Screen Sharing

Share your screen from an Android device and view screen shares from other participants during a call. From Calls SDK 5.1, starting a screen share on Android is opt-in. Android needs a foreground service of type mediaProjection to capture the screen, and Google Play asks every app that declares one to justify it, so the SDK removes that service from your merged manifest. Until your app declares it, the screen share button is hidden in the call UI. Viewing other participants’ screen shares works without any of this. To let Android users share their screen, add the permission and the service to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROJECTION" />

    <application>
        <service
            android:name="com.oney.WebRTCModule.MediaProjectionService"
            android:exported="false"
            android:foregroundServiceType="mediaProjection" />
    </application>
</manifest>

The SDK checks for the service with the mediaProjection type and, when your app targets Android 14 or later, for the FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROJECTION permission. If either is missing it logs the reason and keeps the button hidden. On Android 9 and below no foreground service is needed, so the button is always available there.

Declaring a mediaProjection foreground service means you will have to describe how your app uses it in the Google Play Console. Leave the service out if your users never need to share their screen from Android.

How It Works

When a participant starts screen sharing:

The SDK receives the screen share stream
The call layout automatically adjusts to display the shared screen prominently
Every participant, including Android participants, can view the shared content

Monitor when participants start or stop screen sharing:

Kotlin
Java

val callSession = CallSession.getInstance()

callSession.addParticipantEventListener(this, object : ParticipantEventListener() {
    override fun onParticipantStartedScreenShare(participant: Participant) {
        Log.d(TAG, "${participant.name} started screen sharing")
        // Layout automatically adjusts to show shared screen
    }

    override fun onParticipantStoppedScreenShare(participant: Participant) {
        Log.d(TAG, "${participant.name} stopped screen sharing")
        // Layout returns to normal view
    }

    // Other callbacks...
    override fun onParticipantJoined(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantLeft(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantListChanged(participants: List<Participant>) {}
    override fun onParticipantAudioMuted(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantAudioUnmuted(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantVideoPaused(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantVideoResumed(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantStartedRecording(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantStoppedRecording(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantHandRaised(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onParticipantHandLowered(participant: Participant) {}
    override fun onDominantSpeakerChanged(participant: Participant) {}
})

CallSession callSession = CallSession.getInstance();

callSession.addParticipantEventListener(this, new ParticipantEventListener() {
    @Override
    public void onParticipantStartedScreenShare(Participant participant) {
        Log.d(TAG, participant.getName() + " started screen sharing");
        // Layout automatically adjusts to show shared screen
    }

    @Override
    public void onParticipantStoppedScreenShare(Participant participant) {
        Log.d(TAG, participant.getName() + " stopped screen sharing");
        // Layout returns to normal view
    }

    // Other callbacks...
});

Use the isPresenting property on the Participant object to check if someone is sharing their screen:

Kotlin
Java

callSession.addParticipantEventListener(this, object : ParticipantEventListener() {
    override fun onParticipantListChanged(participants: List<Participant>) {
        val presenter = participants.find { it.isPresenting }
        if (presenter != null) {
            Log.d(TAG, "${presenter.name} is currently sharing their screen")
        }
    }
})

callSession.addParticipantEventListener(this, new ParticipantEventListener() {
    @Override
    public void onParticipantListChanged(List<Participant> participants) {
        for (Participant p : participants) {
            if (p.isPresenting()) {
                Log.d(TAG, p.getName() + " is currently sharing their screen");
                break;
            }
        }
    }
});

Overview

Getting Started

Call Session

Features

Advanced

Migration Guide

Resources

How It Works

​Enable Screen Sharing (opt-in)

​How It Works

​Listen for Screen Share Events

​Check Screen Share Status

Enable Screen Sharing (opt-in)

How It Works

Listen for Screen Share Events

Check Screen Share Status