You’re reading the Wonder Tools newsletter. Each post features a tip to help make remote work a little more enjoyable, efficient and creative. I’m Jeremy Caplan, a journalist & director of teaching & learning at the Newmark J-School. I love useful tools and life hacking.
Let’s pause Zoom for a moment.
Not all work video must be live.
That’s where Loom comes in. It's a simple, free video recording tool you can use on your computer or phone.
You can use it to send a video email, record a quick explainer, or provide quick feedback.
Loom can also host your videos — privately or publicly — so you don't have to upload anything to YouTube unless you want to.
Here’s how Loom works.
Pick one of three primary modes:
Webcam only. Record yourself talking about something.
Screen only. Record your screen without appearing in the video.
Webcam & Screen. Record your screen with your picture in the corner.
That last combo literally gives a human face to your explanation, so it feels more personal.
When you're done recording, you can trim the video. That means you can cut out an awkward opening. Or edit out the part where a YouTube tab showed a dog cooking or some other random non sequitur. It’s also nice to get rid of that end bit where you look around for the stop recording button. (Tip: Use the ⌘⇧L keyboard combo instead).
Once you’re done trimming you can grab the link to email it to someone.
Or post it to Slack. Or download it to share it on social media or or wherever else.
Here’s a two-minute video I made with three quick tips on screencasting. And a 40-second informal video I made to show a friend how to record. A Loom about Loom discussed in a room on Zoom. Before Loom made a Loom about Loom vs. Zoom.
Illustration by Vijay Verma
Loom features I like:
People can post questions or comment on your video at specific times. That’s helpful if you’re explaining something and people have a question about a particular detail.
Or people can respond with emojis at particular moments, which gives you feedback on what parts they find useful or interesting. Here’s an example.
As the video creator, you can also use the timed comment feature to insert annotations for particular parts of the video. Or to create chapter markers.
You can watch Loom videos at various speeds, which is nice if you’re impatient, like me, and like to watch things at double-speed.
It’s not perfect. You can’t yet create titles or captions in Loom. And the trimming menu confused me at first because it’s a bit different from other video editors. There’s a Loom iPhone app, but it’s simpler just to use the built-in iPhone screen recorder.
Loom has a pro plan — free for students and teachers— that lets you draw on screen or circle something to highlight it. And you can add a call-to-action button to link your video to a document or site. This week Loom launched a new paid team plan so you can share a video workspace with colleagues. But a free account is generally fine.
Good Alternatives
There are plenty of other options if Loom lacks specific features you need.
Screencastomatic is great if you like recording from an onscreen script, or if you need to do more extensive editing. It also has a nifty feature that lets you speed up parts where you’re waiting for the screen to load or figuring out what to say next.
Screencastify is easy to use and free for videos up to five minutes. The company has a special focus on teachers. A unique beta feature I’m testing called Screencastify Submit lets you invite people to record their own videos in reply to a question. You can try out a reply here.
Beyond the free tier, YouTubers consider Screenflow the gold standard for recording fancy screencasts with lots of bells and whistles. It's $129. Alternatively, I have a colleague who makes great videos with Screenium, which is $27.
What to use it for
Here are five ways to use Loom, beyond the corporate use cases.
Send a visual hello.
It’s fun getting a surprise video email. We all get plenty of dry text emails. Why not surprise someone you care about with a smile sent by video?
Explain something.
Here’s a cool Loom about running a flipped meeting. Another one explaining Notion. Some teachers use Loom to explain complex ideas to students. .
Announce something.
Team leaders record messages about organization milestones. Teachers post informal video announcements in online courses.
Update someone.
It often takes longer to write something out formally than to say it. Consider sending a 2-minute video update on a project instead of a lengthy email.
Give efficient feedback.
Video feedback can be more efficient for the sender and more meaningful for the recipient. Commenting on a design, document detail or video moment while it’s on screen is simpler than trying to reference those details in a written message.
Microvideos are respectful of people’s time. Recipients can watch if they want, when they want, where they want. And for as long as they want.
With Loom, people can watch on other platforms, including Slack, Notion and Coda, which automatically display Loom links as embedded videos.
Videos are a nice way to stay in touch with colleagues, students or friends remotely without scheduling more meetings. Looms show your human side.
Zooming can be great. I love talking with my colleagues. And connecting counters isolation. But on days with seven live meetings, Zoom can be exhausting. Sometimes communicating asynchronously is ideal. That’s why we email more than we call.
It’s time for Zoom to make room for Loom.