How to Copy Text From a Screen Share or Video Call on Mac

Quick answer A shared screen is a video stream, so you can’t select its text. Ask the presenter to paste it in the chat if you can. Otherwise take a screenshot and use Live Text in Preview, or press ⇧⌘2 with Unpixel, drag over the shared text and paste — without leaving the call.

Someone shares a staging URL, an error message, a command or a document reference in Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or FaceTime — and everyone squints and retypes it. Here’s how to copy it instead.

Method 0: Ask for it in the chat

It’s the most accurate option and helps everyone else in the call too. When that’s awkward — a fast-moving demo, a long link, a recording — use one of the methods below.

Method 1: Screenshot + Live Text

Press ⌃⇧⌘4 and drag over the shared text. The screenshot is copied to your clipboard (nothing is saved to your desktop).
Open Preview → File → New from Clipboard.
Drag across the text in the image and press ⌘C.

It works, but it takes you out of the meeting for a few seconds — which is when the presenter moves on.

Method 2: Unpixel — copy without leaving the call

Press ⇧⌘2 while the text is on screen.
Drag over the link, code or sentence in the shared screen.
Let go — it’s on your clipboard. Paste it into your browser, terminal or notes.

Links are recognized and filed under Links in Unpixel’s history, so you can find that staging URL again after the call. QR codes on a slide are decoded too.

Tips for accuracy in calls

Wait a beat after scrolling. Video calls lower the resolution while content is moving; give the image a second to sharpen before capturing.
Make the share bigger. Full-screen the meeting window and hide the participant strip so the shared screen gets more pixels.
Tiny text? Ask the presenter to zoom in (⌘+ in most apps). It helps everyone.
Check look-alike characters in URLs, tokens and commands — l/1/I and 0/O — before you use them.
Turn off language correction in Settings → Recognition when you mostly capture IDs, hostnames and code.

Be a good meeting citizen

Copying is no different from taking notes — but be mindful of confidential information, follow your organization’s policies, and never copy credentials or personal data you weren’t meant to have. Unpixel doesn’t record meetings or capture anything in the background: it reads only the area you select, on your Mac, at the moment you let go.

FAQ

Will the presenter or the meeting app know?

Unpixel doesn’t connect to or interact with the meeting app. It reads pixels that are already on your screen, locally, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Which apps does it work with?

Any of them — Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, FaceTime, Slack huddles, Discord — because it works from what’s on your screen rather than from the app.