Top 5 Ways to Screen Record on a Chromebook
Here at Snipclip, we love Chromebooks and Chrome OS. However, we know as well as many that they unfortunately can be ignored in the ecosystem of professional apps and tools. Fortunately, that is changing and we are seeing more and more apps move to the web browser (ehem shameless plug). As a Chromebook user you have more options than ever on how you want to record your screen. We want to show you our list of the top 5 ways we recommend capturing a screen recording.
1. Snipclip Record
Price: Free
Okay, we’ll be honest we might be a bit biased on this one but we think it deserves mentioning. Snipclip Record is our own screen recording tool that runs completely in your web browser. That means there are no installs or downloads needed to capture a screen recording on your Chromebook. It’s completely free and there are absolutely zero recording limits, watermarks, ads, or email forms you have to fill out to use it.
Snipclip Record records to your local device, meaning the recording is private and is not happening on a server somewhere else. With features such as the ability to record a 4k recording (3840px x 2160px), disable the countdown, record your desktop audio (from videos, games, music, etc) and you can add your webcam to a floating window we think it checks all of the boxes for what a screen recording needs to be considered “professional-ready”.
It is great for anyone due to its ease-of-use but particularly teachers, students, online educators, podcasters, and anyone looking for the best quality it is our top recommendation for a screen recorder.
Instructions
- Launch Snipclip Record
- Select Select Screen
- Select one of the options in the popup from your browser
- The entire screen
- A specific window
- A specific browser tab
- To share internal audio check Share Audio in the popup
- Select “Share” on the popup if visible
- Select the red record button
- Select the pause button and you can either:
- Resume where you left off
- Stop the recording
- Select Download Recording to download and share your masterpiece
- Select New Recording to start over
2. Chrome OS Screen Capture Tool
Price: Free
Not everyone knows this yet but Google recently added the ability record your screen directly inside of Chrome OS. You don’t have to install anything and it works pretty well in our experience testing it out. The process is really simple too.
We like this option for a few reasons. The first is obviously because it’s built in by default, it’s private because it records locally on your device, it’s free, and it’s simple to use. However, we only would recommend this for very basic screen recordings since the options they give you is whether or not you want the microphone enabled. You are not given any additional options such as the ability to set the resolution, disable the timer, show your webcam, etc.
Instructions
- Open the settings menu by clicking the time in the bottom right
- Select Screen Capture
- In the menu at the bottom, select the video camera icon
- You’ll see 3 icons in the middle of the menu:
- Record the full screen
- Record a partial screen
- Record a window
- In the shelf you’ll see a stop icon to Stop recording
3. Sendspark
Price: Free w/ Optional Subscription
Much like Snipclip, think of Sendpsark as one of the new kids on the block. What we like most about Sendspark is that they have the ability to record your screen or webcam without having to install a chrome extension or app. If you would like to record your webcam as a floating bubble overlay they do have a chrome extension available but it is not required to get a simple screen recording.
What makes them different than the options listed above is they focus more on helping you share your recordings quickly. Once you’re finished recording it will upload to their cloud service and you will see a link you can copy to share with a coworker, customer, peer, etc. Once they open the link they’ll be greeted to a web page with your video available to view. Additionally, you can set a custom title or message on the web page if you’d like. Their free tier is pretty generous at 30 total videos (no recording limits) with Sendspark branding. You are not allowed to download your recordings on the free tier however.
While there is a huge advantage here for sharing a screen recording you just made quickly there are two main disadvantages. First, you have to wait for the recording to finish uploading before you can preview it. Second, it means this is not a 100% private and local screen recorder. If that’s not entirely important to you though we would highly recommend taking a look at Sendspark. It is a great solution for someone who needs to record and share that recording as quickly as possible.
4. Loom
Price: Free w/ Optional Subscription
You can’t have a list like this and not mention the screen recording giant, Loom. Founded in 2015 and valued at $1.53 Billion Loom is one of the fastest growing companies in this space. They have both a desktop app for Mac OS and Windows and for us Chrome OS users they have a Chrome extension (limited to 1080p resolution). Their design is very modern and simple to use for even the least tech savvy of users.
They are likely best known for how easy they make it to record and share a video. Once you finish recording it automatically uploads to their cloud service and you have a link immediately available to share with a friend or coworker.
In the same vein as Sendspark, if you want to keep things like sensitive company information from being uploaded you might want to look elsewhere. That being said, much like a Google doc you can restrict to the recording links as needed. It’s also worth mentioning that their free tier restricts you to 25 total videos per individual and your recording cannot exceed 5 minutes in length. It sits at number 4 on our list for these reasons.
5. Screencast-O-Matic
Price: Free w/ Optional Subscription
Screencast-O-Matic is among the top rated software for screen recording and for good reason. They have an app for just about every platform you can imagine, each with the features you would expect from a screen recorder.
What makes Screencast-O-Matic different than the other options is they utilize an Android app on Chrome OS for screen recording instead of being a website like Snipclip Record or a chrome extension. This means that you do have to go through the process of installing the Android app from the Google Play Store; however, once installed you will see the app icon in your launcher with your other installed apps.
The app works well overall and since it is an Android app it is well optimized to run smoothly on slower devices. The two main knocks we would give it is the design definitely feels outdated by 2021’s software standards and the free tier adds a watermark to your recordings.
Much like Loom or Sendspark they do limit their free tier to some degree as you’ll see in their feature table. Meaning you will have to upgrade to a paid tier to gain features such as drawing on the screen, recording internal system audio, and to remove their watermark. We will note though that their pricing is one of the cheapest we’ve seen for a paid upgrade.