How to stop notifications showing while you share your screen on a Mac

By Harshit Maurya, maker of Cued · Updated 28 October 2026

On a Mac, open System Settings → Notifications and set "Show Notifications: when mirroring or sharing the display" to off, then turn on Do Not Disturb (Option-click the date and time in the menu bar) before the call. Also mute the chat apps themselves (Zoom, Teams, Slack), and share one window or tab instead of your entire screen, so anything that still pops up isn't in what people see.

Why notifications show up when you share your screen

When you share your entire screen in Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, the other people see exactly what your display shows, and macOS draws notification banners on that display like anything else. A message preview from Slack, an email subject line or a calendar alert can appear in the top-right corner for a few seconds, and everyone on the call can read it.

It matters more than it seems. A preview can contain a client's name, a price, a personal message or something from another project you're not allowed to share. And you usually don't see it happen, because you're looking at the slide or the person you're talking to. The fix is not one setting but three layers: the Mac, each chat app, and what you choose to share.

Use all three. Any one of them alone leaves a gap.
Layer	What to change	What it stops
macOS	Notifications → "when mirroring or sharing the display" off; Do Not Disturb or a Focus on	Banners from all apps, when macOS knows you're sharing or when the Focus is on
Each chat app	Zoom, Teams and Slack's own mute or pause settings	Messages that would otherwise ask macOS to show a banner
What you share	One window or browser tab instead of the entire screen	Anything outside that window, including banners that still appear

Step 1: Tell macOS to hide notifications while you share

macOS has a setting made for this. Apple's Mac User Guide lists it under Notifications as "Show Notifications: when mirroring or sharing the display", with a choice between pausing notifications and allowing them.

Open Notifications settings. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Notifications in the sidebar (you may need to scroll down).
Find the sharing option. Under Notification Center, find "Show Notifications: when mirroring or sharing the display".
Turn notifications off for sharing. Set it to Notifications Off, so macOS pauses banners while the display is being mirrored or shared.
Test it once. Start a test meeting on your own, share your entire screen and send yourself a message. Apple's page doesn't list which screen-sharing apps count as "sharing the display", so check that it works with the call app you use before you rely on it.

While you are in the same settings, look at each chat app under Application Notifications. Setting Show previews to Never for an app means that even if a banner does appear, it shows the app name rather than the message text.

Step 2: Turn on Do Not Disturb or a Focus before the call

Do Not Disturb silences notifications whether or not macOS notices you are sharing, so it is the safer habit. Apple gives three quick ways to turn it on: Option-click the date and time in the menu bar, press the Do Not Disturb key on the top row of your keyboard if it has one, or open Control Center and click in the Focus section.

In Control Center you can also pick how long it stays on, such as "For 1 hour", or "Until the end of this event", which turns it off when the current Calendar event ends. That second option suits meetings well: you don't have to remember to switch notifications back on.

If you share your screen often, make a dedicated Focus. In System Settings → Focus, click Add Focus, choose Custom and name it something like "Presenting". Under Allowed People and Allowed Apps you can choose who and what may still get through. Apple notes that apps can send Time Sensitive notifications that break through a Focus if you allow them, so leave that off for this one.

A Focus can also turn itself on. Under Set a Schedule → Add Schedule, Apple offers three triggers: a time, a location or an app. The app trigger has a catch for calls: Apple says the Focus turns off when you close the app or switch apps. If you set it to turn on with Zoom and then click over to your slides, it can switch off just as you start presenting, which is what one Zoom Community post describes. A time schedule, or turning it on by hand, avoids that.

Step 3: Mute the call and chat apps themselves

Some messages come from inside the call app, and some apps have their own rules about what breaks through. Each of the common apps has a setting for meetings.

Menu names from each company's help pages, read on 28 October 2026. They change between versions.
App	Setting (desktop app)	What still comes through
Zoom	Settings → Notifications & sounds → "Hide chat notifications during meetings and calls". You can also set Do not disturb hours.	Zoom's "Silence system notifications when sharing desktop" is marked Windows only on Zoom's own page, so on a Mac rely on macOS for other apps' banners.
Microsoft Teams	Settings and more → Settings → Notifications and activity → clear "Show notifications during calls and meetings".	Microsoft says chat in the current meeting, meeting-start alerts, calls and urgent or priority notifications still come through unless you turn those off too.
Slack	Click your profile picture → Notifications → choose how long to pause. Resume from the same menu.	Slack says a colleague can override the pause to notify you about an urgent direct message once per day.
Google Meet	Meet runs in the browser, so its alerts follow the browser's notification settings in macOS.	Mute the browser in System Settings → Notifications, or rely on Do Not Disturb.

