Linkside is for a small classroom group, not a whole class. A free room supports a teacher and one student. With a licence, it supports a teacher and up to three students.
Within that limit, the setup is a temporary room and one invite link. Students join with room-scoped nicknames; Linkside does not ask them to create accounts, enter email addresses, or install an app. That makes it a practical fit for a small presentation group, catch-up session, office hours, or live feedback.
The classroom flow is one link
On the computer that will present, use desktop Chrome or Edge, Linkside’s recommended host browsers, and open the create-room page. There is no login step.
From there:
- Create the room shortly before the presentation.
- Turn on the waiting room if the teacher should approve each guest. A licensed host can also add a room password.
- Paste the invite link into a class chat the group already trusts. If the room has a password, send it separately.
- Ask students to open the link and accept or edit the generated room nickname.
- Approve each student if the waiting room is on.
- Start sharing, then choose the prepared presentation surface in the browser’s prompt.
Students do not need accounts on a new platform, and the teacher does not need to add them to a Linkside roster. Access starts with the temporary room link, so send it only to the small group that should join.
Anyone holding the invite link can attempt to join. The waiting room gives the teacher an approve-or-deny step before a guest becomes active; a room password adds another check for licensed rooms. Neither control verifies a student’s identity or creates a student account, so use the waiting room when the guest list matters.
This is the same product decision explained in why Linkside requires no account: the room represents a short interaction, not a lasting identity or classroom workspace.
Prepare the screen, not another platform
Put the presentation in its own browser tab or application window before students arrive. Move private material out of that surface and check it before sharing. When the browser asks what to show, choose the prepared tab or window rather than the whole desktop when possible. The practical steps are covered in how to share one browser tab.
Treat the selected surface as visible classroom space. Close private comments, answer keys, grade information, or other students’ work before starting. If the next activity requires a different page, stop the share, prepare that page, and start again with the new surface.
Mobile hosting is not supported. A mobile browser that passes Linkside’s guest capability check can view the share. In-app browsers are also unsupported; when Linkside detects one, it directs the student to open the link in Chrome or Edge instead.
What we built for a temporary classroom moment
We built Linkside without user accounts, recordings, or chat history. Its signaling service holds room state while the session is live, then moves an inactive room through idle, tombstone, and deletion stages. Linkside does not transcribe audio or analyse what appears on the teacher’s screen.
The media path is peer-to-peer first. Linkside tries to establish a direct WebRTC connection between the teacher’s browser and each student’s browser. If a restrictive network prevents that direct route, the session can fall back to an encrypted TURN relay. The media stays encrypted in transit on either path, and no Linkside server holds the media keys.
Having no accounts does not mean there is no operational data at all. The signaling service can observe that a room exists, roughly when guests join, and how long the session lasts. If the relay is needed, it can observe the routing of encrypted packets, while Cloudflare’s edge sees IP-level traffic to the relay endpoints. Those systems do not see the shared lesson content, and Linkside does not pair those observations with account identities.
Test the school network before the presentation
A successful test on another network does not show which path Linkside will establish in the classroom. Run a short rehearsal from the teacher’s actual computer and classroom network, with a student joining through the network they will use during the presentation.
After the student connects, read the connection label in the room. Peer-to-peer means the media path is direct. Relayed means TURN carries it. A licensed host with two or three students may also see Mixed when only some connections need TURN.
The five-minute timer applies only to an eligible free room’s TURN trial, not to every Linkside session. Trial relay claims are limited to one per IP address in a two-hour window, so a free relay trial is not guaranteed for every room. A licence removes the relay time limit. If the rehearsal shows Relayed or Mixed, decide whether you need a licence before the presentation.
Also confirm the group size. Free means one teacher and one student. Licensed means one teacher and up to three students. For more viewers, use a product designed for a larger audience rather than asking students to rotate through a room that is already at capacity.
Use it when four active people are enough
Linkside fits when a teacher needs to show a live screen to at most three students and the group already has a trusted place to exchange the invite. It adds no Linkside account, download, recording, chat history, or saved session history.
If you need more than four active people, persistent student identities, or a saved session record, choose a tool built for those needs. For a one-to-one lesson, the online tutoring workflow covers the same accountless setup in more detail. For a teacher and a presentation group within Linkside’s four-person limit, create a temporary room, share the link in class chat, and use End room when the presentation is done.