phos
Add to Chrome

A Chrome extension

Go live onYouTubefrom any tab, window, or screen.

phos captures what you choose, encodes it on your own computer, and puts it on the Live you already use — or saves a recording. No OBS. No account with us. No server of ours in the middle.

Add to Chrome — it’s free

Or build it from source on GitHub.

The popup — what each control does

phos

Chrome will ask which tab, window, or screen to share.

1Include my microphone
Quality
2720p480p
Destination
3RecordingStream4
HLS key or stream URL
5Start captureStop6
  1. 1

    Microphone

    Mix your voice in. Tab audio never includes it on its own.

  2. 2

    Quality

    720p or 480p — pick what the upload can carry.

  3. 3

    Recording

    Writes an MP4 to your computer the moment you stop.

  4. 4

    Stream

    Paste a YouTube HLS key, then go live from this tab.

  5. 5

    Start capture

    Chrome asks which tab, window, or screen to share.

  6. 6

    Stop

    Ends it. Recording saves the file; stream disconnects.

Stay updated

New versions, the occasional note

Join the list and we'll tell you when a new version ships, and when there's something worth announcing. No drip campaign.

Both optional — this just helps us design pricing that fits how people actually use phos, not a cap that punishes a long meeting. We don't track usage inside the extension itself.

How it works

Five steps, start to live.

No sign-up, no configuration file, no dashboard to learn first.

  1. 01

    Click the phos icon

    One small popup, everything on a single screen. No settings buried in menus.

  2. 02

    Add your microphone, pick quality

    Add your own voice to the mix if you want it — captures alone never include it.

  3. 03

    Recording, or Stream to YouTube

    Save an MP4 the moment you stop, or paste your YouTube key and go live on the Live you already know.

  4. 04

    Click Start

    Chrome's own picker opens — choose a tab, a window, or your whole screen. Capture, encoding, and upload all happen on your machine after that — nothing routes through a phos server.

  5. 05

    Stop whenever you're done

    Download the recording, or end the stream right from the popup.

Before you go live

Getting your YouTube stream key

phos speaks HLS, not RTMP — YouTube supports both, but shows RTMP by default. Here's where to find the setting.

1

Open YouTube Studio

Go to studio.youtube.com and sign in with the channel you want to stream to.

2

Verify for live streaming, if you haven't

First time going live on this channel? YouTube requires phone verification, and can take up to 24 hours to enable live streaming on a new channel. Do this well before you plan to go live.

3

Go to Create → Go live

Click Create in the top bar, then Go live — or find Live in the left sidebar under Content.

4

Set the stream protocol to HLS

In the stream settings, look for a protocol option and choose HLS — YouTube's default is RTMP, which phos does not use. This is the step people miss.

5

Copy the Stream key or Stream URL

Copy either one — phos accepts both. The Stream URL starts with https://a.upload.youtube.com/http_upload_hls.

6

Paste it into phos

Open the phos popup, choose Stream as the destination, and paste what you copied into the stream key field. Click Go live.

Your stream key is a credential — anyone who has it can stream to your channel. phos keeps it only in the browser's session storage, never writes it to disk, and never sends it anywhere but YouTube's own ingest servers.

What you get

Everything you need, nothing you don't

Tab, window, or screen
Share the current tab, or use Chrome's own picker to grab a different tab, an app window, or your whole display.
Your microphone, mixed in
Tab and screen capture alone never include your own voice — phos mixes your mic in when you turn it on.
Live to YouTube
Paste the HLS key from Studio and go live directly. No separate broadcasting software to install or learn.
Runs entirely on your machine
Capture, encode, and upload happen locally. There is no phos server, proxy, or media relay in between.
Or save a recording
Not going live? Choose Recording and download an MP4 the moment you stop.
Free and open source
Apache-2.0 licensed, built by Believers Tech Expo. Read the source, or send a pull request.

Still early

Tell us what's broken, or what's missing

phos is young. If something didn't work, or you want a feature it doesn't have yet, this reaches the people building it directly.

What kind of feedback?