144 MACWORLD AUGUST 2021
HELPDESK MAC 911know that it’s tucked away in Messages. It
also works only with people who use their
iCloud account with Messages, which
allows you to communicate through
Apple’s iMessage system.
You can check that iMessages is in use
by either looking at a conversation and
seeing blue bubbles for text messages, or,
when starting a new conversation, seeing
that the person whose name you select as
a recipient appears in blue text. If their
name or the messages are green, it’s
regular SMS text messaging and screen
sharing isn’t
available. It’s also
available only for
one-to-one
conversations.
macOS Big Sur
made additional
changes to its
appearance, but it’s
not far off from its
location in macOS
Mojave and
Catalina.
Here’s how to
use it:
- Open
Messages. - Select a
conversation or start
a new one, and
make sure
iMessage is in use, per above.- Click the info button (an i in a circle)
in the upper-right corner. - Click the overlapping rectangles—
the screen sharing icon. (This icon will be
grayed out or absent if screen sharing isn’t
available with the other account.) - Select either Invite to Share My
Screen or Ask to Share Screen, as the
case may be. - If you invite someone, they receive
an alert in Messages and can click to start;
if you request someone else’s, you have to
Messages requires a little navigation to get to the screen-sharing
feature, which is quite useful when someone else needs visual help—
or you do. (Big Sur shown. Portions of image blurred for privacy.)