There is a lot of great functionality built into Macs that makes it easier to use and expands its capabilities. While you may know a lot about what you can do locally on a Mac, there are many things you probably don’t know. One such feature built into a Mac is screen sharing. Screen sharing allows you to share your Mac’s screen (over the same network) with another Mac, while allowing the other Mac to control your computer. If this raises red flags in your mind, don’t worry; screen sharing can be protected with a password and only people with the password and username can access and control your screen. This basically means you can now share your Mac’s screen and use it as a remote desktop if you want. In this post, I’ll walk you through the steps you need to start sharing your Mac’s screen.
Set Up Screen Sharing
First, you’ll need to set up your Mac to be able to share its screen over the network. This can be done very easily. Just follow the steps given below:
1. Start System Preferencesand go Sharing.
2. Here, tick the checkbox next to “.Screen sharing“. This allows you to share your Mac’s screen over the network. Add users If you want to be able to access your Mac from a remote desktop. These user credentials will then be required to log in to the other Mac and access your shared screen. Moreover, Note down the IP address This is written in the Screen Sharing settings screen.
note: You can also create another User just to share screens. This will ensure that you don’t have to give others your main login credentials.
That’s basically all you need to do to share your Mac’s screen with another Mac. Now, let’s move on to how you can access your Mac’s screen from the other Mac.
Accessing One Mac’s Shared Screen on Another Mac
There are several ways you can access your Mac’s shared screen on another Mac. We will cover all of them in this article and you can use whichever you prefer.
1. Using Finder
To start accessing your Mac’s shared screen on another Mac and use it as a remote desktop, simply follow these steps:
Open Finderand search for the name of your Mac (with which you share the screen) in the sidebar. Click on it. In the window that opens, you should see a button that says “.Screen sharing…“. Click the button.
You will be asked “Enter your name and passwordEnter the username and password of any of the users you added while setting up Screen Sharing and click Connect.
After a while you will see the screen of your remote Mac and you can control it from remote desktop.
You can switch between “Control” and “View” modes, enable or disable scaling, and even access the remote Mac’s clipboard when accessing the shared screen.
2. Using the Screen Sharing App
Many of you may not know this, but there is an app called “Screen Sharing” that comes pre-installed on every Mac. You can use this application to access the shared screen of a remote Mac. To do this, simply follow the steps below:
Start Spotlight, by pressing Command + Space. Medicine “Screen sharing” and press Enter. The Screen Sharing application will open and ask for the hostname of the computer you want to connect to. simply enter the IP address of your remote desktop here and click Connect.
Now you will be asked “Enter your name and passwordEnter the login credentials for any user you added while setting up Screen Sharing and click “Connect“.
You can now view and control the screen of your remote Mac.
3. Using iMessage
The third and probably easiest way to share a Mac screen is to use iMessage. This doesn’t even require you to set up Screen Sharing in System Preferences. You can share and even control your screen with another Mac. Here are the steps you can follow to start and continue this:
- Open iMessage on the Mac you want to share the screen on and the Mac you want to share the screen with. Start a conversation in iMessage using iCloud accounts signed in to both Macs. Then on the Mac where you want to share the screen, Click Detailsand then “Share Screen” button.
On the Mac you share the screen with, accept the screen share request in the notifications and you will be able to view the remote Mac’s screen. If you want to control the screen as well, you just have to click on the Screen Sharing icon in the menu bar and select “Allow control screen“.
You will now be able to view and control the remote Mac’s shared screen on the other Mac.
SEE ALSO: How to Record Screen with Sound on Mac
Start Screen Sharing on Mac to Access Your Mac Remotely
You can use these methods to share your Mac’s screen with any Mac on your network. With the exception of iMessage, all of these methods only work if both Macs are connected to the same network. You can use these methods for screen sharing between Macs on different networks, but you will need to forward ports for that, beyond the scope of this article.
You can follow these methods to share your Mac’s screen with another Mac and control your Mac remotely. If you run into any issues with these methods, let us know in the comments section below with suggestions for screen sharing methods between Macs that you think deserve to be included in this article.
