Share a screen recording with a link, only when you choose to
A Qreata recording stays on your Mac until you decide otherwise. After export, one button uploads the MP4 to Qreata Cloud, or to Google Drive when it is connected in Settings, and gives you a link to paste into an email, a ticket or a chat.
7-day trial · $49 once · no subscription · Apple Silicon · macOS 14+The short answer
To share a screen recording as a link from Qreata, export the MP4 and use the sheet that follows. “Upload to Qreata Cloud” creates a qreata.cc share link. When Google Drive is connected in Settings, “Upload to Google Drive” creates a link that anyone with the link can open and copies it automatically. Nothing uploads without a button press. Google Drive needs only a Google sign-in; Qreata Cloud is a separate paid plan, needs a qreata.cc account and takes MP4s up to 1 GB.
Use it when
You want a link, and you want to choose which videos get one.
- The file is too large to attach, and the recipient just needs to press play.
- Some of your recordings show internal tools or customer data and should never leave your Mac by default.
- Your team already lives in Google Drive, a Drive link is what people expect, and Google Drive is connected in Settings.
- You would rather pay once for the recorder than monthly for hosting you use now and then.
It won’t help when
Sharing is the product you are buying, not a last step.
- You need a link the moment you stop recording. Qreata uploads only on a button press, after export or from the editor’s “Actions” menu.
- You need viewer comments or reactions on the video. Qreata has neither.
- You want to host a file over 1 GB on Qreata Cloud. The limit is 1 GB per MP4.
- Recipients must watch in a workspace with sign-in and team folders managed by the recorder.
Three ways to send a recording, compared
After export you have an MP4 on your disk. From there the choice is between sending the file itself and two kinds of link.
| Route | What the recipient gets | What it needs | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| The MP4 file | A file to download or play in place | Nothing beyond the app | Attachment size limits of the channel you send it through |
| “Upload to Google Drive” | A link that anyone with the link can open, copied automatically | A Google sign-in, with Google Drive connected in Settings | Your Drive storage; some builds show Google Drive as coming in a future update |
| “Upload to Qreata Cloud” | A qreata.cc share link | A qreata.cc account, created on the website, and the separate paid Cloud plan | MP4 up to 1 GB |
How to share a screen recording as a link
The upload is the last step and it is manual each time. There is no setting that uploads every recording.
- Record and edit as usual. Up to this point the recording exists only in a project on your Mac.
- Export. The result is an H.264 MP4 at the recording resolution and 30 fps.
- Watch the exported file once. A link is harder to take back than a draft on your disk.
- After export a sheet offers, in this order, “Show in Finder”, the Google Drive section, “Upload to Qreata Cloud” and “Close”.
- For a Drive link, use the Google Drive section. When Google Drive is connected in Settings, press “Upload to Google Drive”: it needs a Google sign-in only, the file becomes readable by anyone with the link, and the link is copied automatically. If your build says the integration is coming in a future update, use Qreata Cloud or put the MP4 in Drive yourself.
- For a qreata.cc link, press “Upload to Qreata Cloud”, sign in with your qreata.cc account (it is created on the website) and press “Upload and create link”. Then use “Copy link” or “Open”. This needs the Cloud plan, and the MP4 must be 1 GB or smaller.
- To skip the export step, open the editor’s “Actions” menu and choose “Upload and create link”. It uploads an MP4 to Qreata Cloud, never the project.
- Paste the link where the recipient will read it, with one line saying what the video shows and how long it is.
Example: a 6-minute walkthrough for a client
You record a 6-minute walkthrough of a new admin area for a client, trim the first 20 seconds and re-record one wrong click. The exported MP4 is too large for the client’s mail server, and they asked for “just a link”.
Google Drive is connected in Settings, so in the sheet after export you press “Upload to Google Drive”. When the upload finishes the link is already on your clipboard, set so that anyone who has it can open the video. You paste it into the email under one sentence: “6-minute walkthrough of the new admin area; the invoices part starts at 3:40.” The client opens it in a browser without installing anything.
The draft you recorded an hour earlier, with a real customer record on screen, never went anywhere: you didn’t press a button for it.
What gets uploaded, and what never does
Recording, editing, transcription and export run on your Mac. No media uploads automatically. Optional first-party usage counts can be enabled in the app; there is no third-party analytics SDK.
An upload sends an MP4, never the project. The project with its separate tracks stays on your Mac, which is also why a retake next month is done locally and followed by a new export and a new upload.
- Uploaded on a button press: an MP4 of the video, to Qreata Cloud or to a connected Google Drive.
- Never uploaded by the app: the project, its separate tracks or the transcript. Only an MP4 is.
- No automatic upload, no background sync, no upload when recording stops.
Sharing a built-in Mac recording by link
You don’t need Qreata to share a link. The built-in recorder saves a .mov named “Screen Recording [date] at [time]” to the desktop; drag that file into a cloud drive you already use and turn on link sharing there. It costs nothing.
The Qreata buttons shorten that to one press after export, and the file is an MP4 instead of a .mov. The larger difference is before the upload: trimming, a re-recorded step, zooms and captions happen in the same app, so the thing you share is the finished version.
Limits of link sharing in Qreata
Qreata Cloud is not part of the $49 license. It is a separate paid plan, it needs a qreata.cc account created on the website, and it accepts MP4s up to 1 GB. “Upload to Google Drive” is there when Google Drive is connected in Settings; some builds show it as coming in a future update. Check the file size in Finder before uploading a long 4K recording. There are no viewer comments and no reactions on a shared video, and Qreata has no integrations that post links into other tools for you.
Recording, editing and export need none of this: the license is $49 once for 3 Macs and recording works without an account. To test the sharing step in the 7-day trial, record 2 minutes and export; if Google Drive is connected in Settings, press “Upload to Google Drive” and open the copied link in a private browser window to see what a recipient sees.
Questions worth asking
How do I share a screen recording as a link on Mac?
In Qreata, export the MP4 and press “Upload to Qreata Cloud” for a qreata.cc share link, or, when Google Drive is connected in Settings, “Upload to Google Drive” for a link anyone with the link can open. With the built-in recorder, upload the .mov to a cloud drive yourself and enable link sharing.
Does Qreata upload my recordings automatically?
No. Nothing uploads without a button press. A recording stays on your Mac until you press “Upload to Google Drive”, “Upload to Qreata Cloud” or “Upload and create link” for that video.
Is Qreata Cloud included in the $49 license?
No. Qreata Cloud is a separate paid plan for hosting videos at a qreata.cc link. The $49 one-time license covers recording, editing and export. The Google Drive upload needs no Qreata plan, only a Google sign-in, and is available when Google Drive is connected in Settings.
Is there a file size limit for Qreata Cloud?
Yes. Qreata Cloud accepts MP4 files up to 1 GB. It also needs a qreata.cc account, which you create on the website.
Do I need an account to share a link?
For Google Drive you sign in with Google and need no qreata.cc account. For Qreata Cloud you sign in with a qreata.cc account, created on the website. Recording itself needs no account at all.
Can viewers comment on a shared video?
No. Qreata has no viewer comments or reactions. A shared link plays the video.