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Loom Desktop Client

2 posts · Mar 2019 – Nov 2019

What this trail covers

Loom has developed and launched a desktop client for its screen recording software, built using Electron. This client addresses limitations of the previous browser-based extension, such as the camera bubble being left behind when switching applications, and issues with recording resolution and clarity at higher screen resolutions. The desktop client enables 4K recording and provides features like click highlighting and annotation drawing. It features a scalable windowing system where each UI component is managed independently.

All Atlassian trails
  1. Behind the Scenes: Building Loom for DesktopThis post details the engineering decisions and challenges in building the Loom desktop client. Key contributions include: 1. Choosing Electron for cross-platform UI development while leveraging native recording layers. 2. Designing a scalable windowing system with independent windows for UI components, managed by a centralized middleware to ensure maintainable code locality and extensibility. 3. Redesigning the video infrastructure to move 4K video processing (transmuxing and HLS conversion) from servers to the client, enabling immediate streaming and improved reliability by segmenting recordings into HLS playlists.
  2. Engineering Lessons Shipping Loom ProThis post details the engineering lessons learned while shipping Loom Pro, focusing on the development of desktop applications (Mac and Windows) using Electron. It highlights the challenges of managing BrowserWindow instances, OS-specific quirks, cross-platform testing, and the need for native recording layers (Swift). The post also discusses the development of a previewing system for phased rollouts and a flagging/rollout system for feature toggling, as well as improvements in log centralization for faster bug fixing. The author emphasizes the importance of dedicating sufficient resources to new platform builds and the impact of shipping blocks on team morale.