Zoom has one more option worth checking in the other direction. Under Settings → Share screen, "Show my Zoom Workplace Application and meeting windows" has a sub-option to include the sharing toolbar, annotation toolbar and meeting notifications in what you share. If you don't want people to see Zoom's own notifications, leave that sub-option unticked.

Step 4: Share one window or tab, not your entire screen

This is the most reliable fix, because a banner can only leak if it lands inside what you share. If you share just your slides or one browser tab, a notification in the corner of your screen isn't part of the picture people see.

Google Meet: click Present now, then choose A tab, A window or Your entire screen. Google suggests presenting a Chrome tab or a separate window, not the meeting window itself.
Zoom: when you click Share, pick the app window rather than the whole desktop. Zoom's advanced settings on macOS also include "Share selected app window only".
Microsoft Teams: when you share, choose a window instead of the whole screen.
If you must share the entire screen, say for a live demo that moves between apps, use Steps 1–3 first and close apps you don't need.

Sharing one window has a side benefit: your other windows, browser tabs and desktop files stay private too, not just your notifications.

A 30-second checklist before you share

Turn on Do Not Disturb. Option-click the date and time in the menu bar, or choose "Until the end of this event" in Control Center.
Pause chat apps. Pause Slack, and check that Teams or Zoom hides notifications during meetings.
Close what you won't show. Quit email and messaging apps you don't need for this call, and close private browser tabs.
Share a window, not the screen. Pick the slides, document or browser tab you're presenting.
Check what people see. Ask "Can you see my slides?" and glance at the share preview before you start talking.

What about your own notes while you share?

Hiding notifications solves one problem but leaves another: if your talking points are in a window on screen, sharing the whole screen shows them too, and sharing one window means you can't see them while you present. Some people print them or put them on a second display.

Cued, a Mac app, takes another approach. It shows your talking points in the MacBook notch, right under the camera, and keeps each meeting's files and links one click away there. Both are hidden from screen sharing and screen recordings, so you can share your entire screen and still read your notes. Cued doesn't silence other apps' notifications, so the steps above still apply. It also records calls in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, FaceTime, Webex and Slack through the Mac itself, with no bot joining, and transcribes them on the Mac, offline. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon, is made for MacBooks with a notch, and is a one-time payment, not a subscription.

Questions

How do I stop notifications from popping up when I share my screen on a Mac?

In System Settings → Notifications, set "Show Notifications: when mirroring or sharing the display" to off, and turn on Do Not Disturb before the call by Option-clicking the date and time in the menu bar. Then share one window instead of your entire screen.

Does Zoom hide notifications when I share my screen on a Mac?

Not all of them. Zoom's "Silence system notifications when sharing desktop" is marked Windows only on Zoom's settings page. On a Mac, Zoom can hide its own chat notifications during meetings, but banners from other apps are up to macOS settings and Do Not Disturb.

Why did my Focus turn off when I started screen sharing?

If the Focus is set to turn on with an app, Apple says it turns off when you close or switch away from that app. Switching from Zoom to your slides counts. Turn the Focus on by hand or on a time schedule instead.

Can people see my notifications if I only share one window?

No. When you share a single window or browser tab, people see only that window, so a banner elsewhere on your screen isn't shared. It is the most reliable way to keep notifications private.

How do I mute Teams notifications during a meeting?

In Teams, go to Settings and more → Settings → Notifications and activity and clear "Show notifications during calls and meetings". Microsoft says meeting chat, meeting-start alerts, calls and urgent notifications can still come through.

How much does Cued cost?

Cued is a one-time payment, not a subscription: $9 for the first 50 founding members, then $29 with a year of updates.

Try Cued on your next call. Your script in the notch, your call recorded and summarised on your Mac.

Download for Mac