How to Enable Screen Sharing in Discord
How to Enable Screen Sharing in Discord: The screen sharing mode is used in Discord as a means of conducting live broadcasts on the voice channels of servers, and as a tool for displaying content in a personal conversation. Those who are just starting their acquaintance with the program do not always understand how to enable this feature, so I recommend that you read the following instructions. At the end of this article, I’ll say a few more words about how to solve popular errors related to screen sharing.
Enabling Screen Sharing in Discord
I suggest that you start right away with the main task, but you will need to decide in what format you want to run the screen share. If this will be a stream on the server, select the appropriate voice channel in which the administration allows such events, and connect to it.
If we are talking about a personal call, you will first need to make it by pressing one of the two buttons on the top panel in the dialog. You can see the image of these two buttons in the following screenshot.
During a call or after accepting it, press the button called “Share your screen” to launch the corresponding function. More details on setting it up below.
Let’s say you’ve already chosen one of the options to start a screen share, but it doesn’t stop there. An additional window with settings appears on the screen, in which you can choose what content you will show and in what quality. Let’s deal with all this in order.
- First of all, the tool will offer to show one of the already open windows on your computer. This option is optimal when you want to stream a game or show only one program, hiding other information from the eyes of the audience.
- Switch to the Screenstab to select an entire monitor to display. Discord will only offer more than one option to choose from if you have multiple monitors connected to your PC.
- When you start a broadcast, you can turn on a mention for your friends so that they receive an invitation and can quickly connect. Activate this option at your own discretion.
- By default, the broadcast quality is HD and 30 frames per second. If you want the best values, you will need to purchase Discord Nitro, which includes advanced streaming settings.
- This will be notified by a corresponding message from the developers. Here you already decide on your own whether to subscribe to Discord Nitro and whether you will use other features of this privilege.
- As soon as you start the broadcast, a small window will appear on the screen to monitor it. Other users will see that now someone is showing the screen on the voice channel, respectively, everyone will be able to connect for further viewing.
Solving popular problems
Few people have problems with screen sharing in Discord, so I will not describe in detail each error, but will focus only on the main theses so that you understand what actions you need to perform if you suddenly encounter various difficulties.
- Disable hardware acceleration. For the most part, it refers to outdated video card models. Screen sharing does not start or only a black screen appears due to the hardware acceleration feature being enabled. Open the general settings of the program, find this option there and disable it.
- Clearing Discord Cache. Relevant in cases where you have been using the messenger for quite some time, sending and receiving messages, viewing pictures and staying on servers. Then call the “Run” utility using the keyboard shortcut Win + R , enter %appdata% there , in the window that opens, find the directory called “Discord” , right-click on it and delete it. Restart the program and try running the demo again.
- Unloading the processor and RAM. Here, act at your discretion: check how busy your processor and RAM are, disable unnecessary programs, or try running the demo without the game running. Your PC may not have enough power to properly use this function.
- Update or reinstall Discord. If you turned off automatic program updates, your version may be outdated and does not work correctly when sharing a screen. Run a search for updates or reinstall Discord if none of the above solutions work for you.
You can now use Discord Screen Sharing without any problems, or refer to my advice if you have any problems trying to set up this feature. When starting streams, do not forget about privacy, do not show personal data and passwords.