You can share your Chromebook screen through Linkside without installing a Chrome extension. Linkside creates a temporary room and guest link. When you select Start sharing, Chrome opens its own picker so you—not the site—choose a tab, window, or entire screen.

A slim laptop floats above an empty tool tray with one orange latch beside it.

Before you share

Open Linkside in Chrome on the Chromebook that will host the session. Chrome and Edge on desktop are Linkside’s recommended host browsers.

Decide how much the guest needs to see. If one web page is enough, keep it in its own tab. If the task moves among several tabs, put them in one Chrome window. Use the entire screen only when you need to move across windows or show ChromeOS controls. Choosing the smallest useful surface keeps unrelated content out of view. For a closer look at that boundary, read how to share one browser tab.

You do not need to install a Chrome extension. You also do not need to make a Linkside account.

How to share your Chromebook screen

  1. Open the Linkside create page.
  2. Turn on Waiting room if you want to approve a guest before they enter. Otherwise, leave the room options as they are.
  3. Select Create room. Linkside opens the host session.
  4. Select Invite link in the session header. That copies the guest URL; send it through the channel you already use.
  5. Ask the guest to open the URL, keep or change the generated nickname, and select Join room. There is no account, email gate, or download.
  6. If you enabled Waiting room, find the guest in the participant list and select Admit.
  7. In the empty sharing area, select Start sharing. Linkside asks Chrome for display capture, and Chrome opens its source picker.
  8. Choose the tab, window, or screen you want the guest to see. Chrome groups available choices into those three source types. Select a preview, enable audio only if Chrome offers that option and you need it, then confirm the picker.
  9. The selected surface appears in Linkside and is sent to the guest.

Pay attention to step 8: Linkside cannot select a tab or screen for you. Chrome must ask you to choose whenever a new capture starts. For more detail, read what screen-sharing permission grants.

Which ChromeOS sharing choice should you use?

A Chrome tab

Choose a tab when everything you need to show lives on one web page: a document, dashboard, checkout, or browser-based demo. The captured surface is that selected tab, not another tab, an application window, or the complete screen.

This is the narrowest of Chrome’s three source types. If the page has sound that matters, look for an audio option in Chrome’s picker. Linkside requests audio, but the share remains video-only when Chrome does not return an audio track.

A window

Choose a window when you need to switch among several tabs in the same Chrome window or demonstrate another application. The guest sees the selected window as its contents change. Move unrelated tabs to a different window before you start.

The entire screen

Choose the entire screen only when the task crosses windows or depends on ChromeOS controls outside one app. This source contains the complete selected display. Close private windows and silence notifications before you confirm: anything that appears on that display can appear in the share.

The practical rule is simple: select the smallest surface that still lets the other person follow the task.

Why no extension is needed

Linkside’s Start sharing button calls the browser’s getDisplayMedia() interface. Linkside requests video and optional audio without naming or preferring a display surface. Chrome presents the available choices, and you decide what to share.

Once capture starts, Linkside tries to establish a direct browser-to-browser WebRTC connection. If the network blocks that path, Linkside can fall back to a TURN relay. WebRTC encrypts the media in transit on both routes. The relay forwards encrypted packets, but no Linkside server holds the browser-managed keys needed to read your screen or audio. Linkside does not record the session, and the temporary room disappears after the session ends.

Private does not mean invisible infrastructure. Linkside’s signaling service can observe that a room exists, roughly when guests join, and how long the session lasts. If a relay is needed, it handles the routing of encrypted packets, and Cloudflare’s edge sees IP-level traffic to the relay endpoints. These systems cannot read the media content.

Chrome controls consent and the source picker. Linkside handles the temporary room and live connection. Nothing is installed in Chrome, and Linkside does not create a recording. How browser-only screen sharing works covers the same model beyond Chromebooks.

How to stop or change the share

Select Stop in Linkside when you are finished. You can also use Chrome’s active-sharing control. Linkside detects when Chrome ends the captured track and stops sending the share.

To show something else, select Restart share. Linkside ends the current capture and opens a fresh picker. Chrome asks again because screen-capture permission cannot be saved for reuse.

Stopping a share leaves the room open, so you can prepare another surface and restart while the guest remains in the session. To close the session, open More options in the header, select End room, and confirm.

If your Chromebook screen share does not start

Work through the failure from the last visible step:

  • If Start sharing changes to Waiting for browser…, complete or cancel Chrome’s open picker before trying again.
  • If you cancelled the picker, select Start sharing again and make a new choice.
  • If the wrong content is live, select Restart share and choose a narrower source.
  • If picture appears but source audio does not, restart and check whether Chrome offers an audio option for that source. Screen capture can proceed without audio.
  • If the guest sees an invalid room message, select Invite link again and resend the newly copied URL without editing it.
  • If the room has expired or the host already ended it, the host must create a new room and send its new invite link.

Create a Linkside room, send the invite, and choose the narrowest source that contains the task.