How to share screen in Google Hangouts

Since Google Hangouts is designed for the average person, most of the tools available are pretty straightforward. But just because Hangouts doesn’t have advanced business features doesn’t mean you can’t make the perfect presentation.

Whether you’re presenting a report at school or giving your team a financial update, you can use Hangouts screen sharing to show participants a live presentation on Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Step 1: Preload the presentation

Make sure the presentation is loaded before you start a video chat or do screen sharing. Keep the app minimized and running in the background (whether it’s Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides running in a new Chrome browser window or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet).

Step 2: Make a video call on Google Hangouts

Start Google Hangouts through a browser or a Chrome extension. While in a video call, to start sharing your screen, you’ll need to hover over your browser window to view your online meeting.

Step 3: Go to the menu containing the screen sharing option

A menu bar at the top will appear, giving you options to add people, change settings, or access more features. You need to click on the hamburger menu (three vertical dots) in the upper right of the window.

Step 4: Choose the right sharing option

Click Screen Share and a pop-up will appear asking if you want to share your entire screen or just an application window. If you’re talking to a friend who’s a tech expert and needs help diagnosing what’s going on on your PC, you’ll want to choose Your Entire Screen. But if you’re giving a presentation, you’ll want to select the tab Application Window.

Step 5: Select the app you want to share

If you share only one application window, after clicking on the tab Application Windowyou will be shown a grid of open applications running on your PC at the moment.

Click on the app you want to share your screen with, then click the . button Share to start sharing. Please note that since this option selects from already running applications, you will need to activate a new browser window with Google Slides loaded or run Microsoft PowerPoint before you start screen sharing, as the article has shown. mentioned above.

Tips: Alerts and notifications from your PC can be distracting during presentations. Make sure the mode is on Focus Assist on Windows 10 or activate Do Not Disturb on your Mac to mute any announcements during an online session for a more professional presentation.