How to Use Loom: The Beginner's Guide

CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-29T09:50:10.330Z · 10 min read

Loom is an asynchronous video-messaging tool: you record your screen, your camera, or both at once, and Loom hands you a shareable link the moment you stop recording. If you are learning how to use Loom for the first time, the full loop — sign up, install, record, trim, share — takes about ten minutes, and most of what beginners need is covered by the free Starter plan. Loom is now part of Atlassian, so its official getting-started documentation lives at support.atlassian.com/loom, but the product works the way millions of remote workers, teachers, and support teams know it: press record, talk through your screen, paste the link.

If your job is plain screen capture rather than video messaging, our guide to recording your screen on Windows 11 covers the built-in recorder instead — no account, no upload, no link.

What is Loom?

Loom is an async video recorder and sharing platform in one: it captures your screen, your webcam, or both simultaneously, uploads the video automatically, and gives you a link you can paste into email, Slack, a document, or a website embed. There is no export step and no editing software to learn — recording, hosting, and sharing happen in the same tool. The free Starter plan includes 25 videos per person with 5-minute recordings each in 720p, unlimited-length meeting recordings, and transcriptions in more than 50 languages (loom.com/pricing, checked October 29, 2026).

Think of Loom as the opposite of a meeting: instead of scheduling 30 minutes to walk someone through a screen, you record a 3-minute video they watch whenever they are ready. That async model is why support teams, teachers, and remote workers adopted it — the link replaces the meeting.

How do I record my first Loom video?

Seven steps: sign up, install a recorder, pick your mode, pick what to capture, check your camera and microphone, hit record, then stop and use the Share Page that opens automatically. Here is the full walkthrough, drawn from Atlassian's current getting-started guide.

1. Sign up for a free account. Create your account at loom.com — the Starter plan is free and needs no credit card.
2. Install a recorder. You have three options: the desktop app for Mac or Windows, the Chrome extension, or the iOS/Android mobile apps. The desktop app is the most capable; the Chrome extension is the fastest to start with. (See the recorder comparison below if you are unsure.)
3. Pick how you appear. Open the recorder and choose one of three modes — Screen and Camera (recommended by Loom, so viewers see you and your work at the same time), Screen only (best for demos and walkthroughs), or Camera only (best for quick announcements with no screen to show).
4. Pick what to capture. In the desktop app you can record your full screen, one specific window, or a custom-sized area. The Chrome extension offers Full Screen, Window, Current Tab, and Camera Only.
5. Check your camera and microphone. Confirm the correct camera is selected, pick your microphone from the dropdown, and say a few words — if the audio meter moves, Loom is hearing you. This 15-second check is where most bad first recordings go wrong, so do not skip it.
6. Hit record. A short countdown runs, then you are live. While recording you can pause to gather your thoughts, restart for a clean take, cancel the recording entirely, use the drawing tool to highlight parts of your screen, toggle your camera bubble on or off, and — yes — fire confetti to celebrate a milestone.
7. Stop and land on the Share Page. Clicking stop opens your video's Share Page in the browser automatically. Rename the video, set the thumbnail, turn on captions, and copy the link. Your first Loom video is now shareable — no upload wait, no export dialog.

Which Loom recorder should you install?

Install the desktop app if you want the full feature set; install the Chrome extension if you want to record something in your browser within the next two minutes. The differences that actually matter:

All three recorders upload to the same library, so you can mix them: record a desktop walkthrough in the morning and a camera-only update from your phone in the afternoon. One practical note from the official docs — if you want your camera bubble visible while recording a desktop application (or a PDF open in Chrome), you need the desktop app, not the extension.

How do I edit a Loom video?

Do the basic polish on the Share Page: use the Trim tool to cut false starts and dead air from the beginning or end, rename the video, set a thumbnail, and turn on captions. On the Business + AI plan, Loom AI removes filler words and silences automatically, edits by waveform, and generates titles, summaries, and chapters for you.

Loom's editing philosophy is deliberately minimal. The Share Page also lets you set the default playback speed, toggle comments and emoji reactions, and control whether viewers can see the transcript — Loom generates a transcript for every video automatically. These small settings are what make a casual recording feel finished without opening an editor.

Know the honest limits: Loom AI's filler-word removal, silence removal, and auto-generated titles, summaries, and chapters sit on the Business + AI plan ($24 per user per month), not on the free or basic Business plans (loom.com/pricing). And if your video needs a real multi-clip edit — timelines, transitions, styled captions — step out to a dedicated editor like CapCut instead of fighting Loom's trimmer.

