Why This Matters
During screen sharing, notifications, chat windows, or unrelated tabs can appear at the wrong time. Manually minimizing windows is easy to forget and slows you down before every meeting.
Best Practice Workflow
- Open the app you plan to present, like Keynote, Chrome, or your IDE.
- In Veil, set that app as your Cover App.
- Toggle Veil on before starting screen share.
- Use Peek only when you need a quick full-desktop reveal.
What You Get
- One chosen window stays visible for your audience.
- All other windows are blurred in the background.
- Lower risk of leaking unrelated content in live calls.
- Faster pre-meeting setup with shortcuts.
Works With Major Meeting Tools
This approach works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and most browser-based meeting tools, because Veil protects your desktop layer before you share.
Zoom
When you click "Share Screen" in Zoom, you can share your entire screen or a specific window. Veil blurs background windows regardless of which option you choose. If you share your entire screen, viewers see your presentation window clearly and everything else blurred.
Google Meet
Meet offers "Your entire screen," "A window," or "A tab." For desktop sharing with Veil, choose "Your entire screen"—the blur applies to all visible background windows.
Microsoft Teams
Teams has its own "blur background" feature, but that only affects your camera video—not your desktop. When you share your screen in Teams, Veil handles the desktop blur while Teams handles your video background.
What About Notifications?
Veil blurs background windows, but macOS notifications appear in a separate system layer. To hide notifications during screen sharing:
- Enable Do Not Disturb from Control Center before your call.
- Or set up a Focus mode in System Settings → Focus to automatically suppress notifications during calendar events.
Multi-Display Tips
Using multiple monitors? Veil blurs windows on all displays. When sharing:
- In Zoom, choose which display to share—Veil's blur applies to all visible windows on that display.
- Move your presentation app to the display you plan to share before starting.
Accessibility Permission Troubleshooting
If Veil does not follow your active window, check that Accessibility permission is granted:
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Find Veil in the list. Toggle it off, then on again.
- Restart Veil from the menu bar.
Related Guides
- What is screen privacy on Mac? — Educational hub on protecting sensitive information
- macOS screen sharing privacy app — How Veil helps during screen sharing
- Hide sensitive windows before recording — Protect private data in demos
- Hide chat windows during meetings — Keep private chats hidden
- Mac screen sharing privacy checklist
- Veil vs Monocle — Compare privacy vs focus apps