how to screen record only one tab in chrome

how to screen record only one tab: in chrome, start a screen share, choose the tab option in the picker, pick the tab, and only that tab is recorded. no other tabs, no bookmarks bar, no desktop, no notifications sliding in from the corner. that is all most people need, and it works in any tool built on chrome's own picker, underway included.

what the usual guides leave out is the next two problems. you want your face on camera beside the tab, because a screen with a voice over it is a tutorial and a screen with a person on it is a story. and you often want to hide part of that tab: a sidebar of other conversations, client names down the side of a dashboard, an inbox with one message worth showing. this page covers all three, and how underway now asks which one you mean before it records anything.

screen record only one tab in chrome, step by step

• start the share. in underway, press share your screen during an answer, then a tab.
• chrome's picker opens on its tabs list. pick the tab you want. the recording page itself is never offered, because it is never worth showing.
• tick share tab audio if the tab plays sound you want in the video. it goes in under your voice, not as an echo through the microphone.
• press share. chrome brings that tab to the front and puts a sharing bar at the top of it.
• talk it through. to move to another tab without stopping, press share this tab instead on the tab you want; the recording carries on as one clip.
• stop with underway's stop sharing button or chrome's own bar. either ends the share at once.

on a mac the first time, macos asks chrome for screen recording permission in system settings. that is the operating system, not underway, and it only asks once.

a tab, a window, the whole screen, or part of one

one tab is not always the right size. underway's share your screen now asks what you are sharing before anything else, largest first:

• whole screen: everything you open shows. good for moving between apps.
• a window: one app's window, and only that, whatever else is open behind it.
• a tab: one browser tab, as above.
• part of one: a screen, window or tab with only the parts you choose left clear.

the first three go straight from chrome's picker to recording. what you picked is what people see, because picking it was the choice. underway can open the picker on the right list; you still choose the exact tab or window inside it.

how to blur part of a screen recording before it is recorded

most ways to blur part of a screen recording happen afterwards, in an editor: premiere, capcut, davinci resolve. that means the clear picture exists in a file first, and one missed frame shows the thing you meant to hide.

part of one does it the other way round. after you pick the tab or window, underway shows it back to you and asks what people should see. drag a box round each part to keep. everything outside the boxes is shrunk to a few dozen pixels across as it is painted into the recording, so the clear picture never reaches a file, an upload or an edit. it cannot be uncovered later, by anyone, you included.

the boxes always start empty. if you drew some last time, use last time's boxes puts them back when you press it. until you choose, none of the screen shows and the video stays on your face.

why it asks first now

until today every share went to the boxes, and the boxes remembered the last share. rich, who builds underway, shared a tab in a one-question episode and found it frosted, with boxes he had drawn round a different window days earlier and show only the boxes as the main button. a step meant to protect you was the most confusing moment in the interview. so the question comes first, and only part of one asks for boxes.

record a tab with your face on camera

underway is built for founders documenting what they build, one episode at a time. while you answer a question on camera, share your screen puts the tab beside you: the episode cuts to it for exactly as long as you share, and back to your face after. a small window stays on top with the clock and a stop button while you are in other tabs. a walk-through makes a whole episode of it, the screen full frame with you in a bubble in the corner.

every screen in a finished episode is also read for api keys, tokens and passwords before it can go anywhere, whichever of the four you chose.

screen sharing is chrome on a computer. the phone cannot share its screen.

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