Facebook Messenger expands screen sharing to iOS & Android

Let me say this! Unless you are living under a rock, you must be using Facebook’s popular Messenger application on a regular basis. Messenger app allows you to instantly chat with your friends, share data, photos, videos, music, files and much more.

Facebook’s Messenger chat platform has now introduced another unique and handy “screen sharing” feature for all Android and iOS devices, and web users too. The social media giant has apparently expanded its video chat features keeping in view the uphill in ‘work from home’ or remote working practices following the pandemic. The feature is great news for people who are still working from home as the Covid-19 cases spike in a few regions of the world.

Knowing the “Screen Sharing” feature

With the screen sharing feature, you can effortlessly share your smartphone or tablet screens with your friends, family, colleagues, boss or while being in a group chat / meeting via Messenger Rooms. As of now, you can share your screen (or pictures from your camera roll, or your Instagram feed, or whatever you’d like) with up to eight individuals in group chat or up to 16 individuals in Messenger Rooms. Nonetheless, we are hopeful that the count will increase in the next update as Facebook says it is working to expand the feature for up to 50 people in Rooms. The update is available on both Android and iOS; as well as desktop apps and web versions.

Screen sharing permits you to look through your pictures, surf social media, hang out or shop together online with friends more effectively than ever, Facebook said. Messenger Rooms also lets you make custom backgrounds, livestream video chats and watch videos together from the platform). The organization has also tried to ensure security of Room creators as they can decide if to restrict the ability to screen share to simply themselves or make it accessible to all members on the call.

How to enable Messenger Screen Sharing feature on your phone?

• Download & launch the latest version of Messenger app on your iPhone or Android
• Start a video call by selecting one or more contacts and tapping the camera icon
• Then, during the call, swipe up on the toolbar at the bottom of your screen to find out call options
• From the expanded menu, tap > Share your screen, > Start Sharing, and then > Start Broadcast. Facebook wants to verify in three steps so that you may not accidentally share your screen with anyone

Afterwards, you can navigate anywhere on your phone. The people in the call will be able to see live whatever is on your phone’s screen. The video chat interface will move to the upper right hand side corner of your smartphone, and shows you all of the participants of the call on camera. Once done sharing, can return to the app to stop the broadcast.

Sum up

Messenger’s recent update is amazeballs and very welcoming as video calls have been quite helpful during the pandemic, permitting you to interface with companions, family, and workmates, and hence screen sharing is particularly valuable. You can find friends and family by flicking through photographs in your camera roll from your last trip, or talk over any project details with a teammate.

Albeit, screen sharing is already available on various video calling services, including Skype, Google Meet and Zoom, adding this to Messenger Rooms and Facebook’s video chats platform will surely put the social media giant as a standalone partner leading the vanguard.