You need to walk a volunteer through a form, reconcile one spreadsheet line, or show where an event update belongs. You need a live look at one screen, not another workspace to administer.
Linkside is built for that one-to-one exchange. The coordinator creates a room in the browser and sends its link to the volunteer. A free room holds one host and one guest. Neither person needs an account or an install, and the guest needs no licence.
Start with the smallest useful workflow
Name the result before creating the room: “confirm the mailing-list filter,” “show me where the poster file lives,” or “check the registration page before it goes out.” Give the session one host, one guest, and that single stopping point.
Linkside’s free room is one-to-one: the host plus one guest. If several volunteers need the same walkthrough, run separate sessions or use a tool built for a larger meeting. Do not make one volunteer relay instructions to everyone else just to stay within a room limit.
Linkside is not a task board, shared drive, or volunteer database. It does not keep assignments or create a lasting workspace. It gives two people a live screen, voice, and in-session chat for the task at hand. It does not keep a persistent chat history, and the temporary room is deleted after the session ends.
Tasks that fit
- Orient one volunteer to a web form or shared document.
- Review a budget line with the treasurer without emailing another screenshot.
- Show an event volunteer how to update one listing.
- Talk through a browser setting using room audio, or keep an existing phone call open if the conversation started there.
- Check a draft page or slide deck before it is sent.
End each task on a checkable result: the filter is confirmed, the budget line agrees, or the page is corrected. If the decision must persist, record it in the system that already owns the work before ending the room.
Tasks that need another tool
Choose something else for an all-volunteer meeting, a training session that must be recorded, or work that needs remote keyboard or mouse control. Linkside neither records the session nor accepts remote input on the host’s computer. Even a licensed room stops at four active participants: one host and three guests.
Build coordination around one link
Use the same short routine each time:
- The person who will show their screen opens the create-room page shortly before the session.
- Turn on the waiting room when you want to approve the volunteer before they join.
- Send the invite through a channel you already use with that volunteer.
- The volunteer opens it in a browser and joins. There is no signup wall, email gate, download, extension, or plugin.
- In the browser’s screen picker, choose only the tab or window needed for the task. Stop sharing before opening unrelated material, then end the room.
For the host, desktop Chrome or Edge is the recommended setup. A volunteer can join as a guest from a supported mobile browser, but hosting a share requires a desktop. If a guest is uneasy with browser prompts, use the script in our guide to screen sharing with a non-technical person. For a closer look at what “nothing to install” means, see the browser-only walkthrough.
What “free” means here
A free Linkside room has two active places: one host and one guest. Linkside first tries to send the screen and audio directly between their browsers. That direct, peer-to-peer path is the default design, not a paid upgrade.
If the direct attempt fails, Linkside can fall back to an encrypted relay. An eligible free room gets a five-minute trial of that relay path; the timer does not apply while the connection remains direct. A valid licence removes the relay time limit, raises room capacity to four people in total, and enables a room password.
If the task may take more than five minutes, test it from the host’s and guest’s actual networks before the scheduled session. The room identifies the active path and displays a countdown when the free relay trial is running. If the connection is relayed and five minutes is not enough, use a licensed room or another tool.
A licence is a key stored in the host’s browser, not a bundle of volunteer accounts. Guests still join from the link, with no guest account, licence assignment, or seat to provision.
Know what Linkside can and cannot see
Linkside has to help the browsers create a room and connect. Its signaling service can therefore observe that a room exists, roughly when a guest joins, and how long the session lasts. If a relay is needed, the infrastructure also sees encrypted packets being routed, and Cloudflare’s edge sees IP-level traffic. Linkside does not retain these operational observations long term or pair them with an account identity.
The screen and audio are different. On a direct path, they travel between the browsers. On a relay path, the relay forwards encrypted WebRTC packets. Media stays encrypted in transit on both paths, the browsers hold the keys, and no Linkside server receives those keys.
Linkside does not record sessions, transcribe audio, analyse the screen, or keep a persistent chat history. When the host ends the session, the signal worker keeps a five-minute terminal marker so a late visitor sees that the host ended the room, then deletes the room state. The ephemeral-room explainer describes that lifecycle in detail.
Those limits describe Linkside, not every device in the room. Your organization’s rules for handling volunteer, donor, or financial information still apply. Share only the surface the volunteer needs, close unrelated records, silence notifications, and stop the share before opening something else. Linkside’s lack of a recording feature is not a promise about what another person may do on their own device.
The waiting room lets the host approve or deny each join request before the guest becomes active. Approval is not identity verification: the guest supplies a nickname, and Linkside has no account identity to check. Confirm the person through the channel where you sent the invite, and create a fresh room for the next task.
Three playbooks you can reuse
Volunteer orientation
The coordinator hosts, enables the waiting room, and shares one browser tab. Walk through the exact page the volunteer will use, then ask them to describe the first action they will take afterward. Put any lasting instructions in your normal documentation before ending the room.
Treasurer review
The person holding the spreadsheet creates the room and shares only that window. Agree on the row or formula to inspect before sharing. When the question is resolved, stop sharing before opening unrelated financial material and record the decision in your accounting workflow.
Event-day correction
Keep the phone or existing voice channel open, send a Linkside invite, and use the screen only for the visual problem. One person shows the schedule, registration page, or browser setting while the other follows. End the room as soon as the correction is confirmed.
Use Linkside when one person needs to show rather than hand over a screen, the room fits the two-person free limit, and the lasting record belongs elsewhere. If the task meets those conditions, create a fresh room for it, share only the required surface, and close the room when the result is recorded.