How To: Share An iPhone Screen Live On the Internet

Anyone who’s built or is building an app can probably agree that there are really only two options for showing off what your app does to someone remote: let them in on a test build, or show them screenshots. Unfortunately neither of these options are really that great. Giving someone a test build of the app, especially when it’s incomplete, might not show your best colors. And screenshots alone will definitely not do it justice. I’ve been using the previous two options for months now to demo Circa to investors, partners, etc. and have found them entirely inadequate. So what’s the alternative?

Streaming your iPhone screen across the internet, live.

It’s not as hard as it may seem. The iPhone doesn’t have a way to screen share natively across the internet, so I did some research and came up with a method for how this can be done. The instructions below are for Mac, but the same software and principles apply for Windows. Note: This only works for an iPhone 4S, iPad 2, or 3rd Generation iPad

Download Reflector (Previously Reflection) - This awesome app allows your computer to become an AirPlay compatible display.

Activate Reflector - It’s simple. Just open your newly downloaded Reflector app, double-tap your iPhone’s home button, swipe left twice to show off the volume control and a small button to the right to share the screen. You should see “iPhone” or “iPad” depending on your device, and then the name of your computer below that. After tapping on the name of your computer, make sure “Mirroring” is ON . Note: You should now see your iPhone’s screen on your computer screen. Go ahead, test it out.

Start a Google Hangout, Messages.app or Skype screen share. Note: if you’re using Google Hangouts and use multiple screens, make sure that your browser window with the chat in it is on the same screen as the Reflector app. Simply choose the Reflector app as your intended screen share and voila!

It really is this simple. It just took me a while to figure it out, and since I haven’t seen another tutorial like this online, I thought I’d share my findings.

Screenshot walkthrough

Install Reflector (Previously Reflection)

Double tap on home icon on iPhone, swipe left twice. Tap far right icon.

Choose your computer that you installed Reflector on and enable mirroring.

Within Google Hangouts, select Screenshare

This will pop open a window, allowing you to select your iPhone’s screen.

Now your iPhone’s screen is being shared to those within your Hangout!