Sometimes the feedback you need is a ninety-second look. Getting that look can take longer than the review: make a calendar invite, open a meeting app, then confirm that everyone can see the right window. The other option is a comment thread where you try to describe an animation in words. A quick design review should be easier than either of those.
Send a link, get eyes on it now
On Linkside, you create a room, copy its invite link, and paste it into the team channel. Your reviewer opens the link, checks the pre-generated nickname, and selects Join room. Neither of you needs an account, download, extension, or plugin; the full no-install flow is explained here.
For a scheduled crit, switch on the free waiting room before creating the room. You can post the link early and approve each reviewer when the session starts. If you want the exact host steps, see the 30-second room setup.
One thing reviewers appreciate knowing: they don’t need access to your design file or your tools. They’re watching your screen, not opening your project.
Share the tab your design is in — not your desktop
When you start sharing, the browser asks you to choose a tab, a window, or the whole screen. Pick the tab that contains the design tool, prototype, or local build. Other apps and projects on your desktop then stay outside the shared view.
Everyone in the room can use voice. The presenter can also use a pointer, laser, or drawing tool over the stream. Linkside keeps these annotations presenter-only: reviewers see the marks but cannot draw their own. They also do not get remote control of the presenter’s mouse or keyboard.
Reviewing motion and interaction
The stream shows the shared surface as it changes. Reviewers can see hover states, transitions, scrolling, and animation timing as you demonstrate them. A screenshot freezes all of that, which is a good reason to switch from comments to a live walkthrough.
”This state only exists on my machine”
Error states, feature-flagged UI, or a half-migrated screen on a local build may not have a useful prototype link. Share the relevant tab or window and the reviewer sees the state you can reproduce, even while it is unpublished and unfinished.
When to stay async — and when to go live
Comments work well for a precise note on a static frame: “this spacing” or “that label.” Go live when the question involves motion or interaction, when a comment could be read two ways, when the thread has gone around twice without agreement, or when someone needs to say, “Wait — scroll back up.”
During the review, the in-session chat is useful for a ticket or spec URL. Messages travel within the live session and are not stored as a chat log. The same switch from a long thread to a short walkthrough can help with code; see pair programming over a link.
If a reviewer wants to show a counter-proposal from their own screen, roles do not swap inside the current room. They need to create a new room from a desktop browser and invite you to it.
What’s free, and what needs the licence
The free room covers a 1:1 review: one presenter and one reviewer, with screen sharing, voice, chat, and an optional waiting room. A direct browser-to-browser connection has no session clock. If a restrictive network forces the encrypted relay fallback, the free room gets a five-minute relay trial.
Two or more reviewers need a licence. A licensed room supports up to four people total, offers room passwords, and removes the relay time limit. Four people is the ceiling, so Linkside fits a small crit rather than an all-hands review.
The presenter needs a desktop browser; Chrome or Edge is the recommended host experience. Reviewers can join from a supported desktop or mobile browser, but mobile guests are view-only. If the invite opens inside an in-app browser, reopen it in Chrome or Edge.
What private means during the review
Linkside tries to send screen and audio directly between browsers first. If a restrictive network blocks that path, Linkside falls back to a TURN relay that forwards encrypted packets. The media stays encrypted in transit on either route, and Linkside’s servers do not hold the keys needed to read it.
Running the service still requires limited connection data. The signaling service can observe that a room exists, roughly when guests join, and how long the session lasts. A relay can observe the routing of encrypted packets, and Cloudflare’s edge can see IP-level traffic to relay endpoints. None of those systems can read the screen or audio. Linkside does not pair those observations with an account identity or retain them long-term.
Nothing to clean up afterwards
The unshipped redesign you just walked through is not placed in a recording library, because Linkside does not record sessions. It also does not keep chat logs or session history. Rooms disappear when the session ends. A room left idle expires after about fifteen minutes, passes through a short tombstone period, and is then deleted. It is a temporary review room, not a reusable meeting link. For the same privacy model in a 1:1 setting, see sharing your screen privately with one person.
When asking for a quick look takes only a fresh room and an invite link, it is easier to show the work while changes are still straightforward.