How to Share Your Screen with Google Hangout

Google Hangouts is one of the most popular and most commonly used video call platforms. Google Hangouts enables you to do an audio connection for audio, video, text chat, and screen sharing. You can turn off video to save bandwidth for screen sharing or if you just want audio-only.

Sharing your screen is useful when you want to show documents, videos, presentations, or any other form of content to another person or a group. Screen sharing is particularly used to help someone resolve a technical issue as you can walk them through all the steps necessary to fix the problem as they share their screen with you. Technical support representatives and freelance consultants routinely use screen sharing to help clients resolve problems or to demonstrate the solution to a problem.

This is why we’ve compiled this short walkthrough. Just follow these steps and you’ll be sharing your screens on Google Hangouts in no time!

A Step-by-Step Guide to Sharing a Screen on Google Hangouts

The options for screen sharing vary depending on if you are using the app or the web browser.

Step 1:

The first thing you need to do is to open the Google Hangouts app or webpage. Available on iOS, Android, or from your web browser, once you’ve launched the page you may need to sign in to your Gmail account.

Step 2:

The next thing you want to do is tap on the ‘Video Call’. You will then be prompted to select the people you want in your room so that you can make a new video call with all of them.

Once you select all the names you want, simply click on the “Video Call” button.

Step 3:

Now you need to locate the “Share Screen” located on the top right of the Hangouts Screen (click on the three vertical dots).

Once you’ve pulled up this menu option; click on ‘Share Screen’

For the Application version: you’ll need to click on the three horizontal dots located on the upper-right-hand side of the app. Tap ‘Present Screen.’

Step 4:

Once you click the green button, each action you perform on your screen, be it with a mouse or your keyboard, will be visible to all the participants of your video call.

As a matter of fact, any open window can be shared separately. This means that you can choose whether you want to share your entire screen or you want to share specific folders, such as “My Documents” or perhaps only your internet browser.

Keep in mind that all shared items apart from the entire screen need to be shown in Full-Screen mode if you want to share them via Google Hangouts.

Step 5:

Once you’ve successfully chosen the program or screen you want to share, you just need to click on the “Share” button located in the bottom right. This is if you’re using Google Chrome as your default browser. If you’re using another browser, the button will be referred to as “Start Screenshare”.

Step 6:

Keep in mind that clicking the “Share” button will not instantly share the selected screen with the participants of your video call. It will usually take a few seconds before it loads, so just be patient at this step.

Step 7:

When the video feed of your screen sharing session is successfully loaded, you need to click on the “Present to everyone” button. Clicking on it will finally make the selected screen or program viewable by everyone who is included in that particular room.

Step 8:

Once you’ve done all this, you can actually go and perform all the actions on the screen, window, or program that you wanted to share with the participants. You can now freely type away on your keyboard or use the mouse and all the participants will be able to follow your every move.

Step 9:

When you are done with your little presentation and don’t need to share any screens with your Google Hangouts participants, you need to head back to the active Hangout window. Search for the “Stop” button in the top taskbar and click on it to stop sharing the screen.

Other than that, you can also terminate the video call. This will prevent your Google Hangout video call participants from being able to see the screen you’ve previously shared with them.

Troubleshooting

There are also situations where screen sharing won’t work in Google Hangouts. If you’re having issues with Google Hangouts or the screen sharing feature, there are a few things to try to get it working properly.

In most cases when screen sharing stops working in the middle of a session, it usually has something to do with the web browser you’re using.

1. Change the Browser

If you experience any glitches when sharing screens in Google Hangouts, you should first try doing the same but using another browser. If you use Safari or Mozilla Firefox, try using Google Chrome, which is a web browser developed by Google.

2. Clear the Browser Cache

When used for prolonged periods of time, browsers often need their Cache cleared. Clearing your cache means that the browser will not load the website from cache but will instead go the website to load a fresh, updated version. You can find the cache clearing process in the settings and can be done quickly.

If you use Chrome, here’s How to Clear the Google Chrome Cache. This process will be similar to other web browsers.

Once you’ve cleared the browser cache, try repeating the screen sharing process as explained in the steps above.

3. Update the Application

If you’re using a mobile device you’ll want to make sure that your Google Hangouts app is up-to-date with the most current software.

For those who are new to the application; ensure that your device settings allow audio and video when launching. By visiting the settings on your phone or tablet; you can ensure that the permissions are turned on for the application.

If issues persist, delete the application and download it again.

Conclusion

As you can see, sharing your entire screen or selected apps and windows in your Google Hangouts video calls is a very easy process. By doing so, you can share the important stuff with your loved ones, colleagues, and clients in no time. You can even Record your Google Hangouts Calls.