The video conferencing app Zoom has become increasingly popular recently. It gained a lot of new users at an almost exponential rate. And Zoom hasn’t shied away from all the responsibilities that come with becoming a cult favorite. It has been bestowing popular features almost non-stop to stay ahead in the race.

One such new addition that has come to the app in the latest attempt to woo the people is the screen sharing feature right from the chat.

Note: The feature is only available in the Zoom iOS app, so you can only share the screen in a Zoom chat from an iPhone or iPad device.

It will come handy a lot of the times when you are chatting with the person and want to share something from your screen. Of course, you could also share your screen from a video meeting, but if you are not already in a meeting, the number of steps you’ll have to go through to share your screen from the meeting will be time-consuming. Sharing your screen straight from the chat cuts back on the number of steps involved and saves your precious time.

To start a screen share session from the chat, open the chat of the contact or channel you want to share the screen with and tap on the ‘+’ icon on the left of the message field.

A few options will appear on your screen. Select ‘Screen Share’ from the menu.

You can then select what you want to share. The available options include your entire screen, Photos, iCloud Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Website URL, or a Bookmark. The options span almost everything you might need to share and the option to choose from individual apps instead of the whole screen acts as a firewall for your privacy. But if what you want to share something that does not fall under the umbrella of individual apps, the screen option is always there to rescue you.

The recipient should accept your invite to the meeting, otherwise, the screen-sharing session will terminate. You can select what you want to share while waiting for the other person to accept. This way you will be ready to present as soon as your invite is accepted. Also, admit the person to the meeting after they accept your invitation if the waiting room is enabled so that they can see what you are sharing.

When done, tap on the ‘Stop Share’ button to end the session. If you want to start another screen sharing session, you can do it from the meeting. If not, end the meeting to return to the chat.

The screen sharing option from the chat essentially starts a meeting with the people in a chat, but it is still faster as it allows you to start a meeting and share your screen in a single step as opposed to the multiple steps you will need to go through if you were to first start a meeting and then share your screen. If your agenda is to only share the screen and not have a meeting, it is definitely the way to go.