Platform support

Beam is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Native permissions and window-system capabilities create some differences between platforms.

Windows

• Beam is distributed as a native Windows installer.
• Screen, window, region, camera, microphone, and system-audio recording are supported.
• Overlay positions and sizes can be saved and restored.

macOS

• Beam is distributed as a DMG for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 13 or newer.
• Screen Recording, Microphone, and Camera permissions are requested when those sources are used.
• Overlay positions and sizes can be saved and restored.

Beam is damaged and cannot be opened

After moving Beam to /Applications, run xattr -cr /Applications/Beam.app, or choose Open Anyway in System Settings > Privacy & Security.

Allow screen and system audio recording

Open Apple menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security > Screen & System Audio Recording, then enable Beam. If Beam is not listed, use the add button and select /Applications/Beam.app. Quit and reopen Beam after changing this permission.

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Enable Beam under Screen & System Audio Recording.

Allow microphone and camera access

In System Settings > Privacy & Security, open Microphone and enable Beam when recording voice. Open Camera and enable Beam when using the camera overlay.

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Beam must be enabled in the privacy list for each source you want to capture.

Linux

• Beam is distributed as AppImage, DEB, and RPM packages.
• Screen and window capture uses XDG Desktop Portal, PipeWire, and FFmpeg.
• The system picker requests permission when a capture begins.
• Keyboard shortcut and mouse click metadata requires explicit Polkit consent.
• X11 can restore overlay positions and sizes.
• Native Wayland can restore overlay sizes but not global positions.

Wayland positioning

Wayland does not expose global window coordinates. Beam does not force XWayland because that workaround can be incompatible with some GPU and X11 configurations.