Play together

Friends connect to your host from their own devices and share one screen: the same picture, the same sound, and a controller each. Pick Play together for couch co-op, a party game, or watching something together. To give each device a screen of its own, keep Default (Virtual displays).

Set it upCopy Anchor Link

1. In the web console, open Displays and click Play together under When a device connects. It applies from the next connection.
2. Let each friend in once. Their device's first connect waits in Devices under Waiting for approval. Click Approve and choose Approve as guest: Controller only, for 4 hours (Pairing). To give more or less, see Access levels.
3. Connect your own device first, then your friends connect theirs.

A friend outside your home network needs a way in first, and a PIN instead of Approve: see Friends over the internet.

What everyone getsCopy Anchor Link

• The screen. The first device to connect sets its resolution and refresh rate. Every device after it sees that screen fitted to its own display.
• The sound. Everyone hears the same audio. To mute one device, use its row under Now on Home.
• Controllers. Every device can bring controllers. Each controller becomes its own player, in the order it is first used. The player picker on a device's row under Now changes its number (Access levels).
• The pointer and keyboard. Keyboard, mouse and touch from every device drive the one desktop pointer and keyboard, as far as each device's access allows.

Things to knowCopy Anchor Link

• While more than one device shares the screen, its size stays put. A device that resizes its window or rotates rescales only its own picture. On a Linux host, a device left alone on the screen can resize it again; on a Windows host, reconnect that device.
• A device that joins is told at the start that it shares the screen.
• HDR follows the screen. If the screen is in HDR, a device that joins must have HDR on in its client, or it is told it can't join. If the screen is in SDR, everyone gets SDR, even on an HDR TV. See HDR.
• On a gamescope or Game Mode host, the picture format follows the screen too: 10-bit colour, 4:4:4 and the colour range are the first device's. A device that joins and can show less is told what it can't show.
• On a gamescope or Game Mode host, only the screen's first device starts a game. A game picked on a joining device doesn't start. On other hosts it starts on the shared desktop.
• On a Windows host a joining device sees the pointer inside the picture. It doesn't see Windows permission prompts or the lock screen; the first device does.
• Two devices that connect at the same moment still share one screen.

TroubleshootingCopy Anchor Link

A friend sees only the wallpaper, or a screen of their ownCopy Anchor Link

Their device's own setting outranks the preset. In Devices, open that device's Display settings… and set A second device connects to Follow host.

A friend is told the screen is in HDRCopy Anchor Link

The screen is in HDR and their device didn't ask for it. Turn HDR on in their client (HDR per client). If their display can't show HDR, stop every stream, turn HDR off on the device that connects first, and connect again.

A friend is told their device can't show the screenCopy Anchor Link

On a gamescope or Game Mode host, every device gets the picture format of the first one. A device that can't show its 10-bit colour, its 4:4:4 or its colour range is told which. Stop every stream, connect that device first, and let the others join it: they follow down to what it shows. A message about the video codec means the two devices picked codecs that can't share the screen; set the same codec in both clients.

A friend's game didn't startCopy Anchor Link

On a gamescope or Game Mode host, start the game from the first device; the friend sees it on the shared screen. Elsewhere, a guest needs Launch games to start one (Individual grants).