How To Take Webcam Pictures On The Chromebook

By On June 18, 2011 · 46 Comments

Chromebook

I thought I’d add a little how-to since a lot of people who bought the Chromebooks having been asking how to take pictures with the webcam. Especially since Skype is not (yet) compatible with the Chrome OS, people are asking how else they can take pictures or save videos using the webcam.

So, the name of the game is Facebook. That’s really the easiest way to take pictures from the webcam, also because that’s probably where these pics are heading anyways.

Also, I have listed the best working webcam apps from the Web Store below. Unfortunately getting either is a little bit technical, but I’ll break it down.

  1. Disable Flash 11.0 r1

    Easier than it sounds. In the browser type in “about: plugins” and hit enter. Look at the plugins, there should be two versions of Flash running: 10.2 and 10.3. You want to disable Flash 10.2. Once you’re done close the window. Thanks to David Duez for reminding me about this step!

  2. Follow this link.

    Here you can change your webcam settings via Adobe Flash.

  3. Change your peer-assisted network settings.

    At the top of the box you’ll notice the number of tabs. All the way to the right you’ll find the tab with the picture of two people called peer-assisted network panel. Click on it and scroll through the list and find Facebook. Click on Facebook when you find it and toggle it to “always allow”.

    Not finding Facebook on the list? This happened to me at first, I would just go back to Facebook try and upload a photo via the webcam and run into the expected errors. After that just go back or refresh the page and you should find it.

  4. Change your website privacy settings.

    Next click on the website privacy settings panel tab: the icon with the eye and the monitor. Do the same thing you just did by toggling Facebook to “always allow”.

  5. Go to Facebook!

    You’re done! Easy enough, just go to Facebook and click ‘add photo: take a photo’. That should do it.



Chromebook Webcam Photo

Also: great webcam apps for the Chromebooks.

Note: you will have to follow the same steps for enabling the webcam settings just like you did for Facebook. Simply just go back to the first link and find these apps in the list and toggle the settings. That’s it.

I found a few great apps from the Web Store in the process. Here they are:

  • PicMeQuick

    Easy enough just take a pic via the app. It also has a number of editing features.

  • Nimbb

    Record and save videos (with audio) from the webcam.

  • Camera

    Really the most basic app. Take and save a picture from the webcam.

Hope that helps! Especially for anyone not using the Chrome pilot program. Send me any feedback in the comments section, derp.

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  • Das

    …thx… however I bought chromebook for easy access fast performance. I would throw my chromebook away if I need to do that much to just start using my webcam. I have been a computer tech for 10 years and now, I really really hate doing that much.

  • http://twitter.com/hnmurakami Hiroki Murakami

    Well the beauty of Chromium / ChromeOS is how fast Google has been building on the system. Either a third-party app will make it to the Web Store or Google will integrate it natively. Already been seeing some interesting progress towards just that. 

  • David Duez

    This doesn’t seem to work for the Samsung Chromebook Series 5. But I will keep trying.

  • Hiroki Murakami

    @google-6943c9e84e629e8cbe0d9dce05a92d31:disqus hmm tried looking on other blogs but no obvious solution yet. I would try using some of the apps I listed above. I’m getting my Samsung 5 in the mail tomorrow so I’ll play around with it and get back to you! 

  • David Duez

    Hiroki – i was able to get it to work! I had to go 
    in the browser, type “about:plugins”
    there should be 2 versions of Flash present on the system
    Disable 10.2
    Close the window
    Then follow your instructions and it worked.  I found it strange that there were 2 versions of flash enabled at the same time 10.2 and 10.3. I guess they were conflicted. Working now – at least with facebook.  Thanks!  Hope you enjoy your Chromebook.

  • David Duez

    Hiroki – i was able to get it to work! I had to go 
    in the browser, type “about:plugins”
    there should be 2 versions of Flash present on the system
    Disable 10.2
    Close the window
    Then follow your instructions and it worked.  I found it strange that there were 2 versions of flash enabled at the same time 10.2 and 10.3. I guess they were conflicted. Working now – at least with facebook.  Thanks!  Hope you enjoy your Chromebook.

  • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

    Can’t believe that I forgot to include that in my post! Yeah I had to do that before anything else worked. Thanks @google-6943c9e84e629e8cbe0d9dce05a92d31:disqus ! I’ll be sure to revise my post with that as the first step :D

    • David Duez

      No problem. I appreciate you posting this. It ended up leading me to the solution.

  • Kat B

    This didn’t work for me.. ):

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

       Where do you seem to be having problems? Also what Chromebook are you using?

  • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

    @003848e3527db0fcd7a082173f6c7f37:disqus  Where do you seem to be having problems? Also what Chromebook are you using?

  • Herman Kikkert

    Works on the acer chromebook! Thanks for explaining how to get this thing working :-)

    • Herman Kikkert

      I meant samsung chromebook, sorry…

      • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

        Glad I could help @b53aee31ff2a9092b2d86cf2cf7508ce:disqus  !

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki

      Of course! Glad I could help, works great on the Samsung Series 5 books too.

  • Khill93

    When I go to “about:plugins” there are two 10.3 flash players. What am I to make of this?

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

      @98d1378f42e581537c276aa963552fc3:disqus  I just checked mine and I had Shockwave Flash 10.3 r200 disabled. Try that and let me know how it works. 

      • Khill93

        Webcam works now. Thank you!

        • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

          No problem, glad to help! 

