A tutoring session can lose its first few minutes before the lesson even starts: a student cannot find a login, an account belongs to a parent who is away, or an app needs an update. The lesson clock keeps running.
Linkside keeps the setup short: create a temporary room, send its link, and share the screen the lesson needs. Here is how that works when you are presenting and when your student needs to show their work.
One link, no accounts on either side
You create a room without entering a name, email address, or other account details. Your student opens the link and joins with an automatically generated nickname, which they can change. With the default room settings, there is no account password or captcha either. For a younger student, the useful point is simple: there is no Linkside account to create before the lesson.
If you do not want the student to enter early, switch on the free waiting room and admit them when the lesson starts. A new private room takes about 30 seconds to set up, so using a fresh room for each lesson adds little preparation.
When you share: walking a student through a problem
Share the tab with the worksheet, document, or graphing tool. Choosing one tab instead of your full screen helps keep email, notifications, and other students’ material out of view.
As the host, you can place a pointer, use a laser pointer, or draw in different colours over the shared image, then clear your marks. The student sees those overlays live. This is not a collaborative whiteboard, but it works well for circling a term, tracing a graph, or marking the step you are explaining. You can also share a blank document, notes app, or whiteboard site and draw over that tab as you talk.
Voice works in both directions, and the in-session chat is useful for pasting a problem statement or link. Chat messages travel through the peer connection and are discarded with the session rather than stored as a chat log.
The annotation controls belong to the host. In this setup, your student sees your marks but cannot draw on your shared screen or control your mouse.
When your student shares: reviewing their work
Sometimes you need to see the student’s homework, essay draft, or coding error. In Linkside, only the person who created the room can share a screen. For this direction, your student creates the room on a desktop computer and sends you the link. You join as the guest; they start sharing and choose the tab or window with their work.
That role change has two consequences. A student on a phone or tablet can join and watch, but cannot host or share their own screen. The annotation controls also stay with the host, so your student has the drawing tools in this room and you guide them by voice.
When the student starts sharing, their browser opens its own screen-selection and permission prompt. Browsers ask on every screen-capture attempt; that permission cannot be saved for later. If they need help, follow the steps in screen sharing with someone who isn’t technical. Linkside provides no remote control, so neither participant can take over the other’s mouse or keyboard.
What private means in a Linkside lesson
A tutoring session can include a student’s voice, mistakes, and unfinished work. Linkside tries to send that media directly between the two browsers. If a restrictive network blocks the direct route, it falls back to a TURN relay. The browser encrypts the media on both routes, and no Linkside server holds the media keys or can see the screen or hear the call.
Linkside does not record sessions, store chat logs, transcribe audio, or analyse the shared screen. Room state is temporary and is deleted after the session lifecycle ends, rather than becoming a saved meeting or session history.
Some operational information is still necessary. The signaling service can observe that a room exists, the rough timing of joins, and the session duration. A relay, when needed, can observe encrypted packet routing. Linkside does not pair those observations with an account identity or retain them long-term, and neither service can see the lesson content.
What you need, and what’s free
| Free room | With a licence | |
|---|---|---|
| Participants | 2 — you and one student | Up to 4 |
| Waiting room | Included | Included |
| Direct P2P sessions | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Encrypted relay fallback | 5-minute trial | Unlimited |
| Room password | — | Included |
The free room fits one-to-one tutoring: two participants, a waiting room, and no time limit on a direct browser-to-browser connection. The five-minute clock applies only if the connection has to use the encrypted relay. A licence adds unlimited relay use, room passwords, and space for up to four people in total, which can cover a parent sitting in or a small sibling group.
Hosting requires a desktop browser; Chrome and Edge are the recommended options. A student can join and watch from a supported mobile browser, but mobile screen sharing is not supported. If you send the room link through a messaging app, ask the student to open it in their regular browser rather than the app’s built-in browser, which Linkside does not support.
A 30-second pre-lesson checklist
- Open Chrome or Edge on the desktop computer that will share.
- Create the room, turn on the waiting room if you want approval before entry, and send the link.
- Open the teaching material in its own tab so you can share only that tab.
- Ask the student to join in a supported browser, then admit them and start the lesson.
A fresh room takes seconds to make. After the lesson, Linkside leaves you with no recording, chat log, or session history to manage.