Loom

What it is

Loom records your screen and your face and gives you a link. That is the whole idea, and the reason it spread is that a two-minute video showing what you mean replaces a long message that gets misread, or a meeting that costs four people half an hour.

Every recording is transcribed, in more than 50 languages, so the video is searchable and readable. On Business + AI it also titles itself, summarizes itself, splits into chapters, extracts tasks, removes filler words and silences, and can be edited by cutting text out of the transcript.

Who it's for (and who it isn't)

It fits distributed teams, anyone who explains things repeatedly, and client work where showing beats describing. Feedback on a design, a walkthrough of a bug, an explanation of how a process works: all faster to record than to write, and all more precise than a call nobody wrote down.

It is a weaker fit for conversations that need to be conversations. Async video is a broadcast, and using it for something contentious or ambiguous replaces one meeting with a slow exchange of monologues. It is also not the tool for polished, edited video, which is what Descript is for.

Pricing

Loom is freemium. Starter is free with 25 videos per person, screen recordings capped at 5 minutes, unlimited meeting length, transcription in more than 50 languages and up to 720p. Business is $18 per user per month billed annually, with unlimited videos, unlimited recording time, up to 4K, basic waveform editing, custom branding and password-protected videos. Business + AI is $24 per user per month and adds the AI layer. Enterprise is custom, with SSO, SCIM, Salesforce integration and an uptime commitment.

The free plan's 5-minute cap is the deciding constraint. It suits quick answers and rules out walkthroughs, which is exactly the use most teams grow into.

Set it up

Official guide: Get started with the Loom Chrome extension

1. Create your Loom account on the free Starter plan (25 videos per person, 5 minute screen recordings) while you install the Loom Chrome extension, a small browser add-on. In Chrome, Edge, Opera or Brave, go to the Chrome Web Store and select "Add extension". Allow your microphone and camera, then sign up or log in. If the icon is hidden, pin Loom from the puzzle icon. The Loom icon now appears next to the address bar.
2. Record your first message. Pick something you would otherwise write as a long email, and keep it under 5 minutes. Select the Loom icon, choose what to capture: "Full Screen", "Window" or "Current Tab", turn your camera on or off, choose your microphone and select "Start Recording". Say your message out loud and stop the recording when you are done. Your video is now ready to share.
3. Share the video as a link with the "Copy link" feature. Under "More options" choose who can open the link: anyone with the link, only members of your workspace, or specific people you add. Anyone with the link can watch, so pick specific people for private content. Paste the link into an email or chat message instead of the long text. The link is now copied and ready to paste.
4. Keep explanations that you give twice in one place. Use "Share to a Space", which is an area that collects the videos of one project, team or topic, such as training videos. Your how-to videos now sit together instead of disappearing in old messages.

When this works, you have sent a recorded message as a link instead of a long email, and you have a Space that collects your how-to videos. Next, replace one recurring update with a recording and see whether anything is lost.

On Business ($18/user/mo billed annually): unlimited videos, unlimited recording time and up to 4K video.

On Business + AI ($24/user/mo): adds auto titles, summaries and chapters, tasks, filler word and silence removal (cutting "um"s and pauses) and edit by transcript (changing the video by editing the text of what you said).

Strengths and limitations

The strength is speed of communication with tone intact. Written instructions lose intent, and video restores it without needing everyone free at the same time, which is the actual constraint in distributed work.

The limitations are cost per seat and drift. At $18 or $24 per user per month, a team of ten is a real line item for something that feels like a convenience, so it earns its price only if it displaces meetings. Video is also slower to consume than well-written text, so a culture that records everything creates a new backlog. And the free tier's 25 videos and 5-minute limit make it a taste rather than a working plan for regular use.