Help Center / Screen sharing
Is Realtimer visible when I share my screen?
Usually not. Realtimer asks macOS to leave its windows out of screen capture, and most meeting apps respect that, so you can demo your product or a listing while the panel stays on your side. Some apps capture the whole display in an older way and show it anyway. Sharing one window or one browser tab keeps Realtimer out in every app.
Meeting apps at a glance
| App | What you share | Realtimer | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Any app | One window or one browser tab | Realtimer is never part of what you share. | |
| Google Meet in Chrome | Entire screen | Tested. | |
| Zoom (Mac app) | Entire screen | Set Screen capture mode once, see below. We’re testing each mode now. | |
| Microsoft Teams | Entire screen | Share a window, or run the check below. | |
| Entire screen | Share a window, or run the check below. | ||
| Telegram | Entire screen | Tested. Share a window instead. |
Checked with Realtimer 0.2.9 on macOS. We update this table as we test more apps.
Share a window: works everywhere
When you share one window or one browser tab instead of the entire screen, the meeting app only sends that window. Realtimer isn’t in it, whichever app you use and however it captures the screen.
- Zoom: Share Screen, then pick the window (your browser, Keynote, PowerPoint) instead of “Desktop”.
- Google Meet: Present now, then “A window” or “A tab”.
- Teams: Share, then choose a window instead of a screen.
For a demo this is often better anyway: notifications and other windows stay private too.
Zoom: turn on window filtering
Zoom on Mac lets you choose how it captures the screen. Only the modes with window filtering leave out windows that ask to be hidden.
- Open Zoom → Settings → Share Screen → Advanced.
- Set Screen capture mode to Advanced capture with window filtering (or Capture with window filtering).
- Start a test share and check it from your phone (see below).
Avoid Auto and the modes without window filtering. Developers on Zoom’s community forum report that without filtering a hidden window shows all the time, and that in Auto it can flicker in and out of the share. The menu names can differ slightly between Zoom versions.
Check it yourself in a minute
- Start a meeting on your Mac and join it from your phone as a second participant.
- Open Realtimer and share your entire screen.
- Look at the phone. If you don’t see the Realtimer panel, your setup hides it. If you do, share a window instead.
Do this once per meeting app, and again after a big update of the app or of macOS.
What is never hidden
- The macOS menu bar at the top of the screen, which shows Realtimer’s menus while Realtimer is the active app. macOS draws it, not Realtimer.
- AirPlay, display mirroring and a second display that mirrors your screen.
- HDMI capture cards and anything else that records the video signal.
- Someone photographing your screen.
How it works
Every Realtimer window, including its tooltips, alerts, menus and open or save panels, is marked to be left out of screen capture (before version 0.2.9 this covered the main window only). macOS passes that on to apps that capture through its modern screen capture system, ScreenCaptureKit, and they leave the window out. Apps and tools that grab the whole display the older way, some browser-based capturers and remote-desktop tools among them, ignore the flag, and the window shows.
Realtimer doesn’t change any macOS or meeting app settings, and it always appears under its own name in the Dock and Activity Monitor. Hiding the panel is meant to keep your demo clean; our terms forbid using Realtimer to cheat in exams or job interviews.
If someone could see Realtimer
Tell us your macOS version, the meeting app and its version, and whether you shared the entire screen or a window, through Report a bug or at hello@realtimer.ai. We’ll add it to the table above.