How HiddenPal's undetectability works

Why it works

Think of your screen as having two layers: the one your eyes see, and the one a screen-sharing or recording app is allowed to grab. They're not the same thing. Each window on your computer decides whether it wants to show up in that second layer, and HiddenPal simply chooses not to.

That means HiddenPal can sit right on top of whatever you're working on, fully visible to you, while the person on the other end of the call sees only what's underneath. The list below shows exactly where that holds true and the few situations where it doesn't.

Test it in 30 seconds

1. Open HiddenPal and start a screen recording with QuickTime (macOS) or the Game Bar (Windows).
2. Stop the recording and play it back.
3. If HiddenPal is missing from the recording, you're good. It will be missing from any screen share too.

We recommend running this test once on each machine you plan to interview from.

Screen-sharing & conferencing

The overlay is invisible to the participants on these platforms, both during “share entire screen” and “share a window.”

• Zoom

  Undetectable

• Google Meet

  Undetectable

• Microsoft Teams

  Undetectable

• Cisco Webex

  Undetectable

• Slack Huddles

  Undetectable

• Discord

  Undetectable

• RingCentral

  Undetectable

• Amazon Chime

  Undetectable

• Lark / Feishu

  Undetectable

Coding & interview platforms

HiddenPal works alongside all major coding platforms. The browser tab sees the editor, the interviewer sees the editor, and HiddenPal stays only on your screen.

• CoderPad

  Undetectable

• HackerRank

  Undetectable

• Codility

  Undetectable

• CodeSignal

  Undetectable

• LeetCode

  Undetectable

• Replit

  Undetectable

• Karat

  Undetectable

Recording & capture tools

HiddenPal does not appear in screen recordings produced by any of these. This is a useful proxy for whether a screen-share platform will see it.

• QuickTime screen recording

  Undetectable

• OBS Studio

  Undetectable

• Loom

  Undetectable

• macOS Screenshot tool

  Undetectable

• Windows Snipping Tool / Game Bar

  Undetectable

On your own machine

Even with someone looking over your shoulder at your machine, HiddenPal stays out of the obvious places.

• macOS Dock

  Undetectable

• macOS Mission Control & Spaces

  Undetectable

• macOS Activity Monitor (process is hidden from casual inspection)

  Undetectable

• Windows Taskbar

  Undetectable

• Windows Alt-Tab switcher

  Undetectable

• Windows Task Manager (process is hidden from casual inspection)

  Undetectable

Where HiddenPal is not designed to work

A few setups bypass the OS layer HiddenPal lives on, so the invisibility guarantee doesn't hold there. We don't recommend using HiddenPal in these contexts.

• Proctored exam software

  Tools like Proctorio, Honorlock, Examity, ProctorU, Respondus LockDown Browser, and Meazure Learning take over the machine and explicitly look for outside processes. HiddenPal is not designed for these and we do not recommend running it during a proctored exam.

  Not supported

• Remote-control software

  If the interviewer is screen-controlling your machine via TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Chrome Remote Desktop, or similar, they are looking at your raw display output and will see HiddenPal.

  Not supported

• Hardware capture cards

  Anything that captures your screen at the HDMI level (capture cards, KVM recorders) bypasses the OS layer HiddenPal lives on.

  Not supported