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How-to STEP 89 / 102

Sharing Your Screen to Help Someone on Telegram

A one-to-one video call has a screen share button too. It is the same feature as in a group room and a completely different activity, because there is…

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In this article
  1. devices Showing beats describing
  2. settings Doing it
  3. At a glance
play_circle Video tip • Video calls

A one-to-one video call has a screen share button too. It is the same feature as in a group room and a completely different activity, because there is one other person and they are almost always stuck on something.

Most people meet this the day a relative cannot find a setting. Knowing that it exists turns a twenty-minute phone call into a two-minute one.

What you will be able to do

  • check_circle Share your screen during a private call.
  • check_circle Ask somebody else to share theirs, and talk them through it.
  • check_circle Help without being able to touch their device.
  • check_circle Know what you are exposing while you do it.
play_circle Official Telegram video short — screen sharing in a private call
1080p clip from @TelegramTips #286 • 0:12

The control is in the call's own bar, alongside the camera and the microphone.

devices Showing beats describing

A private call with a screen share replaces the entire genre of conversation that begins "what does it say on the screen". You stop asking them to read menus aloud and simply look at what they are looking at.

Either side can share, and both can at once on clients that allow it. In practice the useful direction is whichever person is confused: their screen, your voice.

One thing Telegram deliberately does not do is remote control. You cannot tap anything on their device. That is a real limitation and it is also the reason this is safe to ask a parent to do — nobody can take over their phone, and there is no software to install that could.

visibility
A phone share shows everything Their messages, their notifications, their banking app if they open it. Before asking somebody to share a phone screen, tell them to turn notifications off — and remember the same applies to you when you are the one sharing.
support_agent Interactive

Four ways a private share is used

Two are helping somebody, one is being helped, and one is neither.

school Showing them how

check_circle Share your own screen and do it slowly while they watch, then let them repeat it on theirs. Watching once and doing once beats being told twice.
check_circle Narrate what you are tapping, because a share on a slow connection loses small movements.
check_circle Afterwards send a screenshot into the chat so they have it when you are not on the call.

It is the best help you can give at a distance, and the one thing never to do for a stranger.

settings Doing it

  1. Start or answer a video call The share control is in the call's bar.
  2. Silence notifications first On a phone this is not optional; the whole screen goes out.
  3. Share a single window on a desktop Where the choice is offered.
  4. Say what you are doing as you do it Movement is the first casualty of a poor connection.
  5. Send a screenshot afterwards So the answer survives the call.
  6. Stop sharing before you carry on chatting The share does not end with the topic.
menu_book
Part of the beginner curriculum Step 31 — How one-to-one calls are routed

This page is what you show during a private call. The curriculum step is how that call is carried: direct connections against relayed ones, what each reveals about where you are, and the setting that decides which you get.

Summary

At a glance

  1. 1Share during a call

    Share your screen in a private call to show the steps.

  2. 2Talk them through

    Ask them to share theirs and guide them by voice.

  3. 3Scam warning

    Never share your screen with 'support' who calls you first.

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