Feature lists usually tell you what a product can do. If you are deciding whether to trust a screen-sharing tool, what it refuses to do matters just as much.
Linkside is built for one focused job: showing your screen to a few people you trust, quickly and without an account. Some of the boundaries below are central to that job. Others describe the product as it works today. Either way, they are tradeoffs you should know before relying on it.
No accounts
Neither the host nor the guest creates a Linkside account. Linkside does not ask either person for an email address, phone number, or account password. The host creates a room and sends the invite link; the guest opens it and joins.
That short path is useful, but the privacy benefit is just as important: there is no lasting Linkside profile connecting one session to the next. The tradeoff is that there is also no account dashboard or account-level room history to return to.
No recordings
There is no recording button, server-side capture, or saved video after a Linkside session. Linkside also does not transcribe the audio or analyse what appears on the shared screen.
This keeps the service from building a library of your session content. It also means Linkside is the wrong tool when a recording or transcript is part of the job.
One limit is worth stating plainly: “Linkside does not record” describes the service. It is not a guarantee about a viewer’s conduct. Share only with people you trust.
No persistent rooms
A Linkside room is temporary. Ending the session makes the room unavailable. Inactive rooms expire too. The signaling service briefly keeps a terminal marker so it can tell a participant that a room ended or expired, then deletes the room state.
There is no room archive or session history to return to. For another screen share, create another room and send a fresh link.
No remote control
Linkside is show-only. Guests can see the host’s shared screen and talk or chat about it, but they cannot click, type, or move the host’s pointer.
That boundary keeps the host in control of the computer. It also means Linkside is not a remote-desktop or unattended-support tool. If someone else needs to operate the machine, use a product designed for remote control.
No mass meetings
The architectural limit is four people in a room: one host and up to three guests. Some room types may allow fewer.
Linkside is shaped around one-to-one help, small demos, pair work, and quick walkthroughs. It does not provide a webinar or large-meeting experience. If you need a town hall, this is not the right fit.
No app or browser extension
Linkside runs in a browser. There is no desktop app, mobile app, extension, or plugin to install.
Desktop Chrome and Edge are the recommended browsers for hosting. Firefox and Safari can host with caveats. Supported mobile browsers are generally for guests: they can view a shared screen, but hosting requires a desktop browser. Browser-only access removes an installation step, but it also means Linkside follows the screen-capture capabilities of the browser you use.
Limited operational analytics
The live Linkside site loads a Cloudflare Web Analytics beacon for page-view and performance measurements. This is separate from the room lifecycle analytics below and does not create a session recording. Linkside does not show ads, sell data, or share data for advertising.
That does not mean the service learns nothing. The signaling worker necessarily observes that a room exists, roughly when guests join, and how long the session lasts. Linkside also collects limited first-party operational measurements, such as connection route and browser family, to understand whether sessions work. A relay, when needed, handles encrypted packets and can observe their routing, not their media content. This operational data is not paired with an account identity or kept as a session-content archive.
Chat — ephemeral, not absent
Linkside does have a small in-session chat panel. Messages are kept in browser memory so participants can exchange a link or a short note while the room is live. They are not sent to a chat-history service and disappear with the session.
So “no chat logs” does not mean “no chat.” It means no transcript, searchable history, or conversation waiting for you next time.
Why naming the absences matters
These omissions make the choice clearer. Linkside is a poor fit if you need a recording, persistent workspace, remote control, native app, or large meeting. It is designed for a private, short-lived screen share with a few people.
The media connection is peer-to-peer first: the browsers try to connect directly. If the network blocks that route, Linkside can fall back to an encrypted TURN relay. A free room gets a five-minute trial of that relay path; a licence unlocks unlimited relay use. Media stays encrypted in transit on either path, and Linkside does not record or analyse it. The service still sees the limited connection and room metadata needed to make the session work.
That is the trust proposition: a narrow tool, clear limits, and no claim that the necessary infrastructure is invisible. If that fits your case, create a room and try it.