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Call yourself on Teams and record it

Yes, you can call yourself on Teams and record it. Start a meeting that nobody else joins, open it in Google Chrome, and let Cheap Recorder record what you see and say into one MP4 on your own computer. People do this to rehearse a presentation, to check how they look and sound before an important call, or to make a short walkthrough with Teams on screen.

Before you start

  • Google Chrome on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer, with Cheap Recorder open in one tab. The Free plan covers everything in this guide.
  • The meeting in a Chrome tab, not in the Teams desktop app. Cheap Recorder records a browser tab you share, so the meeting has to be open in Chrome.
  • A microphone, and a webcam if you want your face in the recording.

Why a meeting with only you in it

Teams has no button for calling yourself. What works instead is a meeting that you start and nobody else joins. Teams lets you start one straight away from its Calendar or its Meet section, and some versions call this Meet now. You then see yourself the way the others would, and you can share your screen in it to rehearse your slides.

If all you want is a recording of your screen and your voice, you do not need Teams at all: Cheap Recorder records them on its own. A meeting with only you in it is worth it when you want Teams itself in the recording, or when you want to test your camera and microphone in Teams before a real call.

Step by step

  1. Start a Teams meeting with only you in it, in a Chrome tab. Turn on your camera and microphone in Teams if you want to see yourself there.
  2. In the Cheap Recorder tab, sign in. Under Where to save, press Choose folder… and pick a folder.
  3. Check the Microphone tile. It names the microphone it will record. To use a different one, open Change or add microphones and tick it.
  4. Under What to capture, choose A browser tab and pick the Teams tab, so the recording shows the meeting as you see it. Choose Whole screen instead if you will move between Teams and other windows.
  5. Turn Record my webcam on if you also want your camera in a corner of the recording, or off if Teams already shows your face.
  6. Type a name in Name this recording and press Start recording.
  7. Rehearse. Press M or Add marker at each new slide, or at any moment you want to watch again.
  8. When you are done, press Stop and finish. The recording appears on the page with a player, and it is already saved in your folder.

You can leave the Call audio tile alone. With nobody else in the meeting, there is no other side to record.

Practising a talk? Tick Live transcript under Options before you start. Afterwards, Transcript gives you every word you said, with the time of each line, so you can see where you rushed or repeated yourself.

Common problems

  • Teams opens its desktop app. When you open the meeting link, choose to carry on in the browser instead.
  • The recording has no sound of you. Check that the Microphone tile names the microphone you speak into. If the tile asks for access, press Allow microphone and camera and accept Chrome's question.
  • Start recording is greyed out. The words next to the button say why, for example "choose a folder first".

When someone joins after all

The same set-up records a real call. Before anyone else joins, press Pick the call tab… in the Call audio tile and share the Teams tab with its sound, so their voices are recorded too, and tell them that you are recording. Record a Teams meeting with everyone's voice walks through it.

After the recording

Below the player you will find Download MP4. Your recording is not uploaded anywhere. It is saved in the folder you chose, and it only leaves your computer if you use Convert, which sends the file to our server to make the new format.

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