Recorder Tools: Clips, Trim, Upload, Draw, Screen, and PiP

Record and Upload Your First Post covers the steps for recording and uploading. Here you can learn how to draw, add a camera filter, pause and redo a clip, share your screen, use picture-in-picture (PiP), trim the start and end before you post, and upload a video you already have.

Try the recorder without an account. You can record and download a video; sign in when you want to upload to a Space.

In a course Space you still start from a Topic with Create a post so the prompt and Space are attached.

Prefer to watch first? This three-minute video tours the recorder: camera filters, pausing and redoing a clip, sharing your screen with picture-in-picture, drawing on the preview, trimming on the review screen, and uploading a video you already have.

Watch · 3 min

Open the recorder

Allow camera and microphone access. The recorder shows your camera preview and, if you opened it from a Topic, the prompt above it. The tools sit in a column beside the preview (down the right edge on a phone), and the record button sits below it. The arrow at the bottom of the column shows or hides each tool's name. Next appears once you have recorded enough to review.

Drawing and colors

Open Pen (the filled circle in the tools) to pick a stroke color. Drawing is useful for circling a detail on a prop, underlining a term, or highlighting a region on shared slides.

Drag over the preview to draw. Your marks appear in the final video, so keep them easy to follow.

Camera filters

Select Filters (the face icon below Clear) to open the filter picker. Choose Astronaut, Goggles, Graduation, Crown, Wizard, Detective, Cat, or Party, or None to turn filters off. The filter follows your face and is recorded into the video. Filters are free on every plan.

Face tracking runs in the browser on your own device. Filters are optional, but they can make a first introduction video feel less awkward.

Pause, resume, and redo a clip

The large circular control starts and pauses recording. Pause when you need to gather your thoughts, change props, or adjust the layout. Press again to resume. The timer picks up where you paused, and both parts stay in one video.

Each pause ends a clip, and the ring around the record button marks your clips. If the last one didn't go well, you don't have to start over. While paused, tap the delete key to the left of the record button. It turns red, the ring marks the clip it would remove, and it tells you how long that clip is. Tap it again within a few seconds to throw the clip away. The timer rewinds to your previous pause, so you can record that part again. Discarding your only clip clears the take.

The timer stops at the recording limit. In a Topic, that limit is the Topic's recording length: up to 90 seconds on the free plan or 5 minutes when the Space owner has Plus. Very short takes may be rejected on upload, so record at least a few clear seconds.

Screen share and picture-in-picture

Turn on Screen (the monitor icon) to share a tab, window, or display (browser permissions apply). A dot on the icon shows that sharing is on. For teaching, that is often slides, an IDE, or a document.

Layout sets how your camera and screen share the frame. Choose picture-in-picture so your camera stays visible in a corner while the slides fill the main frame, or a side-by-side split. Students see both the board and the instructor.

Choose camera only for a spoken response, screen sharing for a demonstration, or PiP when you want both visible.

Vivipod keeps your screen-share permission for the current recording session. After granting access, you can switch among screen, PiP, and camera/canvas until you finish the take and start a new video. This lets you move from slides to face-only and back without approving screen share each time.

Finish with Next

When you finish, choose Next. Review the video, check the cover, add a description if you want one, then select Upload.

Trim the start and end

The review screen has a trim bar right under the video. Drag its left handle to cut a slow start, and its right handle to cut a stray ending. The start and end times sit on the bar; when the kept part is short, they appear above the handles while you hover or drag. While you drag, the video shows the frame at the handle, and when you play it, only the part between the handles plays.

When it looks right, press the check between the handles. Vivipod then prepares the trimmed video in your browser, and only that part is uploaded. Keep the page open until it's done.

• With a keyboard, Tab to a handle and use the arrow keys to move it a tenth of a second, or Page Up and Page Down to move it a second. Press Enter to confirm the trim.
• If you choose Upload before pressing the check, Vivipod uses the handles where they are.
• If your cover came from a part you cut, Vivipod takes a new one from the start of what you kept.
• Once you confirm it, your trim is saved with the recording in your browser, so it's still there if you come back later. Handles you moved without confirming are not kept.
• Download, beside the video, saves the trimmed video.
• Move both handles back to the ends to keep the whole recording.

Upload a video you already have

Sometimes the video already exists: an answer recorded on a phone, or a clip from a lab session. Before you start recording, choose Upload, the icon to the left of the record button, then From your device, and pick an MP4, MOV, or WebM file. You can also drag the file onto the recorder.

The video opens on the same review screen as a recording, so you can trim it, choose a cover, and add a description. If it's longer than the Topic allows, it opens trimmed to fit, keeping the first part. Drag the handles to keep a different part.

A few things to know:

• The browser has to be able to play it. iPhones save video as HEVC by default. Safari plays it, but some other browsers can't, and the recorder tells you so. Try Safari, or set the iPhone to Most Compatible (Settings › Camera › Formats) before recording.
• Every upload is converted to a format that plays in almost every browser. A long or high-resolution video can take a minute to prepare.
• Keep the page open while it's prepared. On a phone, switching apps or locking the screen stops it, and it starts over when you come back.
• Only the converted video is saved in your browser. The original file stays on your device, untouched.
• Replies are recorded, not uploaded. When you react to a post, the recorder offers your saved recordings but not files from your device.
• Upload is off during a take. Finish or discard the take first.

When to use which tool

Next steps

• Record and upload a Post for the recording and upload steps
• Review pending posts after students submit
• Comments and feedback for timestamped replies on published videos
• React with a video to record a reply while the original plays beside you