Tellscreen

Can Claude watch videos? What works in November 2026

Checked and updated

No, Claude can't watch a video: the Claude apps take documents and images, not video files. Claude Code, given a recording, pulls still frames out with ffmpeg and stops when it reaches the voice-over. To have Claude act on a screen recording, give it the recording as text and screenshots: a transcript and a list of what was asked, with a picture of each moment.

What Anthropic supports

Anthropic's help centre lists the files you can upload to Claude: documents (PDF, DOCX, CSV, TXT, HTML, ODT, RTF, EPUB, JSON, XLSX) and images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP), up to 500 MB per file and 20 files per chat. Video and audio aren't on the list.

What Claude did in our test

In the API, given frames. Claude Opus 5.5 got frames every 2 seconds from two narrated recordings that each asked for five changes. It found the place on screen for every change and named none of them, and said why: "The frames have no sound, so I can see where you pointed but not what you said." Given the frames plus a timed transcript, it found 5 of 5 and 4 of 5.

In Claude Code, given the file. We asked Claude Code to "make the changes in this video". It checked the file with ffprobe, pulled frames out with ffmpeg, noticed the requests were in the voice-over, looked for a speech-to-text tool, found none, and stopped to ask for a transcript.

In Claude Code with the Tellscreen skill installed. It sent the video to Tellscreen with one command, got the change list back, and found the file and line for all five changes in 76 seconds.

The full study, including ChatGPT and Gemini.

How to give Claude a recording

  • Claude Code: install the plugin, and Claude converts any video you hand it, or records your screen when you say "let me show you":

`` /plugin install tellscreen --marketplace https://tellscreen.com/claude/marketplace.json ``

  • Claude Desktop: add the remote MCP server https://tellscreen.com/mcp as a custom connector. Its tools turn a video link or a local file into the change list.
  • The Claude app in a browser: record or upload at tellscreen.com, press Copy prompt for your AI on the video page, and paste it into Claude.
  • Any terminal: curl -fsS -T recording.mov "https://tellscreen.com/api/v1/convert?wait=110"

Each gives Claude a numbered change list: your exact words, where on screen, how to check it's done, and a screenshot link of that moment, then the timed transcript.

Sources

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