How to Screen Record on an iPhone

The End of Third-Party Recording Apps

If you wanted to record the screen of your iPhone a decade ago, you had to jump through incredible technical hoops. You either had to “jailbreak” your device (violating the warranty) or physically connect the iPhone to a Mac using a lightning cable and use QuickTime Player to capture the footage.

Because screen recording is such a crucial feature for modern communication—whether you are showing your parents how to change a complicated setting, recording a glitch in a mobile game, or saving an ephemeral Snapchat video before it disappears—Apple finally built a native screen recorder directly into the iOS operating system.

The feature is completely free, does not watermark your videos, and allows you to capture both the internal audio of the phone (like game sounds) and your own voice using the external microphone simultaneously.

Step 1: Add the Screen Recording Button to Control Center

By default, Apple hides the Screen Recording button. Before you can capture a video, you must manually add the button to your iPhone’s Control Center.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap on Control Center.
3. You will see two lists. The top list shows controls that are currently active. The bottom list (“More Controls”) shows available options you can add.
4. Scroll down the bottom list until you find the option labeled Screen Recording (it has a red circular icon).
5. Tap the green + (Plus) button next to Screen Recording.

The feature will instantly move to the top “Included Controls” list. You can now close the Settings app. You only ever have to do this setup process once.

Step 2: How to Start Recording Your Screen

Now that the button is available, you can trigger a recording from anywhere on your phone, even if you are in the middle of a video game or a FaceTime call.

1. Open the Control Center. (If you have a modern iPhone with no home button, swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen. If your iPhone has a physical home button, swipe up from the very bottom edge).
2. Look for the new Screen Recording button you just added. It looks like a solid white circle surrounded by a thin white ring.
3. Tap the button.
4. The icon will turn red, and a three-second countdown timer will appear inside the circle (3… 2… 1…).
5. Quickly swipe away the Control Center to return to the app you want to record.

Once the timer hits zero, everything on your screen is being captured. You will know the recording is active because the time in the top-left corner of your screen will be highlighted with a red background (or the Dynamic Island will show a red recording dot).

How to Record External Audio (Microphone)

By default, the screen recorder only captures the internal sounds of the phone (e.g., the music playing or the game sound effects). It does not record your voice. If you want to narrate a tutorial while you record, you must turn on the microphone.

1. Open the Control Center.
2. Instead of just tapping the Screen Recording button, press and hold it for two seconds.
3. A new menu will pop up on the screen.
4. At the bottom, tap the grey icon labeled Microphone Off. It will turn red and change to Microphone On.
5. Tap Start Recording.

The iPhone will now record the screen, the internal audio, and your voice speaking into the bottom microphone simultaneously.

How to Stop the Recording

Do not open the Control Center to stop the video, as this will capture the ugly Control Center menu at the very end of your final footage.

Instead, simply tap the red clock in the top-left corner of your screen (or tap the Dynamic Island). A prompt will ask, “Stop screen recording?” Tap Stop.

A notification will drop down from the top of the screen confirming: “Screen Recording saved to Photos.” You can tap that notification, or simply open your standard Photos app, to view, trim, edit, and share the video file just like any regular camera recording.