Loom Keyboard Shortcuts
Loom's shortcuts are deliberately minimal because the whole point of the tool is removing friction from recording a quick video — there's no deep editing suite to learn shortcuts for, just the core recording controls (start, pause, stop) and a couple of in-recording annotation tools. The desktop app and browser extension share largely the same bindings, since both are built around the identical recording workflow. The global pause/resume shortcut only works while the Loom recording indicator is active on screen, so it won't do anything if you've already stopped a recording or haven't started one yet. Sales teams sending personalized prospect videos and product teams recording quick bug-report walkthroughs are Loom's two most common real-world use cases, and both groups benefit from the same small set of controls precisely because a good Loom video is meant to feel casual and unrehearsed rather than heavily produced — spending time learning a deep shortcut system would work against the tool's actual value proposition of recording something in one take and sending it immediately. Password protection and call-to-action buttons both point toward Loom's broader use beyond casual internal messages — sales teams sending externally facing prospect videos need both the security of a gated link and a clear next action for the viewer to take, neither of which existed in the tool's earliest, more purely internal-async-updates-focused version.
Recording Controls
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start recording | Click the Loom icon, or assign custom global shortcut | Same | Starting a new recording is primarily triggered by clicking Loom's menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows) icon; some versions support assigning a custom global keyboard shortcut in settings for hands-free starting. |
| Pause / Resume recording | Ctrl+Shift+P (varies by version) | Cmd+Shift+P | Pauses the active recording without ending it, letting you collect your thoughts or deal with an interruption, then resume from the same point without creating a separate clip. |
| Stop recording | Ctrl+Shift+S (varies by version) | Cmd+Shift+S | Ends the current recording and begins processing/uploading it, after which you're taken to the editing and sharing screen. |
| Toggle webcam bubble on/off | No single default key — click camera icon in recorder toolbar | Same | Showing or hiding your webcam's floating bubble during recording is controlled by clicking the camera icon in Loom's small recording control bar, rather than a bound keyboard shortcut. |
| Mute / unmute microphone | No single default key — click mic icon | Same | Muting your microphone mid-recording is done by clicking the microphone icon in the recording control bar, with no separate keyboard shortcut bound to this toggle. |
| Restart current recording from scratch | Discard button in recorder toolbar (no keyboard shortcut) | Same | Discards the current in-progress recording and returns to the pre-recording state, useful when a take goes wrong early enough that starting over is faster than trying to salvage it. |
Annotation
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draw/annotate on screen during recording | Click drawing tool icon in recorder toolbar | Same | Loom's live drawing tool, letting you circle or highlight something on screen while recording, is activated by clicking its icon in the floating recorder toolbar rather than a keyboard shortcut. |
| Toggle cursor spotlight effect | No default keyboard shortcut — toggle in settings | Same | Enabling a spotlight effect that highlights the cursor's position during playback is a setting toggled before or during recording through the toolbar, not a live keyboard-triggered action. |
Sharing Editing
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trim recorded video | Editor trim handles (no keyboard shortcut) | Same | Trims the start or end of a completed recording using drag handles in the post-recording editor, a mouse-driven action without a dedicated keyboard shortcut. |
| Copy shareable video link | Ctrl+C (after selecting link field, or Copy Link button) | Cmd+C | Copies the video's shareable URL to the clipboard once processing finishes, the primary way most Loom videos actually get distributed to their intended viewer. |
| Add call-to-action to video | Editor > Add CTA (no keyboard shortcut) | — | Adds a clickable call-to-action button (like a link to book a meeting or view a page) overlaid on the video at a chosen timestamp, commonly used by sales teams turning a Loom recording into a lightweight interactive pitch rather than a purely passive video. |
| Download recorded video file | Editor > Download (no keyboard shortcut) | — | Downloads a local copy of the finished recording as an MP4 file, useful for archiving outside Loom's hosting or attaching directly to an email rather than sharing a hosted link. |
| Password-protect a shared video | Share settings > Require password (no keyboard shortcut) | — | Requires viewers to enter a password before watching a shared video, useful for sensitive internal content shared via a link that might otherwise be forwarded beyond its intended audience. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Loom rely on clicking icons instead of more keyboard shortcuts?
Loom's floating recording bar is meant to stay out of the way and only get a glance now and then, and Loom's target user is often someone recording a screen capture for the first time ever — asking a brand-new user to memorize hotkeys before they've even finished their first recording would work against the tool's whole low-friction pitch, so a few labeled icons win out over shortcut memorization.
Can I customize Loom's pause and stop shortcuts?
Some versions of the desktop app allow customizing global shortcuts in the app's preferences/settings panel, particularly useful if the defaults conflict with another application's global shortcuts on your system, though this customization isn't available in the browser extension version, which is more constrained by what the browser allows extensions to bind.
Does pausing a recording create a separate video file?
No — pausing and resuming keeps everything within the same single recording session; when you eventually stop, Loom produces one continuous video file with the paused gap simply not included in the final footage, rather than producing multiple separate clips you'd need to stitch together.
Does Loom automatically transcribe recordings, and is that connected to any shortcut?
Yes — once a recording finishes processing, Loom generates a transcript automatically in the background using speech recognition, and it appears editable alongside the video without any action from you at all, let alone a keyboard shortcut, since there's no manual trigger step to bind one to in the first place.
Can I record just a specific application window instead of my whole screen without a dedicated shortcut for it?
Yes — before you hit record, Loom's launcher shows a source picker where you choose full screen, a single application window, or webcam-only, and that choice is made once per recording through that dropdown rather than something you'd want to be able to flip mid-recording with a keystroke.
Is there a way to add chapters or markers to a Loom video after recording?
Loom's post-recording editor supports adding basic markers and, on some plans, chapter-like navigation points to a finished video, but like trimming, this is done through the visual timeline editor with mouse interaction rather than a keyboard-shortcut-driven workflow.
Why does my recording sometimes start with a few seconds of a countdown or blank screen?
Depending on your settings, Loom may show a short countdown before actually beginning to capture, giving you a moment to prepare after clicking record — this delay is a deliberate courtesy built into the recording flow rather than a bug, and can typically be adjusted or disabled in the app's recording preferences if you'd prefer an instant start.
Does Loom support keyboard shortcuts for jumping to specific timestamps while reviewing a recorded video?
The playback viewer supports standard media-player conventions like spacebar for play/pause and arrow keys for scrubbing forward and backward a few seconds at a time, which is more about reviewing an already-finished video than about the recording controls covered above, and works similarly to keyboard controls found in most other web-based video players.
Can I add an interactive element to a Loom video instead of it just being passive playback?
Yes, the post-recording editor supports adding a call-to-action button at a chosen point in the video, commonly a link to book a meeting or visit a specific page, which turns what would otherwise be a purely passive recording into something with a direct next step for the viewer, a detail sales and customer success teams in particular rely on regularly.