How does the cursor-follow zoom work?

The tool watches the captured picture for movement and softly zooms toward the active area. When you share your entire screen, it also uses the real pointer position while the pointer is over the recorder window. Browsers do not expose the operating-system cursor to a web page, so motion tracking keeps the effect working when you switch to another app.

Can I type captions while recording?

Yes. The caption box stays available during recording. Type or edit the text and it appears on the video immediately, using the selected font, size, and position. Nothing needs to be edited afterwards.

Which caption styles are included?

Four fonts — Inter, Georgia, Trebuchet, and Verdana — in small, medium, or large sizes. Every style already has a thin dark outline and a soft shadow so text stays readable over bright or busy footage.

Which browsers support the Zoom Recorder?

Desktop Chrome, Edge, and Firefox provide screen capture. Mobile browsers cannot capture the screen; use the Screen Recorder camera mode on a phone instead. Recordings download as WebM in most browsers, or MP4 where the browser supports it.

Screen Recorder With Cursor Zoom & Live Captions

What Zoom Recorder helps you do

Record a screen with a smooth cursor-follow zoom and type captions live while the clip records. The zoom keeps the viewer focused on the active area of a demo, and the caption box lets you explain a step in the moment instead of editing it afterwards. It is aimed at quick walkthroughs, bug reports and tutorial clips that need to look deliberate without a video editor.

Capture, zoom, captions and encoding all run in your browser with the Screen Capture, Canvas and MediaRecorder APIs. Nothing is uploaded to Haivix.

How it works

The browser captures a screen, window or tab and draws it to a canvas. The tool tracks movement in the captured picture and eases the view toward the active region; when the pointer is over the recorder window, it can use the real pointer position instead. Captions are drawn on the canvas as you type, and the canvas is encoded with MediaRecorder, so the zoom and the text are already part of the recording. Browsers do not expose the operating-system cursor, which is why motion tracking carries the effect when you switch to another app.

How to use Zoom Recorder

Choose whether to record the whole screen, a window or a tab.
Set the caption font, size and position.
Start recording and grant the browser's capture permission.
Work normally; the view follows the active area as you move.
Type captions in the box while the recording continues.
Stop, preview the clip and download it.

When to use it

Record a short product demo where the viewer should follow the cursor.
Explain a step in a bug report with live captions.
Create a tutorial clip without a separate editing pass.
Show a workflow on a large screen where important controls are far apart.
Add readable captions to a silent recording.

When not to use it

Do not use it when you need frame-perfect cuts or multiple scenes.
Do not expect professional multi-track audio mixing.
Do not record on mobile; screen capture is a desktop browser feature.

Example

A support engineer records a five-minute walkthrough of a settings change. The zoom eases toward each panel as the pointer moves, and a caption typed during the recording explains the reason for each step. The clip is downloaded and attached to the ticket with no editing.

What you can do with Zoom Recorder

Capture the full screen, a window or a browser tab.
Ease the view toward the active area automatically.
Type captions live during the recording.
Choose from four caption fonts and three sizes.
Position the caption box where it does not cover the action.
Download the clip as WebM or MP4 where supported.
Adjust the caption style before you start recording.

Example workflow

Write the steps before recording, then keep the captions short. A few words per action are easier to read than a paragraph that disappears before the viewer finishes it.

If the clip needs trimming or a voiceover, record first and edit afterwards. The recorder intentionally focuses on capture, not on a timeline.

Leave a short pause at the start and end of the recording. It gives you room to trim cleanly and makes the clip feel less abrupt when it autoplays.

What to know before you start

Screen capture requires a desktop browser and explicit permission.
Mobile browsers cannot capture the screen.
The zoom follows motion rather than semantic elements, so fast switches can overshoot.
Recording format depends on the browser; most produce WebM.
There is no timeline editing inside the recorder.
Live captions are burned into the recording and cannot be edited afterwards.

Common mistakes

Putting the caption box over the area where the action happens.
Moving the pointer too quickly for the zoom to settle.
Recording a 4K screen at full size when the output will be viewed on a laptop.
Forgetting to stop the recording before closing the tab.
Capturing the entire desktop when only one window matters.

Troubleshooting

If the zoom feels distracting, slow the pointer movement and pause briefly on each control.

If captions are unreadable, increase the size or move the box to a plain background.

If the recording will not start, check that the page has screen-capture permission and that another app is not blocking it.

If the capture looks soft, record a single window or tab instead of the whole desktop. The browser can then capture it at native resolution rather than scaling the entire screen.

Zoom Recorder