MUZ Apps

Finding and utilizing the numerous pre-installed applications and tools can be challenging if you’re new to Chromebooks. But once you know how to use the camera, taking pictures should come naturally to you.

Here’s how to use your Chromebook’s built-in webcam to take pictures or videos.

Qucik Steps:

1. Select the up-carrot by clicking the circle in the bottom left corner of the screen.
2. To launch the Camera app, click the camera icon.
3. The capture button, which resembles a grey and white circle encircled by a blue line, must be tapped in order to take a picture.

How to Take a Picture on a Chromebook

1. Use the Default Camera App

A built-in camera app is available on Chromebooks out of the box. Here’s how to take pictures and videos on your Chromebook using the app.

1. At the bottom-left of the shelf, tap the launcher icon.
2. To launch the ChromeOS Apps Viewer, click the arrow up button.
3. Open the Camera app by tapping or clicking the camera icon.
4. To take a picture, simply click the shutter icon on the Camera app’s screen, which is always in photo mode by default.

Go to the Video tab and press the Record icon to start recording a video.

The square aspect ratio or dimension of any photos you take using the Square tab will be preserved. This is ideal for taking Instagram photos without having to worry about resizing or cropping.

Pro Tip: Google Assistant makes it simple to start the camera on your Chromebook. Uttering “Hey Google. Record a video” will open the camera app and take a picture or record a video respectively.

2. Taking Photos in Tablet Mode

You can use the volume buttons to take pictures when using a convertible Chromebook that transforms into a tablet or one with a removable keyboard. Launch the Camera app and press either the volume up or volume down button to take a photo.

Remember that only when your Chromebook is in tablet mode will the volume buttons function as a shutter. The volume buttons on a Chromebook only change the volume up or down when it’s being used as a laptop.

3. Use Third-Party Apps

There are some incredible camera apps that provide the best photography experience, even though the ChromeOS stock camera app produces decent image and video quality. Some of these third-party applications offer sophisticated camera features like background blur, distinctive stickers, premium filters, etc.

A lot of the Playstore’s Android camera apps should function on Chromebooks in most cases. You should give a few of the apps in our list of the best camera apps for Android a try. They are all compatible with ChromeOS and performed flawlessly on the Chromebook we used for testing.

How to View the Pictures You’ve Taken on Your Chromebook

Click the photo preview circle in the bottom-right corner of the camera window to see the photos you’ve taken.

You can access your pictures and videos in your Files folder even if you’ve already closed the Camera app. To get there:

1. Click the up-carrot after clicking the circle in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

2. Next, click “Files.”

3. Once the Files browser opens, select either the “Photos” or “Videos” section from the left sidebar.

What to Do After You Take a Photo

When you’ve finished recording your images, you can view them all by choosing the thumbnail of the most recent image or video in the bottom right corner. From here, you can:

• Print your picture (the printer-shaped icon).
• The icon that resembles a box with an arrow pointing downward says “Save Your Photo.”
• Delete your photo by clicking the trash can-shaped icon.
• Go back to the camera application (represented by the icon of a left-pointing arrow).

Saving a Picture on Your Chromebook

This is where some people might become a little confused. Keep in mind that the Chromebook is the best cloud platform. You would automatically assume that photos are saved to your cloud account given that your Chromebook is linked to your Google account. That is not the default situation. The local Downloads folder is where images taken with the Chromebook camera are actually saved when you save them. But during the save process, you can specify where the image is saved.

To save a photo directly to Google Drive:

1. Expand the Google Drive entry.
2. Select My Drive.
3. Navigate to the folder you want to save the picture into.
4. Select the Open button.

Printing a Picture on Your Chromebook

On a Chromebook, printing images is simple. Your Chromebook needs to be connected to a cloud-friendly printer, as was previously mentioned. Once that’s taken care of, open the photo you want to print in the Camera Gallery and the Print icon.

In the next window, select the Change button. The printers that are offered to you are listed. Select your printer, then select Print.

Chromebook Camera App: Icons Explained

When you launch the Camera app on your Chromebook, you’ll see a few icons on the left sidebar. Here’s what the icons mean and their functions:

1. Timer: The sidebar’s bottom stopwatch icon is indicated by this. Click this button to take pictures with a 3-second delay after clicking the shutter button. The timer delay duration in the camera menu can be changed to 10 seconds.
2. Grid: To display gridlines in the camera windows, select the square icon in the shape of a tic-tac-toe board. Gridlines assist you in leveling and aligning the subjects in your photographs. Keep in mind that the photos you end up taking don’t have grids.
3. Mirroring: This enables real-time horizontal photo orientation change. Clicking this icon will flip the photo preview from left to right, or vice versa, allowing you to take a picture of something like a book even though the text is facing the other way.
4. Settings: The settings menu contains additional camera configurations. To change the camera resolution, timer duration, and grid type, click the gear icon.
5. QR Code: On your Chromebook, you can scan QR codes directly from the Camera app. To center the QR code in the code finder window, click the square maze-like icon in the top-right corner of the camera window. When it finds a QR code, the Camera app will show a link and a copy button.
6. Camera Switch: If your Chromebook has two built-in cameras, you’ll notice a switch icon on the left sidebar. When an external camera is connected to your Chromebook, this icon will also show up in the camera window.
7. Microphone: In the upper-left corner of the Video window, there is a microphone icon. If you want to muffle the sound while recording, click the icon.
8. Video Snapshot: Above the Stop button, in a white circle, is the Snapshot button. To capture a picture or a snapshot of a scene while the video is being recorded, click this button.
9. Pause: To briefly pause video recording, click this icon. When you minimize the Camera app on your Chromebook, a video that is in the paused state will be saved. On the other hand, the video will be erased from your device if you close the Camera app without stopping the recording.

Where Are My Pictures Stored on a Chromebook?

Images captured on a Chromebook using the Camera app are saved in a specific Camera folder. To find these pictures, open the Files app from the Search. Click on the Camera folder listed under My files.

You can also find a shortcut to the recently clicked pictures in the Images library folder in the My Files app, towards the top of the left navigation pane.

Frequently Asked Questions