Action! 3.8

Among the large number of screen capture programs, Action! stands out not only for its attractive interface, but also for its wide variety of features and functions. Not only captures any activity taking place on your screen, but it also takes screenshots, records audio (either streaming audio or your own narration via a microphone), records your gameplay, and allows you to share all of those contents to your favorite social site without leaving the program.

It is true that there are free tools out there that will allow you to benefit from most of these features at no cost, and it is also true that Action! is not one of them. But it is also true that you will struggle to find a free screen capture utility that offers you as much functionality as Action! does, and – most importantly – with a similar level of quality. Its professional-looking and attractive dark-colored interface set the tone for what to expect.

You can record anything taking place on your desktop, and that includes any feed coming in from your webcam, your current gameplay, any streaming video, any device connected via HDMI, etc. You can record the entire screen or a specific area of your choice, allowing you to capture from a YouTube video screen to your finest gameplay or a whole tutorial about how to use a program. Alternatively, you can also use it to take screenshots of your favorite frames. The quality of both your videos and your image files is fully configurable, allowing you to choose the output format, the frame rate, or the video size, for instance. The same applies to your audio recordings, which you can then save as individual audio files or mix them with your video streams.

Action! comes with a basic file manager and a good-quality media player for you to organize your recordings and to check them before sharing them to social sites. You can do this directly from the program, logging in into Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Smashcast from the program’s account manager. However, it lacks significant editing features, which may be a drawback for those who like to polish, correct, or enhance their videos before making them public. Other than this, Action! is certainly a screen recording utility worth checking.