As fas as I see, it's not possible to connect to a device that uses the same Apple account, which is what I have done in my case. It has to be a different one.

Also, it only seems to work on a local network with hostnames.

Ahh - not sure about the same account, I’ve not tried that.

It 100% works across the internet: it works with contact names, not just host names.

I've used it with both machines signed into my Apple account for many years.

You’re talking about through FaceTime, right? Or is there another native screen sharing app that I am unaware of?

A different one: it’s called “Screen Sharing.app” and it’s under Utilities.

After you open it, press “Connections -> New” and start typing a contact name.

They get a little notification if they are online, and if they accept you have a seamless screen sharing experience ready to go. It’s honestly magic for the “my parents have an error message and don’t know what to do” situation.

I assume they have you in their contacts as well for it to work.

For my parents: “under utilities” means it’s mostly impossible to use. What does under mean? What are utilities, are they different from apps? Can I Google search that? Where is connections? What is a connection, is that like a friend?

Glad to see your parents are tech savvy, but this reads like you live in a very different reality from mine.

Perhaps google the thing before jumping to conclusions, or saying I live in a different reality.

Your parents don’t need to run the app at all. You need to run the app.

Unless you really do live in a different reality where you want your parents to help you out when you see an error message you don’t understand?

Is that just openssh with an obscured name? It would be nice to simply use the correct basic tool instead of some strange rebranding by a company of a much more well understood and trusted standard

This is the dumbest comment I’ve read in a long time.

The answer is no, fyi