How to Enable Screen Recording on Chromebook

For years users have been asking for a native tool to record screen on Chromebooks. There are a handful of Chrome extensions that do the job pretty well, but charge top dollar to access even the basics. So it’s heartening to see Google bring a native screen recorder to the Chromebook. This feature was included in the beta channel shortly before general availability and will be rolled out widely to all stable users very soon. So, if you want to enable screen recording on a Chromebook and check out how the new tool works, follow our guide below.

Note: This method only works on Chromebook, not Google Chrome browser. Check out our list of the best screen recording extensions for Google Chrome to record Chrome on PC or Mac.

Enable Screen Recording on Chromebook

Local screen recording feature is currently available On the beta channel of Chrome OS (88.0.4324.22). If you are stable, you can switch to the beta channel by going to Settings -> About Chrome OS -> Additional Details -> Change Channel -> Beta.

Now open the “About Chrome OS” page again and check for updates. Don’t worry, this will not delete any of your files or programs. Other than that, let’s go through the steps now.

1. Open chrome://flags in the Chrome browser”screen capture test“. You can also open chrome://flags/#screen-capture to access the screen recorder flag directly. Now, select “Enabled” from the drop-down menu.

2. Then, “Restart” in the lower right corner.

3. Finally, click the icon. Quick Settings menu and here you will find a new “Screen capture” tile. You have successfully enabled screen recording on your Chromebook.

4. Click the “Screenshot” tile to use it, a bottom bar menu will pop up. Click video icon To switch to screen recording On the right, choose how you want to record: full screen, partial, or an active window.

5. Finally, “RecordClick the ” button and your Chromebook will start recording the screen. In my usage, I didn’t experience any stuttering while recording the screen in any mode. And the quality was pretty good too.

6. To stop recording stop icon in taskbar. The screen recording will be stored in WEBM format and well optimized. The only missing feature I found was the lack of microphone support when recording the screen. It can be a great addition for those who want to create little tutorials with background voiceover.

7. The new tool offers a new and intuitive way to take screenshots on Chromebook as well as screen recording. You can press the ” button.Ctrl + Shift + Overview button (over 6)” to bring the new screen capture mode. What I love about this new tool is that it remembers the position of the last screenshot in partial mode, making the workflow much faster.

List of Popular Chromebooks

Our tutorial will work with all of the following Chromebooks. It is not an exhaustive list and is here as an example only.

Record Screen on Chromebook with New Capture Mode

So you can enable screen recording on a Chromebook and use it to your advantage. Sure, there are some missing features like screenshot description and microphone support, but it’s still better than nothing. Anyway, that’s it for us. If you’re looking for third-party apps to record screen on a Chromebook, check out our list. And if you run into any issues, comment below and let us know.