How to Share Screen on Discord?

Richard Bennett

Sep 30, 2024• Proven solutions

Discord is a group-chat app designed to bring together communities of like-minded people. It launched in 2015 aimed at gamers, and while it is still extremely popular in the gaming world it has also branched out to cover all manner of common interests and themes. You might want to get together to discuss a classic movie series, study on a project together, or just to get involved with the fanbase of your favorite YouTuber.

You don’t just have to chat via text – Discord makes it easy to have voice chats and video calls, and you can share your screen too – ideal whether you want to stream just to a smaller audience than something like Twitch, or you need your colleagues to review your work while you talk it through. Here I’ll take you through how to screen share on Discord step-by-step.

In this article:

• Part 1: Settings for Screen Sharing on Discord
• Part 2: How to Screen Share on a Discord Voice Channel Server?
• Part 3: How to Share Screen on a Discord Direct Message?
• Part 4: How to Change Settings While Screen Sharing on Discord?
• Discord Screen Sharing FAQs

Part 1: Settings for Screen Sharing on Discord

Before you get started with actually sharing your screen on Discord, you’ll want to make sure that you’ve got everything set up correctly.

Open up User Settings by clicking on the cog in the bottom left next to your username.

Here you’ll find a handy option called ‘Voice & Video’. Use this to make sure that your audio settings are working correctly – both your microphone for communicating with the person you’re sharing your screen with, and your output so that you can hear them clearly too.

You can also update your video settings here, if you want to also be on camera while you share your screen. Adjust your webcam options and run a test if you want to see how it’s looking.

There are also plenty of clever options available if you want to tinker with things like Noise Suppression, Echo Cancellation and so on if you scroll down on this menu option. Have a play around if you want to, but for most people the default options will be sufficient.

Now, when you go to share your screen (which I’ll cover off below), you’ll be presented with one final option first – your resolution and frame rate.

Here you can set the quality of the image you’ll be sharing. 480p and 720p (HD) are available by default along with 15fps and 30fps. If you want 1080p or to use the Source option, or 60fps, you’ll need to pay for a Discord Nitro account, which is an upgraded tier of membership that starts at $49.99 for the year or $4.99 per month.

Part 2: How to Screen Share on a Discord Voice Channel Server?

Once your settings are ready, you’re good to go. You can currently share your screen using the online Discord browser or on the Discord app. You can’t screen share on mobile. Screen sharing works on Windows, Mac and Linux but you can only share audio on Windows 10.

With that out of the way, here’s how to screen share on Discord on the desktop app.

Firstly, you’ll need to be in a voice channel server. This means that you’ll need to be on a server that either you’ve set up or joined with friends, and active in the voice chat. You’ll start in a text channel by default, so make sure to join a voice channel. Once you’re here, you’ll be able to start chatting to anyone else in the voice channel.

Once you’ve joined, you’ll see a new option at the bottom left of the screen to share your screen. Click this button and you’ll be presented with the option to start sharing your screen – you can choose which application you want to share specifically, or your whole screen.

Once you’ve chosen your screen to share, you can set the settings as mentioned above.

It’s important to note that, if you’re sharing your screen via online Discord in your web browser, you won’t get these same customization options. When you click on share screen, you’ll just get the chance to choose which window you want to share, and it’ll look slightly different. Once done, you’ll be sharing – you can’t change your resolution or frame rate on the online browser. If that’s an issue, you might want to download the app – it is free to use and is often faster.

Part 3: How to Share Screen on a Discord Direct Message?

If you want to share your screen on Discord in a private direct message, the steps are slightly different. Firstly, there’s no automatic voice channel to join, so you’ll need to begin a video call. To do this, click on the video call button at the top right of your screen when you’re in your DM folder with the person you want to share your screen with.

Then, you simply need to click the share screen button which will appear on your main call controls in the middle of the screen. Once done, you can share you screen in the same way as you would in a voice channel.

Part 4: How to Change Settings While Screen Sharing on Discord?

Once you’ve started a screen share on Discord, you don’t need to stop and start again if you want to change any of the settings. Instead, you can alter them as you’re working. It’s quite simple too.

Firstly, when you’re sharing your screen, you’ll see a little pop-up window of your screen on Discord. Hover over this and you’ll see a cog with Stream Settings highlighted. Click on this cog.

From here, you’ll get the stream settings menu where you can change the frame rate and resolution, or switch to a different window or application if you want to share something else.

This is really useful if you want to work on different applications or projects at the same time, while lowering the resolution or frame rate can really help out if your stream is lagging. If the people you’re screen sharing with are finding that your stream is stuttering or your audio and video keep cutting out, try lowering the resolution and frame rate to make it more manageable.

Discord Screen Sharing FAQs

1. How Can I Share Screen on Discord Mobile?

Unfortunately, if you’re using the Discord app on your Android or iOS smartphone, you won’t be able to share your screen. These operating systems block apps which record your screen, which means it’s not a feature that’s likely to come soon unless Discord can come to an agreement with Google and/or Apple. You can join a stream, and watch someone else’s screen, from your phone.

2. How Can I Share Screen on Discord Mobile?

By default, the only operating system that lets you share audio when you’re screen sharing is Windows 10. So, if you’re using a MacBook or iMac, or you’re on a system running Linux or any other lesser-known OS, you won’t be able to share audio by default.

There are workarounds available, such as this one that was shared on Reddit, but it involves a lot of steps and downloading of additional software. Always check downloads with your antivirus software.

3. How Many People Can I Share Screen With on Discord?

Traditionally, there was a limit of 10 people for any Go Live streams on Discord, to make sure that all users had a good experience without any performance issues. However, Discord themselves increased that limit from 10 users to 50 back in March 2020, to help people through the Coronavirus pandemic. No definitive end date has been given for the increased limit but it is expected to be lowered again.

4. Why Can’t I Share Screen on Discord?

If you’re struggling to share your screen on Discord, there are a number of potential issues. Firstly, make sure you’re on the desktop program and not the mobile app. Secondly, ensure you’re running Discord as an administrator. If it still isn’t working, try uninstalling and reinstalling Discord. If the new version doesn’t work, you may need to email support@discordapp.com.

5. Why My Screen Sharing Is Black on Discord?

If you share your screen but it is simply black, you might have an issue with your graphics hardware. Update your graphics card drivers, and update Discord to the latest version too. Make sure you close any unnecessary programs at the same time, as they might be using up precious memory which could be causing your screen share to fail.

6. How to Improve Discord Screen Share Quality?

If you want to improve your discord screen share quality because it is lagging, you’ll need to check whether your internet connection has a sufficient upload speed. Many broadband providers offer fast downloads but with slow upload speeds, so if you’re uploading a video it may stutter and struggle.

If you want to improve the video and frame rate of your screen sharing because you want it to look better, you’ll need to upgrade to Discord Nitro, which starts at $49.99 per year or $4.99 per month.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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