Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meets have all become an integrated part of our work from home lifestyle. Not only for work from home, but some schools and universities are carrying out their lectures via Zoom.

What if you want to record a Zoom lecture or session for future reference? I recently came across a similar situation where I had to record my master’s degree lectures happening on Zoom.

Record your Zoom call on the desktop with the Zoom client

Sometimes, the host of the meeting will allow you to record the Zoom session. If the host has enabled the ability to record the lecture, then it very simple to record your session.

Join the Zoom session with your desktop or mobile Zoom client. In the desktop client, if the host has enabled screen recoding for the call,

  1. Click the record button at the bottom bar of the zoom window.
  2. Now your Zoom session is recorded by the Zoom app. You will see on your top left screen that you’re recording the session.
  3. You can pause or stop the recording by clicking the pause or stop icons at the upper left corner and save the video to your computer.

What if the host of the meeting that has disabled the ability to record the Zoom session? When it comes to my lectures, I had to face this situation where I was unable to record the Zoom session.

So I searched for some available solutions available on the internet. Most of the screen recorder software is not free or includes watermarks to the videos that will reduce the quality of the recording. I was looking for a solution that is free and had good audio, video quality without including any distracting watermarks.

Record Zoom calls on Chrome when recoding is disabled by the host

Record Zoom calls/sessions using Screen Recorder extension for Chrome

I’m using Google chrome browser, and Chrome has a feature out of the box that allows you to screen record a single Chrome tab, the whole desktop along with the audio.  

If you search the Chrome Webstore, you will come across several screen recorder extensions that allow you to screen record your Chrome tabs.

After trial and error, I found the perfect extension that is free and simple to screen record your Chrome sessions. 

The extension is ‘Screen Recorder’ by Erich Behrens.

Step 1: Install Screen Recorder extension to your Chrome browser using the Chrome Webstore.

Step 2: Open the extension by clicking on the icon. It will open the Screen Recorder app on a new window.

Step 3: After opening the extension, select the video source. 

The screen recorder app will give you several recording options. You can record the whole desktop, a specific window, a single Chrome tab, and finally, record using your webcam. 

Select the method you would like to record your Zoom session. If you are running the Zoom client, you can select the Zoom client window, or if you are running Zoom on your browser, then select the tab that is running the Zoom session.

Step 4: Select the audio source. The Screen Recorder app allows you to record the system audio and your microphone. 

Since you are recording the Zoom session, select the system audio as your audio source. You can use the microphone as your audio source if you are doing a live stream, together with your webcam as your video source.

Step 5: Start recording.

After you start recording, you can see the recording on your Screen Recorder App. You can also pause or resume recording anytime you want. It is a feature I couldn’t find in any other screen recorder Chrome extensions. 

After you stop the Screen Recorder app, you can save the video in WebM format. The videos I recorded were in 720p in quality, and the audio quality is also satisfactory.

After exporting your Zoom session video, you can view them later by using your media player or upload it to YouTube for later viewing. 

Are there any drawbacks?

Yes, even though it is free, there are several missing features and drawbacks in the ‘Screen Recorder app’. 

One, you can’t change the quality of the screen recording, all the recordings I made were in 720p, and there is no option to change it to 480p moe 1080p.

Chrome is a resource-hungry browser itself, and when you run the screen recorder app, in my experience, it will use a lot of system resources. I use Zoom through my browser, and when I am recording my Zoom sessions, I will hear the loud hum of the MacBook’s fan whenever signaling my processor is heating up.

Therefore whenever you plan to screen-record your Zoom sessions with the ‘Screen Recorder’ app, make sure to plug your laptop into a power source. 

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