Chromebook supported (2024)

I've been wondering if you could make this software OBS studio, avail to chromebook. Please make it so you can download it on the website not chrome store, website.

Thank You!!!

Really, it's the restrictions that kill it even more than the hardware. Even if you installed ChromeOS on a powerful system (why??), you would be hamstrung by the restrictions that ChromeOS places on what programs can and can't do on the system.

ChromeOS is intended to be a barebones operating system where all your apps are web-based. However, OBS very much needs access to low-level functionality that ChromeOS does not allow applications to have, and that is by design of ChromeOS. OBS wouldn't even be able to do simple things like capture the screen.

So unfortunately it's just never going to happen unless ChromeOS changes, but due to the fact that ChromeOS is intentionally designed this way, I don't think it will happen.

dodgepong said:

Really, it's the restrictions that kill it even more than the hardware. Even if you installed ChromeOS on a powerful system (why??), you would be hamstrung by the restrictions that ChromeOS places on what programs can and can't do on the system.

ChromeOS is intended to be a barebones operating system where all your apps are web-based. However, OBS very much needs access to low-level functionality that ChromeOS does not allow applications to have, and that is by design of ChromeOS. OBS wouldn't even be able to do simple things like capture the screen.

So unfortunately it's just never going to happen unless ChromeOS changes, but due to the fact that ChromeOS is intentionally designed this way, I don't think it will happen.

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But that can't even be the case anymore. Chrome OS now supports Android apps and offline files. It's fundamentally not a web-based device anymore. And you can't say that Chromebook in the last three years can't handle mirroring then streaming video because my phone can do that in like three taps. Especially if you just want a capture device to stream to a Chromebook. I mean, a company is free to do as it pleases but knocking something that is not a real limitation is just odd. At this point, I feel like the real reason is that it's a niche that not worth the trouble, which is also completely fine to say.

I was not aware that Chromebooks can now run Android apps, that is news to me and is different from what I had heard about how Chromebooks work.

But that just shifts the question to whether there will be an OBS Android app, to which the answer to that is "not for an extremely long time, if ever." It basically would mean completely rewriting the app from the ground up, and there's already way too much to work on for the desktop app to be able to devote any resources to such a project that is being made for free by volunteers. So the answer doesn't really change.

Hi all!

I'd just like to add a little note challenging the idea that ChromeOS is limited and only for low power hardware and only for simple web browsing.

ChromeOS is capable of running ChromeOS apps, Android apps, and Linux applications and as a result has a robust ecosystem suited for many tasks.
I myself am a software engineer and roughly a year ago I moved from a Dell XPS running Debian Linux and an Apple Macbook Pro to a ChromeOS Pixelbook with no trouble for my work.

Whether ChromeOS' graphics stack is suitable for being targeted by future of OBS I couldn't say, but please let's not rule out this very capable operating system because of some precognition about what it is for. After all, many people say Linux is just for servers, yet OBS brings a lot of value to many Linux users.

Cheers,
Louis

edit: Off the back of this thread I decided to install OBS on this Chromebook and give it a try. With a XSHM screen capture is successfully captures the mouse cursor, but that's all. Alas!

Seeing as ChromeOS uses Wayland I suspect it may be related to this bug in the tracker -> https://obsproject.com/mantis/view.php?id=719

Guys, check out golightstream.com, its basically obs in the browser. Add text, images and allsorts!

P.S. If OBS

to be released on Chrome OS, 100% use that instead.

Lightstream works by performing the "hard parts" in the cloud (where the "hard parts" are rendering and encoding). OBS would need to do the "hard parts" on the user's machine itself, which is a fundamental difference between the way OBS and Lightstream work. OBS is a program, Lightstream is a service.

If Lightstream works for you, then by all means, use it! I'm glad there's a solution out there for people who want to stream from their Chromebooks.

Allahuakbar666 said:

I already got OBS on my chrome book it’s easy

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how did you get OBS working on a chromebook? What chromebook do you use?

OBS can be installed/compiled when switching your Chromebook to Linux mode. However we cannot guarantee that it will work fine as most Chromebooks have very low end hardware, you are basically on your own here.

We will also not release a ChromeOS version of OBS at the moment for the same reasons in addition to major limitations of what ChromeOS apps can do.