          • http://eatthebabies.com/ BradyDale

            I just tried this but no luck for me. I only had 10.3 and when I disabled it, then the next steps didn’t work.

            On Google’s Chrome forums, it simply says that the version of Flash the Chromebooks are using just don’t support Webcams and they are working on it. Maybe I just have to wait???

            I have a Samsung 500C21

            Thanks for doing this post, tho… it’s hardly addressed anywhere else. 

  • Osborne

    should i disable 10.3.200.9 and 10.3 r183? i do not have any 10.2 plugins.
    also when i refresh adobe flash player Peer assisted net working panel facebook or any other web site does not show up in the list of web sites.

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

      @f48ef117fc84b9b49e9a6ca0654e80f0:disqus  Disable Shockwave Flash 10.3 r183. Also sometimes the Adove settings panel won’t show Facebook on the list. Just try using the webcam feature on Facebook or just play around on Facebook for a couple of minutes and then come back and it should be listed. Hope that works!

  • http://twitter.com/brianfay Brian G. Fay

    I have just gotten my webcam working with Facebook and Google+ because of your post and comments. Thank you very, very much. 

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

      @twitter-15257124:disqus  No problem, glad I could help :D

  • Robert F. Harrison

    Thanks! While I think it should just work out of the box it only took a couple of minutes, with your instructions, to get my Acer Chromebook working properly.

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

      @google-5a1ca2ef5170678900d93424dc96feaf:disqus  Glad I could help! The ChromeBook is very experimental and a concept works a bit like a software product with lots of updates but much room to grow. Hopefully they’ll lay smooth out the rough edges along the way. 

  • http://mostlythis.com Mac Morrison

    Now you can just go and disable 10.3 and leave it on r11.0 and it works without having to do the settings per site on adobe. just click allow :)

    well its working on my samsung. 

  • Sam Houston

    I’m seeing version 11.0 r31 and 11.0 r1.  Which one am I supposed to disable out of those?

    • http://twitter.com/hnmurakami Hiroki Murakami

      @google-fabdba0734cb937652ff0eef3c0e6817:disqus Yes they recently updated. I believe that you disable 11.0 r1. See if that works, if not then try the other one! Hope that helps Sam. 

      • Anonymous

        Hiroki and Sam, I had to disable 11.0 r31 before facebook showed up. When I did, it was the only website to appear in the list. Once I changed the settings and closed the tab, the webcam started working of facebook.

  • Ryan Moore

    So I got the webcam working on the samsung chromebook by disabling flash 11.1 r31 (11.1r102 is still enabled) but the “call” icon that i’m supposed to click on the asterisk-looking dropdown menu on facebook is not click-able. i’ve installed the video chat app & i knoe the webcam works; i shot a video using Nimbb… advice?    :-)

  • http://mbwilkens.tumblr.com Marybeth Wilkens

    Ok, so I’ve had my Chromebook for a week and have gone on games, pages, apps, etc and I still cannot get any form of a facebook link in my peer assisted network settings. :/ Any help would be wonderful.

    • http://mbwilkens.blogspot.com Marybeth Wilkens

      Still cannot get facebook to appear in my adobe settings in either listing… i’ve even tried to use my microphone and youtube.com to help with the issue to widen my choices, still nothing. So far you are the only person I can find that seems to know anything worthwhile on this. I’m not computer illiterate, I have no idea why my chromebook won’t pick it up. (I’m a bit frustrated, I’ve had mine for over a month and STILL nothing.)

      • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

        Sorry to hear @mwilkens37:disqus  ! I’m not exactly sure why that might be happening (I’m really not a tech expert). 

        If you’re just trying to find a way to take pictures using the webcam you should try some of the Chrome apps I list at the bottom of the post. There’s actually a bunch out now on the Chrome web store. 

        Sorry I couldn’t help more! 

  • Annonymous

    I went to the website and it is not showing Facebook on either tabs. What else can I do to fix this?

  • Salome

    I was able to get my webcam working with “Webcam Toy” and Facebook thanks to your post. My Flash has a newer version since when you wrote this, but similar to your post, I just had to disable one of the two versions and voila! 

    Thanks! 

    • http://www.hirokimurakami.com Hiroki Murakami

      @6ca8d81cc6a3550222ffcc0fe774c85c:disqus  Glad I could help! 

  • Monzee710

    :( i’m not getting facebook on the list no matter what i try… sighhhh

  • Burkhart77

    You should add to the first step to hit detail to see both parts of the flash plugin. I went round and round with disabling the whole thing a few times.

    Also I had to reboot (not sure if just a logout would have worked) before I got any change in behavior. That helped with getting facebook on my adobe settings, and from there Webcam Toy and facebook started to work. 

  • Suze

    I have 2 versions of Flash running and the options are to disable both. There does not appear to be an option to disable just one.

  • Teardropsonmyguitar42

    iv tried reloading the page and for some reason its not saving my visited website… iv tried for hrs and its still not working!!! i need major help

  • Amy Mossoff

    Well, hallelujah! Thank you very much!

  • Pinky28

    You’re awesome! thank you so much!

  • McPoopington

    is there any way that I can take pics without disabling flash?

  • http://www.creativementor.com.au/autocad-training-courses.html autocad 3d training

    Really It was completely worth to spend time over here.  I bought my web came last week and after getting your post I definitely connect it through Facebook and Google +.

  • Rod M F

    what???????????????/