An interview screen share should begin with the work, not an installer. With Linkside, the person presenting creates a temporary room in a browser and sends one link. The interviewer opens it without a Linkside account, extension, plugin, or download.
That is what “without vendor software” means here: neither person installs a separate interview client. Linkside is still an operated service. It helps the two browsers establish a connection, and an encrypted relay may carry the stream when a direct connection fails. Those limits matter when you are deciding what to trust.
Let the person presenting create the room
There is one detail to get right before the interview: the room creator is the host, and only the host can start sharing.
For a coding interview screen, portfolio review, or take-home walkthrough, ask the candidate to create the room. They send the invite link to the interviewer, who joins as the viewer. If the interviewer needs to present the prompt or demonstrate a work sample instead, reverse the roles and let the interviewer create it.
This avoids a common handoff mistake: the candidate does not join the interviewer’s room and then discover that the sharing control is unavailable. The host also sees any decision about using Linkside’s relay fallback.
A clean screen share interview handoff
Put the instructions in the invitation rather than explaining them after the coding portion begins:
- Open the Linkside create-room page in Chrome or Edge on a desktop computer.
- Create the room and copy its invite link.
- Paste that link into the interview call or the agreed message channel.
- When the interviewer joins, select Start sharing. In the browser picker, choose the relevant tab, window, or screen.
- Select Stop when the walkthrough is finished, then end the room.
Nothing in that sequence asks the candidate for a Linkside account, email address, browser extension, or installed client. Desktop Chrome and Edge are the recommended choices for the person presenting. Firefox and Safari can host with limitations, and mobile browsers are generally for viewing rather than hosting, so include the desktop Chrome or Edge note in the invitation.
If a candidate wants to understand the setup before interview day, send them the short guide to screen sharing without an install.
Share the work, not the whole machine
Linkside asks the browser to open its screen picker without steering it toward a particular surface. Under the Screen Capture specification, the browser must let the person sharing choose from the available surfaces each time. Linkside cannot silently pick a tab, window, or full screen for them.
For a portfolio in one browser tab, choose that tab if the picker offers it. For an editor and its local preview, a window may be the better boundary. Choose the entire screen only when moving between several applications is part of the explanation.
Before confirming the choice, close notifications and move unrelated documents out of the selected surface. Treat the picker as a boundary that the candidate must review. Linkside does not analyse the screen or decide what the candidate meant to reveal.
Our guide to screen-sharing permissions explains the picker and the controls a host sees while capture is active.
What happens to the interview stream
We built Linkside to try a direct browser-to-browser media path first. Its signaling service introduces the browsers by exchanging the connection information they need. Once that succeeds, the interview stream travels directly between them.
A free room starts with that direct route only. After a connection failure, the host client waits four seconds, then automatically requests a one-time, five-minute encrypted relay trial if the room is still eligible and disconnected. Trial use is limited to once per IP address every two hours; a licence unlocks relay use without the five-minute limit. If the interview must work on a network that blocks direct connections, do not rely on the trial for a longer walkthrough.
On both routes, the browsers encrypt the media with DTLS-SRTP. A TURN relay can forward the encrypted packets, but no Linkside server holds the media keys or gets a readable view of the candidate’s screen.
Linkside does not record the interview, transcribe its audio, or analyse the shared screen. After the host ends the room, the signaling service keeps a short-lived marker so later requests receive a clear “ended” response, then deletes the room.
Operating the service still exposes limited connection information. The signaling service can observe that a room exists, roughly when a guest joins, and how long the session lasts. A relay can observe the routing of encrypted packets, and Cloudflare’s edge sees IP-level traffic to the relay endpoints. Neither gets the screen content in readable form, and Linkside does not pair that operational information with a name or email account.
That boundary is narrower than “nothing exists anywhere.” The invited interviewer can see what the candidate shares, and Linkside cannot control what that person does with information they have seen. The candidate still needs to trust the interviewer and the hiring process. Linkside’s promise concerns the content Linkside itself can read, record, and store.
Keep the tool matched to the interview
Linkside handles live viewing. It is not an applicant-tracking system, a shared code editor, or an interview archive.
If both people must edit the same files, use a collaborative editor. If the hiring record requires a video or transcript, use a process designed to create one. A Linkside room intentionally provides neither. The distinction is similar to pair programming over a link: a live view answers “show me what you see,” while shared editing is a different job.
You can keep the conversation on the interview’s existing call and use Linkside only for the screen. The candidate then has one focused browser link for presenting the work without replacing the rest of the interview process.
Invitation copy you can send
When we reach the screen-sharing portion, open the Linkside create-room page in desktop Chrome or Edge. Create a temporary room and paste its invite link into our call. There is no Linkside client or account to set up. You will choose the tab, window, or screen we can see. Linkside does not record the session.