds:
Close anything sensitive. Email, Slack, password managers, banking tabs.
Turn off notifications. macOS Focus mode, Windows Focus Assist, browser notification permissions.
Close clutter. Dozens of tabs, busy bookmarks bars, noisy taskbars.
Zoom in. A 4K monitor at 100% looks like ant-sized text on a 1080p stream. Use Cmd/Ctrl + + to make text legible.
Increase cursor size. System settings let you make the cursor bigger, viewers can follow it more easily.
Have a clean tab ready. Open the page or app you'll demo before going live. Don't search for it on stream.
Sharing With a Guest
Guests can share their screen too. They see the same dialog and pick the same way. Use it for:
A guest walking through their own work
A guest demonstrating a tool
A guest reacting to something on their machine
If both you and a guest share at the same time, you can mix layouts, for example, a Custom layout with both screens side by side.
Common Pitfalls
Audio not shared. Browsers usually share video of a screen but not its audio. If you need to share audio (e.g., a video clip's sound), pick "Tab" mode and check the "Share tab audio" checkbox.
Black screen. On macOS, you may need to grant the browser screen-recording permission in System Settings. The OS will prompt you the first time.
Frozen share. If the source window is minimized, browsers sometimes pause the share. Keep the window visible.
Wrong screen. If you have two monitors, double-check which one you picked, the dialog shows thumbnails.
When to Stop Sharing
Click the source and choose Remove, or click your browser's "Stop Sharing" button. The source disappears from the canvas. Switch to a host-only layout (e.g., Spotlight or Half Screen) when you're back on camera-only.
Pro Tips
Don't read from your screen share. Look at the camera while you talk; the screen is for the viewer, not for you.
Mouse hover over what you're talking about. Viewers' eyes follow the cursor.
Use a pointer or highlight tool for emphasis, there are free browser extensions for this.
Practice the layout switch. Knowing the click sequence to bring up the screen share looks slick on stream.
Have a "back to camera" hot spot. A specific layout button you click to leave the demo cleanly.