Tasks
How to record your screen without installing anything
Screen capture is part of the web platform itself, not something bolted on. Any page can ask your browser for a display, which is why nothing needs downloading.
How it works
The browser exposes an API called getDisplayMedia. A page asks for a screen, the browser shows its own picker, and if you agree the page receives a video stream. MediaRecorder turns that stream into a file, in memory.
What you gain
Nothing to install, nothing to update, no account, and the recording never leaves your machine unless you send it somewhere yourself.
What you give up
Desktop apps can record a selected region, keep recording across a reboot, write directly to disk instead of memory, and capture system audio on any platform. Long recordings are where that gap bites. A web page can do none of those.
Read next
- How to record your screen with sound
The two different kinds of audio in a screen recording, and which browsers can capture each.
- How to record your screen and webcam together
Add a camera overlay to a screen recording, and how it is combined into one file.
- How to record a single browser tab
Tab recording, which is the cleanest option and the only one that reliably captures audio.