29 August 2026
Click share, and the browser hands you a picker: tabs, windows, or your entire screen, plus a checkbox for audio that most people miss. Pick a tab for a doc or a slide deck, a window for an app you're demoing, and the whole screen only when you're jumping between things — because a shared window still lets your notifications float right over it.
When you click share, the browser isn't asking the meeting app anything — it's asking your operating system for permission to capture pixels, then handing you a dialog it controls. That's why the dialog looks the same whether you're on Meet, Zoom's web client, or AVAY: Chrome, Edge and Firefox all use the same underlying getDisplayMedia API, and the picker UI belongs to the browser, not the site.
The three options — tab, window, screen — aren't just about size. A tab capture only sends that browser tab's contents, so if you switch to another tab mid-share, viewers see a 'you switched tabs' message instead of your work. A window capture keeps sharing whatever's in that window even if you click elsewhere, but stops the instant you minimize it. A screen capture sends everything on that display, including anything you didn't mean to show.
Share a tab when you're walking through a doc, a spreadsheet, or a web app and nothing else. It's the lightest option, it's the only one that reliably includes tab audio, and it's the hardest to leak something from — closing every other tab isn't required.
Share a window when you're demoing a desktop app: a design tool, an IDE, a PDF reader. The catch is that most OS-level notifications, and some in-app popups, render on top of the window at the system layer, so they show up in the recording even though they're not 'in' the window you're sharing.
Share the whole screen only when you genuinely need to move between apps — say, switching from a browser to a terminal to a design file in one continuous walkthrough. It's the version everyone falls back to because it's the safest against 'wrong window' mistakes, but it's also the one where a stray Slack notification or a password manager popup gets seen by everyone on the call.
Under the picker, there's a 'share audio' checkbox that's unchecked by default in most browsers. Miss it and your video plays silently for everyone else — a common failure when someone shares a tab with a demo video and wonders why nobody can hear it.
Chrome and Edge let you share audio from a tab reliably. Sharing audio from a whole screen or window is inconsistent: on macOS, Chrome can't capture system audio during a screen or window share at all — only tab audio works — because Apple doesn't expose system audio the same way it exposes video. On Windows, system audio capture during a screen share generally works in Chromium browsers. Firefox's support for any of this is more limited and worth testing beforehand rather than trusting on the day.
On a Mac, the browser can ask for screen-capture permission all it wants — the picker itself won't even populate with window or screen options until you've granted Screen Recording permission to that browser in System Settings > Privacy & Security. The first time this happens, most people see an empty or broken-looking picker and assume the meeting site is at fault.
Once granted, the permission sticks to that specific browser app — Chrome and Safari need it separately — and macOS will still ask you to quit and reopen the browser after you flip the setting. If you're demoing something and this comes up live, the fix takes under a minute, but only if you know to go looking for it in Settings rather than clicking share again.
A shared window doesn't pause the rest of your desktop. Slack, Calendar, and the OS's own notification banners render above whatever's on screen, so they appear in a window or screen share regardless of what you selected in the picker. Do Not Disturb (macOS) or Focus Assist (Windows) is the only reliable fix, and it's worth turning on before you share, not after the first ping.
Browser-level popups behave the same way — a password manager offering to fill a form, or a browser update banner, sits on top of a tab share just like a notification sits on top of a window share. None of this is specific to any one meeting tool; it's how screen capture on every OS is built, since the capture reads whatever's rendered on screen at that moment.
| Includes audio easily | Survives switching apps | Notification exposure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tab | Yes, reliably | No — shows 'switched tabs' message | Low |
| Window | Inconsistent, worse on macOS | No — stops if minimized | High — OS notifications overlay it |
| Screen | Inconsistent, worse on macOS | Yes | Highest — everything on the display is visible |
macOS requires Screen Recording permission for the specific browser you're using before it will even list windows or your screen in the picker. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen Recording, enable the browser, then quit and reopen it — the picker won't populate correctly until you do.
The share audio checkbox under the picker is unchecked by default in most browsers, so video plays silently to everyone else unless you tick it. It's most reliable when sharing a tab; sharing system audio from a full screen is unsupported by Chrome on macOS entirely.
No. Notifications from Slack, Calendar, or the OS itself render at the system level and appear on top of a shared window or screen regardless of what you selected. Turning on Do Not Disturb or Focus Assist before you share is the only reliable way to stop them showing.
Sharing the whole screen actually raises your exposure, not lowers it — every app, notification, and browser tab on that display becomes visible. It's only worth it when you genuinely need to move between multiple apps during the demo; otherwise a single tab or window is safer and lighter.
No — AVAY runs in the browser, so screen sharing inside an AVAY meeting uses the same browser picker described here, with the same macOS permission step and the same tab, window and screen choices. There's no separate app or plugin involved.
Share a tab for documents, a window for one app, and the whole screen only when you're jumping between several — and on a Mac, grant Screen Recording permission before you click share, or the picker will look broken.
AVAY is a video meeting platform that transcribes the call itself — no bot joins, because there is nothing to join. Start one at avay.ai, read how each part works in the documentation, or see what it costs.