1. A method, comprising by a client network node: displaying a graphical user interface comprising a graphical representation of a virtual area that supports establishment of respective presences of a communicant operating the client network node and one or more other communicants respectively operating one or more other client network nodes and realtime communications between co-present communicants, a graphical representation of each of the communicants who is present in the virtual area, and a graphical representation of a viewscreen object in the graphical representation of the virtual area, wherein the viewscreen object is associated with screen sharing functionality that allows a client network node of a communicant who is present in the virtual area to display visual content produced by an application on the client network node and transmit representations of the visual content for display on one or more other client network nodes of respective communicants who are present in the virtual area and have activated the viewscreen object; responsive to receipt of communicant input, transmitting a request to associate a uniform resource identifier (URI) of a network resource with the viewscreen object to a network infrastructure service supporting communicant interactions in the virtual area; receiving from the network infrastructure service one or more values defining respective properties of the viewscreen object including an association of the URI with the viewscreen object that allows a client network node of a communicant who is present in the virtual area to display data retrieved from the URI in response to activation of the viewscreen object by the communicant; retrieving data from the URI based on communicant input received in connection with the graphical representation of the viewscreen object; and showing visual content in the graphical user interface based on the data retrieved from the URI.