Our QM team uses screen recording to evaluate how agents handle email interactions - specifically checking whether they use the correct HTML templates and follow the response formatting guidelines.
The screen recording captures the agent’s primary monitor correctly. But approximately 40% of our evaluations show a black screen for portions of the recording. After investigation, we found the black screen occurs whenever the agent moves the Genesys Cloud browser window to their secondary monitor.
The screen recording Chrome extension (version 2.3.1) appears to only capture the primary display. When the agent drags the browser to monitor 2, the recording goes black. When they drag it back to monitor 1, the recording resumes.
This is a major gap for our email QM evaluations because many agents use their secondary monitor for the email response composition window while keeping the agent desktop on the primary.
Is there a way to configure the screen recording extension to capture all monitors?
This is limitation of Chrome Screen Capture API that the Genesys screen recording extension uses. The getDisplayMedia() API in Chrome can only capture one display surface at a time. The extension defaults to capturing the primary monitor.
There is no configuration to capture all monitors simultaneously - this is a browser-level limitation, not a Genesys limitation.
However, there is workaround. In Chrome version 120 and later, the screen capture API supports capturing a specific browser tab instead of the entire screen. The Genesys screen recording extension version 2.4.0 (released March 2025) adds a “Tab Capture” mode that records only the Genesys Cloud browser tab regardless of which monitor it is on.
To enable it:
- Update the extension to version 2.4.0 or later
- Go to the extension settings (right-click extension icon > Options)
- Change “Capture Mode” from “Screen” to “Tab”
Tab capture mode follows the tab across monitors, virtual desktops, and even minimized states. The trade-off is that it only captures the Genesys Cloud tab - it does not capture other applications the agent might be using alongside, which could be relevant for compliance evaluation.
The tab capture mode is a good tactical fix. From a strategic perspective, if your QM process specifically requires seeing what agents do outside the Genesys Cloud tab (like how they compose emails in a separate window), you should consider deploying the Genesys Cloud Desktop App instead of the browser-based client.
The Desktop App includes a built-in screen recording agent that uses OS-level screen capture APIs rather than browser APIs. On Windows, it uses the Desktop Duplication API which captures all monitors simultaneously. On macOS, it uses the CGDisplayStream API with the same capability.
The Desktop App screen recording does not require the Chrome extension at all and eliminates the monitor-switching black screen issue entirely. It also captures application switching, which the Chrome extension cannot do even in tab capture mode.
Both approaches work but let me raise a storage consideration that nobody ever thinks about until it is too late.
Screen recordings at full resolution for a single monitor generate approximately 2-3 GB per agent per 8-hour shift using the default H.264 encoding settings. If you switch to the Desktop App with multi-monitor capture, that doubles to 4-6 GB per agent per shift.
For 100 agents with a 90-day retention policy, you are looking at 36-54 TB of screen recording storage. Genesys Cloud charges for this storage separately from your license. Check your storage allocation in Admin > Quality > Recording Storage before enabling multi-monitor capture org-wide.
You can reduce storage by lowering the recording resolution and frame rate in the screen recording policy settings. For QM evaluation of email handling, 720p at 5 FPS is perfectly adequate and uses roughly 30% of the storage compared to the default 1080p at 15 FPS.