Messages (Yosemite): Share your screen

Share your screen

You and a friend with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard or later can share a screen, making it easy to collaborate on a project.

When you share a screen, you and your friend can do anything on the shared desktop, such as opening folders, creating documents, and copying files by dragging them from one desktop to another. Messages automatically starts an audio chat.

You can share screens using AIM, Jabber, Google Talk, and Bonjour. You can’t share screens using Yahoo! or iMessage.

Important:   When you share your screen, your friend has the same access to your computer that you have. Share your screen only with people you trust, and be careful if you receive a request to share your screen from someone who isn’t in your buddy list. If the request comes from someone using Bonjour, remember that the name shown for the person in Bonjour does not necessarily match the person’s real name.

Share your screen or a friend’s screen

  1. Select a conversation with your friend, or send your friend a message.

  2. Click Details in the Messages window.

  3. Click the Screen Share button , then choose an option.

    • Share your screen: Choose Invite to share my screen.

    • Share a friend’s screen: Choose Ask to share screen.

  4. While you’re sharing screens, you can do any of the following:

    • Switch between viewing your screen and your buddy’s screen: Click the small desktop image.

    • End the screen-share session: Click the Close button in the upper left of the small desktop image.

Respond to an invitation

When someone invites you to a screen-sharing session, a small window appears notifying you of who sent the invitation.

Click the window, then accept, decline, or reply to the invitation.

If you reply, the invitation is also rejected.

Screen sharing in Messages is independent of screen-sharing settings in System Preferences. You can share screens using Messages even when Screen Sharing is deselected in the Sharing pane of System Preferences.

Last Modified: Dec 11, 2014
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