These days amidst the global pandemic, almost everyone uses Voice-Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications to conduct video calls, live meetings, interviews, brainstorming sessions and other web activities.
Recording your video calls can level up your active listening skills, enable you to set clear goals and prepare a comprehensive plan of action. You would be in a better position to recall important details even after a few days or months of your session, and perform your job much better than others and ultimately power up your job performance.
There are different ways to record your Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype video calls. The most prominent way to record your video calls is to use the in-house recording functionality. You can record calls at any time during the conversation. Another way to record your video calls is to use a third-party application such as ShareX. We’ll discuss each of these methods one by one.
(a) Zoom
(i) Record Zoom Calls Locally
Prerequisites
You’ll need the Zoom Basic account which is free-of-cost. You will also be needing the Zoom Desktop Client installed in order to record conversations.
Steps
- Start a Zoom meeting locally.
- Click the Record icon.
- Select Record on this Computer.
- Once your Zoom video call is finished, Zoom will automatically convert the file in the default file format. The default format for videos is .MP4 and .M4A for audios.
Note: When you start the recording, other participants in your meeting will start seeing a recording indicator. You can also check if other participants are recording your meetings by clicking on the Participants option.
Drawbacks
There are certain limitations while recording your Zoom video calls locally:
- Your recording doesn’t display a timestamp which is critical to know the context of the recording.
- No participants’ names will appear in the recording.
- Zoom records the active speaker, Gallery View and screen share independently.
- Audio transcriptions are not available.
- The recording feature is not available for the Android and iOS users.
- Recording limits itself to thumbnail gallery view.
(ii) Record Zoom Calls on the Cloud
You’ve got another option to record Zoom calls, which is the cloud. With cloud recording, you can access your recordings anytime, anywhere irrespective of the device you use. It’s a handy option if you need to re-play your recorded conversations while travelling.
Prerequisites
You’ll need the Zoom Pro (minimum requirement) account to cloud record your calls. You’ll also need to have the Zoom Desktop Client installed.
Steps
- Start a Zoom meeting.
- Click on the Record icon.
- Select Record to the Cloud option.
You can pause and stop the recording using the Pause and Stop Recording/ End Meeting options respectively.
Drawbacks
Zoom offers extremely low and poor cloud storage capacity compared to any other service. The cloud storage facility provided by Zoom is not adequate and you may run into low storage in just a few sessions. Zoom Pro & Zoom Business plans offer only 1 GB/user, Zoom Room offers 1 GB/ Zoom room, while the Education plan offers only 0.5 GB/ user. Thereafter, you will be charged $40/ month for 100 GB, $100/ month for 500 GB and $500/ month for 3 TB of storage.
(b) Microsoft Teams
Prerequisites
- You must need a Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Business Basic or Business Standard account.
- A sufficient amount of storage space is required.
- The user must not be anonymous. Guest users cannot record video calls.
Desktop
- Start a Microsoft Teams meeting or video call.
- Click on the three horizontal dots (More icon).
- Select Start Recording and Transcription.
Mobile
- Start a Microsoft Teams meeting or video call.
- Click on the three horizontal dots (More icon).
- Select Start Recording.
(c) Skype
On Desktop & Mobile
- Start a Skype call.
- Click on the three horizontal dots icon.
- Select Start Recording.
(d) Record Zoom, Teams & Skype Video Calls Using ShareX
ShareX is a freeware screen capturing and file sharing utility. It allows you to capture and record the contents on the screen. You can also change settings pertaining to the audio and video quality for enhanced recording. You may also lower the quality settings to reduce the size of your recording file.
- Download and install ShareX.
- Click on Capture.
- Select Screen Recording.
- If this is the first time you’re performing screen recording, you’ll be prompted to download a required component named ffmpeg.exe.
- Click Yes to start the download. Click OK after the download is over to start the installation.
- Now use your mouse cursor to select the area of the screen and the recording will start instantly.