How do I share a Loom video?

Click Copy Link on the Share Page and paste it anywhere — that is the whole workflow for most people. The link opens the video in a browser; viewers do not need a Loom account to watch a public link.

When a bare link is not enough, the Share menu gives you more routes: share by email to specific addresses, share to a Space so a whole team or workspace can find it, post directly to social platforms (LinkedIn, X, Facebook) or Gmail, generate a responsive or fixed-size embed code for a website or wiki, or share starting at a specific timestamp so viewers land on the exact moment that matters. Before you share widely, check the video's privacy controls — Starter includes video privacy controls, and paid plans add password-protected videos and workspace-level defaults (loom.com/pricing).

One more sharing habit worth building: rename the video before you copy the link. The title becomes the link preview everywhere you paste it, and "Q3 onboarding walkthrough" gets watched while "Loom | Oct 29" gets ignored.

How much does Loom cost?

Loom's free Starter plan costs $0 and gives you 25 videos per person with up to 5 minutes of recording each in 720p. Unlimited recording time starts at $18 per user per month on Business, and the Loom AI features (auto titles, summaries, chapters, filler-word and silence removal) cost $24 per user per month on Business + AI. All figures below are from loom.com/pricing, checked October 29, 2026.

The two numbers that decide whether the free plan fits you are 25 videos and 5 minutes. If your videos are quick explainers and you archive or delete finished ones, Starter stretches a long way — comments, emoji reactions, transcriptions in 50+ languages, and closed captions are all included free. If you record long trainings or produce videos for clients, the 5-minute cap will stop you mid-sentence, and that is the real signal to look at Business.

Should I use Loom or Zoom?

Use Loom for asynchronous video — recorded messages people watch on their own time. Use Zoom for live meetings. They complement each other more than they compete: Loom can record your Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams meetings, auto-record them with per-meeting preferences (all meetings, internal only, or manual), transcribe them in 50+ languages, and turn them into summaries, key topics, and action items.

Meeting recordings carry their own privacy defaults — Public (everyone with the link), Workspace (only your workspace or email domain), or Private (only you) — so set the default once in Settings instead of fixing it per recording. If you need to record live streams or broadcast yourself live, that is a different lane entirely: OBS Studio is the free tool for it.

Sources

• Atlassian, "Steps to Get Started in Loom" — the official getting-started guide (recorders, recording modes, editing, sharing, meeting recording), read October 29, 2026: https://www.atlassian.com/software/loom/resources/guides/steps-to-get-started-in-loom
• Loom, "Loom Pricing" — plan limits and prices (Starter/Business/Business + AI/Enterprise), read October 29, 2026: https://www.loom.com/pricing
• Sendspark, "How to Record a Loom Video in 2026 (Step-by-Step)" — six-step recording workflow and Mac permission notes, via live search October 29, 2026: https://blog.sendspark.com/how-to-record-loom-video
• MarkupHero, "How to Make a Loom Recording" — install-to-share flow and trim/stitch notes, via live search October 29, 2026: https://markuphero.com/blog/how-to-make-a-loom-recording/

Frequently asked questions

Is Loom really free?

Yes, the Starter plan is free: 25 videos per person, 5-minute recordings, 720p quality, unlimited meeting recording length, transcriptions in 50+ languages, comments, emoji reactions, and closed captions (loom.com/pricing, checked October 29, 2026). Paid plans start at $18 per user per month for unlimited videos and recording time.

Is Loom still Loom, or is it Atlassian now?

Loom is now part of Atlassian — its help documentation has moved to support.atlassian.com/loom, and the product pages carry Atlassian branding. The product itself is unchanged: same recorders, same share links, same plans.

Can someone watch my Loom video without a Loom account?

Yes. Anyone with the link can watch a public Loom video in a browser — no account, no install. You control who can view each video with privacy settings, and paid plans add password protection.

What is the difference between Loom and Zoom?

Zoom is for live meetings; Loom is for recorded video messages people watch on their own time. Loom also records Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams meetings automatically if you want, with transcripts and AI summaries — so many teams use both.

How long can a free Loom recording be?

Five minutes per video on the free Starter plan — that is the limit to plan around. Meeting recordings are unlimited in length on every plan, including free. Unlimited screen-recording time starts on the Business plan at $18 per user per month.