Contact center screen recording

What is contact center screen recording?

Contact center screen recording captures an agent's desktop activity during customer calls, so supervisors can review what the agent did on screen as well as what they said. Paired with call audio and a transcript, agent screen recording gives quality and coaching teams a complete view of each interaction, from the systems an agent opened to how long each step took.

You'll also hear it called call center screen recording, agent screen capture, or call center screen monitoring. In Dialpad, the feature is called agent screen capture, and it's built into Dialpad Support for contact centers alongside call recording, transcription, and analytics.

Why call recordings alone aren't enough

Call center recordings and transcripts show what was said. They don't show what happened on the agent's screen while the customer waited. Contact center work involves several systems at once, and much of an agent's effort happens out of earshot.

Screen recording fills in that gap. Supervisors can see:

• Which tools the agent used: Whether they went to the right CRM record, knowledge base article, or order system.

• How they navigated: Where they clicked, searched, or switched between apps, and how many steps it took to find an answer.

• What happened during silences and holds: Whether a long pause was a slow system, a hard-to-find answer, or an agent who needed help.

• Where the process breaks down: Repeated workarounds or manual steps that slow down resolution for the whole team.

With both the conversation and the screen in view, supervisors can evaluate an interaction holistically and give feedback that's specific enough to act on.

How agent screen capture works in Dialpad

Turn it on for the teams that need it

Admins enable agent screen capture for each contact center from Dialpad's admin settings, as part of automatic call recording. It can be turned on separately for inbound and outbound calls, so you can record only the interactions you plan to review.

Record calls automatically

Once enabled, the agent's screen is recorded for the duration of each call, alongside the call audio. There's nothing for the agent to start or stop.

Review the screen, audio, and transcript together

Calls with a screen recording are marked with a video icon in Conversation History, so supervisors can find them quickly. From there, they can watch the screen recording next to the call audio, the AI transcription, and the call summary, and see exactly what the agent was doing at each point in the conversation.

Download recordings when you need them

Screen recordings can be downloaded from Conversation History or the call summary, which makes it easy to save examples for training or share them with a coaching team.

How contact centers use screen recording

Quality assurance

Screen recordings give QA reviewers the full context for each interaction. Combined with call audio and AI Scorecards, they make it easier to evaluate whether agents followed the right process, not just whether they said the right things. That makes screen recording a practical addition to a broader call center quality monitoring program.

Coaching and feedback

Instead of describing a better workflow, supervisors can show it. Reviewing a recording together lets an agent see where they lost time or missed a resource, and recordings of strong calls make useful examples for the rest of the team.

Onboarding new agents

New hires are still learning your systems as well as your products. Screen recordings show where they get stuck, such as searching the wrong knowledge base or taking extra steps in the CRM, so training can focus on the gaps that matter.

Process improvement

Patterns across many recordings can reveal problems that aren't really about individual agents: a slow internal tool, a confusing workflow, or a manual step that could be automated. Fixing those can shorten handle time for the whole team.

Screen recording for sales teams too

Agent screen capture isn't limited to support. It can also be turned on for coaching teams, so sales managers using Dialpad Sell can see how reps work in the CRM and sales tools during prospect calls and coach to it.

Because support and sales conversations run on Dialpad's AI platform for customer experience, screen recordings sit alongside the same call recordings, transcripts, and analytics across teams, rather than in a separate tool.

What to know before you start

Plan availability

Agent screen capture is included in Dialpad Support plans and the Premium Dialpad Sell plan, and it's also available as a paid add-on.

Agent requirements

On macOS and Windows, agents need to take calls in the Dialpad desktop app for their screens to be recorded. Calls handled in a web browser or through a CTI integration are recorded as audio only. ChromeOS devices are supported through Dialpad's ChromeOS app.

Pair screen recording with transcription

Screen capture works on its own, but it's most useful alongside AI transcription. The transcript shows what was said at each moment, and the screen recording shows what the agent was doing at the same time.

Set clear recording policies

A few practices help screen recording support agents rather than feel like surveillance:

• Be transparent. Let agents know when and why screens are recorded, and how recordings will be used in coaching.

• Focus on coaching, not policing. Use recordings to help agents improve and to fix broken processes.

• Consider what appears on screen. Agents may view customer information during calls, so decide who can access recordings and follow the privacy and compliance requirements that apply to your business.

• Know your retention settings. By default, Dialpad keeps screen recordings for one year before deleting them.

• Plan for multiple monitors. If agents use more than one screen, downloaded recordings include the first screen only.