FrameShotHow to Record Your Screen With Audio in Chrome
Record a tab, a window or your whole screen with sound, your microphone and a webcam bubble. What to tick in Chrome’s dialog, and how to fix a silent video.
Shahriar AhmedDeveloper of FrameShot4 min read
Recording your screen in Chrome is easy. Recording it with sound trips up almost everyone the first time, because the sound depends on what you share and on one checkbox in Chrome’s dialog. This guide shows how to record a tab, a window or your whole screen with sound, your microphone and your webcam, and how to fix a recording that came out silent.
Tab, window or entire screen: what to share
When a recording starts, Chrome opens its own share dialog with three choices. Which one you pick decides whether sound can be recorded at all:
| You share | Sound you can record | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| A Chrome tab | The tab’s own sound, on every system | Web app demos, videos, online lessons |
| Entire screen | Your computer’s sound on Windows and ChromeOS, and on macOS 14.2 or later with Chrome 141 or later | Switching between apps, desktop software |
| A window | None. Chrome never shares a window’s sound | Silent demos, or narration with your microphone |
Your microphone works with all three. If you only need to talk over what you show, any choice is fine.
How to record your screen with FrameShot
- Click the FrameShot icon and choose Record screen. The recorder opens in a new tab.
- Pick your sound and camera. Switch on the microphone and the tab or system sound, and the camera if you want a webcam bubble. A live meter shows that your microphone is picking you up.
- Choose quality and a countdown. 1080p at 30 frames per second suits most tutorials. The countdown gives you 3, 5 or 10 seconds to get ready, or none.
- Click Start recording. In Chrome’s dialog, pick a tab, a window or your entire screen, make sure the sound checkbox is on, and click Share.
- Record. The toolbar icon shows
REC. Pause and resume as often as you like: the pauses are left out of the video. - Stop from the recorder, the FrameShot popup or Chrome’s Stop sharing bar. The video opens in the player, ready to download.
Getting the sound right
Chrome, not the extension, decides what sound is shared, and it asks you in the share dialog:
- Sharing a tab: keep Also share tab audio switched on. It’s next to the list of tabs.
- Sharing your entire screen: tick Also share system audio. On a Mac this needs macOS 14.2 or later and Chrome 141 or later. If the option isn’t there, share a tab instead.
- Sharing a window: there is no sound option. Choose a tab or your screen when sound matters.
FrameShot asks Chrome to capture shared sound without the voice-call processing meant for video calls, where Chrome allows it, so music and video soundtracks keep their full range. If a recording starts without the sound you asked for, FrameShot shows a warning straight away with the reason and lets you discard it and try again, so you don’t find out after a twenty-minute take.
Recording your microphone and your computer’s sound at the same time? Wear headphones. Otherwise your microphone also picks up the sound from your speakers and the video has an echo.
Adding your webcam
Switch on the camera in the recorder and Chrome asks for permission the first time. Your face then appears in a round bubble in a corner of the video. You can choose the corner and the size, and change both while you record, so the bubble never covers the part of the screen you’re talking about.
The bubble is part of the video file itself. There’s no separate camera track to line up later, and the video looks the same wherever you share it.
Choosing quality and frame rate
FrameShot records at 720p, 1080p, 1440p or 4K, at 15, 30 or 60 frames per second. Higher settings look sharper and smoother but make bigger files.
- Tutorials and walkthroughs: 1080p at 30 fps is a good balance.
- Fast scrolling, animation and games: 60 fps keeps motion smooth.
- Small text or large monitors: 1440p or 4K keeps code and spreadsheets readable.
- Long recordings with little motion: 15 fps keeps files small.
Videos are saved as MP4 when Chrome can record it, which plays almost everywhere, and as WebM otherwise.
After you stop recording
Your recording opens in FrameShot’s player and is saved in your library on your computer. From there you can play it, rename it, download it as a video file, save the current frame as a screenshot to annotate, or use Export GIF to turn a short part into a looping GIF. Nothing is uploaded, so sharing is up to you: attach the file to an email or a ticket, or drop it into your team chat.
Recordings are saved in small pieces while you record. If Chrome or your computer crashes mid-recording, open FrameShot again and it offers to recover what was recorded.
Troubleshooting
My recording has no sound
Check what you shared. A window never has sound. For a tab, keep Also share tab audio on; for your screen, tick Also share system audio. Also make sure the tab or app was actually playing sound and isn’t muted.
A streaming video shows up black
Many streaming services protect their videos, and Chrome shows them as black in every screen recording. That is intentional and can’t be bypassed.
The recording stopped when I closed a tab
Screen recording in Chrome needs a page to run in, so FrameShot keeps its recorder tab open while you record. Leave that tab open until you stop. If it was closed by accident, reopen FrameShot to recover the recording.
My microphone is too quiet
Watch the level meter before you start, and check the input volume in your system’s sound settings. If you have several microphones, pick the right one in the recorder.
