Late last year Apple added an excellent new screen record feature to iOS11 which, for many, may have gone unnoticed. Instead of taking a dull screenshot and drawing on it with digital ink, you can now record and describe what’s happening on you iPhone or iPad screen. A handy Control Center function allows you to record what you’re doing on your screen. It’s great if you want to capture game-play, walk someone through a tutorial in an app, display a bug, and more, and it’s available on iPhones and iPads running iOS11.
Here we’ll go through how to access this to record your iOS screen on an iPhone and iPad. It could be useful for developers who need to show software flaws, or for someone who wants to give another user the a knowledge of how to do something without a huge amount of screenshots and typing.
How to enable the screen recording feature in iOS11
You can use this new feature within the Control Center panel by swiping up from the bottom of the screen on iOS devices. The screen recording feature needs to be enabled first. To do that, perform the following steps.
- Open the Settings app.
- Navigate to Control Center | Customize Controls.
- Tap the + button beside the Screen Recording option to add it to the Include section of the list and re-order the Screen Recording button to change its ordering in Control Center
Now that the feature is inserted into the Control Center, swiping up from the bottom of your iOS device screen will show you a record button. This is how you can enable and change the settings for recording. Let’s take a look at how to start a recording.
Tip: This screen recording option will record everything that is on the screen of your iOS device, including notifications; so enable Airplane mode before starting the recording to minimize these distractions. It’ll give your videos a more professional look too.
How to record the screen of an iPhone or iPad
To start a screen recording, open Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of your iOS device, you’ll find that record button that was enabled earlier. To start a new recording, touch the recordbutton. When you move away from the Control Center, you’ll notice a blue recording strip at the top of the screen, and it will be noticeable for the span of the screen recording process.
The screen recording doesn’t contain device sounds, but you can add recorded audio from the microphone of your device. To allow this, tap and hold on the record button and enable the microphone audio feature when it’s displayed at the bottom of the screen.
When you want to end the recording, tapping on the blue bar will present a dialog box asking if you’d like to stop the recording, you can also prevent the recording by re-entering Control Center and tapping the record button again.
When you tap Stop Recording, the video that was recorded can be found inside of the Photos app under the Videos album.
A banner notification will inform you the screen recording was saved to your Photos.
- You can also the edit the recorded videos
Yes! Go to the Edit button in the top-right corner, and the video comes into view on a timeline. You can take the ends and drag them a few frames to reduce the footage by starting and stopping it in Control Center. When you are done, photos will offer to save your edits as a new cut.
You’re free to move the video to your Mac device for editing in QuickTime or iMovie as well. Or you can upload it to your iCloud Drive, Facebook, and YouTube, or send it everywhere the Share Sheet can take you.
- You can also record apps that play videos
But it depends on the app. Some apps allow screen recording some don’t. For instance, it doesn’t work at all when you have some apps running, like YouTube.
Go through the following tips that will help you get the excellent results from iOS screen recording.
- Enable screen recording
As we mentioned above, the first thing you need to do is enable screen recording on your device. Screen recording on your iPhone is simple, but your device is not automatically set up to record right out of the box. You need to get access to screen recording in your Control Center. - Don’t lose track of time and storage
As the saying goes, “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” Just because your iPhone can record virtually unlimited amounts of the video doesn’t mean that’s something you should do. As far as I know, there is no time limit to how much you can record your screen. However, it will consume storage on your phone, just like any other video, so be wary and keep an eye on that storage.
- Clean up your mess!
If the iOS home screen appears in your video, consider changing your wallpaper and creating a new page with just one icon.To change your wallpaper back to an Apple default: tap Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper, and you’ll see options for Dynamic or Stills. Choose a wallpaper, then Set > Set Home Screen to make it the new wallpaper that appears behind your home screen icons. - Lock orientation
Before you record, make sure to decide which way you will hold your device while recording. It’s best to lock orientation, so you don’t by chance tilt the device during screen recording. To secure orientation, hold your device the way you’d like, then swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center. Touch the padlock symbol. - Enable do not disturb mode
This will stop unwanted notifications or calls from popping up in the middle of your recording.To enable do not disturb mode or sleep mode: Tap Settings > Do Not Disturb > Do Not Disturb then scroll down and opt for Silence: Always.
- Turn off display zoom
If you use display zoom mode on a brand-new iPhone or iPad, you may need to turn it off. If you start it on, you will not achieve the full resolution probably.To disable zoom mode: Tap Settings > Display and Brightness > Display Zoom | View > Standard > Set. Your device will restart, and now you can record screen without any worry.
- Unmute your iOS device
If the silence switch silences your device, the audio coming from your device will not be mixed up in your recording.If the content you’re recording has its audio like the sound effects in a game, you need to unmute your device, so it is captured.
- Turn off the in-built app music
If you’re recording a game or an app that has both background music and sound effects you should turn off music within the game settings.The music will compete with your narration, so it’s sensible to turn that off. You can record the sound effects and import the music them later if you wish.
- Free up resources
Capturing will need some additional system resources. Make sure that your phone isn’t cluttered and there’s enough space for storing the screen capture. - Make a new side
To make a new side on your home screen, long-press the icon of an app you’ll be explaining in your video, then move it to the right point and a new side will come into view. - Use a microphone
If you want to make a professional sounding narration, you need to get an external microphone for your iOS device. You can also re-record audio after you’ve stored your video by dubbing over an additional audio track with iMovie. I use earbuds with a built-in microphone. - Record in a quiet place
Move to a quiet environment or at least isolate yourself and the microphone from noise. The most common noise culprits are usually other people! - Use a suitable music track
If the app you’re recording doesn’t have its sound or music, consider adding a music track that helps set the mood. There are many ways of royalty-free music online.
I hope you will find this article helpful, but if you still have any questions, just ask!