How to screen record on your phone

Almost certainly, if it is recent. Android has a built-in Screen record tile in Quick Settings from Android 11 onward. iPhone and iPad have Screen Recording in Control Center from iOS 11 onward. Older Android phones (Android 10 and earlier) often have no built-in recorder; on those you install a free app instead. To check on Android, swipe down for Quick Settings and look for a Screen record tile, or edit the tiles to see if one is available.

Swipe down from the top of the screen twice to open the full Quick Settings, then tap the Screen record tile (Samsung names it Screen recorder). Choose whether to capture Media sounds, Media sounds and mic, or no sound, then tap Start. A red indicator shows it is recording. Stop it from the notification shade. The clip saves to your Gallery or Photos with no watermark. If the tile is missing, tap the edit pencil in Quick Settings and drag Screen record in. For editing on the phone, see the Android app guide.

First add the control: open Settings, tap Control Center, and add Screen Recording. Then open Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner, or up from the bottom on Home-button models) and tap the round record button. After a three-second countdown the clock turns red to show it is recording. Tap the red clock and confirm to stop. The video saves to the Photos app. To also record your voice, press and hold the record button and turn the Microphone on before you start.

On Android, the recorder asks what to capture when you start: pick Media sounds for the audio playing on the phone, or Media sounds and mic to add your own voice. On iPhone and iPad, app and system sound is recorded by default; to add your voice, press and hold the record button first and turn the Microphone on. Note that some apps, especially streaming services with copy protection, mute or block their audio during a screen recording.

Three common reasons. First, the recorder was set to No sound, or the microphone was off. On Android, start again and pick a sound option; on iPhone, long-press the record button and turn the Microphone on. Second, the phone was on silent or the volume was down for internal audio. Third, the app you recorded blocks audio capture. Streaming apps with copy protection (Netflix, Disney+, and similar) commonly do this, and they may also record as a black screen.

On Android, swipe down to Quick Settings, tap the edit pencil or the three dots, find Screen record in the list of available tiles, and drag it up into the active set. On iPhone and iPad, open Settings, tap Control Center, scroll to More Controls, and tap the plus next to Screen Recording. After that it appears in Control Center whenever you open it.

The built-in recorders have no fixed time limit. A recording keeps going until you stop it or the phone runs low on free storage or battery. Long recordings make large files, so a multi-hour capture can fill several gigabytes. If a long session stops early or the file will not play, the free Screen Recording App is built to handle long recordings more reliably than some built-in recorders.

It is almost always an accidental trigger, not a virus. A stray tap on the Quick Settings tile or Control Center starts it. Some phones also tie recording to a gesture, an Accessibility shortcut, or a gaming toolbar that can fire by accident. Check Settings for Accessibility shortcuts and any game or side-key shortcuts, and turn off the ones you do not use. If a recording starts, just open the notification or Control Center and stop it.

The built-in recorders on Android and iPhone never add a watermark, so they are the simplest watermark-free option. Many third-party recording apps stamp a logo on the free tier and remove it only if you pay. Screen Recording App does not watermark recordings on any tier, on the phone or in the browser, so you can edit and share the clip clean.

Use the built-in recorder with internal audio turned on (Media sounds on Android, or the default app sound on iPhone) so the game audio is captured. This works for PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends, Roblox, and the rest. Samsung phones also have a Game Booster overlay with its own recorder. When you want to trim the clip, add a facecam-style caption, or export a shorter highlight, record with the built-in tool and then edit in the free Screen Recording App.

No. Mobile browsers such as Chrome and Safari do not let a web page capture the phone screen, so an online recorder cannot work from a phone. Use the built-in recorder or a native app instead. The browser recorder on this site is for desktop computers, where the browser does allow screen capture. On a phone, the native route is the right one.

On Android, recordings go to the Gallery or Photos app, usually in a Screen recordings album, and on disk in the Movies or DCIM folder. On iPhone and iPad, they save straight to the Photos app in your camera roll. From there you can trim, share, or move them like any other video.