There are times when taking a screenshot just isn't enough to capture something on your iPhone or iPad. Take, for example, documenting a step-by-step tutorial about how to turn on a specific phone feature, or capturing a snippet of a video you can't easily download. That's when screen recordings come into play. Luckily, it's a pretty simple process.
Screen recordings also allow you to include audio, if you'd like to incorporate a verbal walk-through of what you're doing or a commentary on what's being shown. You can then easily share your screen recording or save it for your records.
See also: How to Take a Screenshot on Any iPhone or Android Phone
Here's how to record your iPhone or iPad's screen.
Before you get started
You'll first need to make sure the screen record button is your device's Control Center. You can check this by swiping down from the top-right edge of your screen and looking for a dot with a circle around it. That's the screen record button.
If you don't see it, go to Settings > Control Center, then scroll down to the More Controls section and find Screen Recording. Tap the green plus button next to it to add it to the Control Center.
Access the screen record button from the Control Center.
James Martin/CNETStart recording
Once you've added the Screen Recording shortcut, open the Control Center. On the iPhone X or newer, you can access this by swiping down from the top-right corner of the screen. On iPhones older than the iPhone X, swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
Tap the Screen Recording button, which is the dot with the circle around it. This will trigger a 3-second countdown, which will either show up inside the button or, if you have the iPhone 14 Pro or later, in Dynamic Island.
Once the recording starts, the button will turn red. If you have Dynamic Island, you'll also see a red dot there. Otherwise, there'll be a red highlight behind the time in the upper-left corner (on newer iPhones), or be a red bar across the top of your screen (on older iPhones). Tap on Dynamic Island, the red highlight or the red bar to stop recording.
Record with audio for a personal touch
If you want to incorporate a voiceover into what you're screen recording, you can turn on your phone's microphone too.
Open the Control Center and long press the Screen Recording button. Then, tap the microphone icon at the bottom of the screen. Start recording and your phone will also capture what you say.
To turn this off, long press the Screen Recording button again and tap the microphone.
Now, save or share your recording
Once you stop recording, the file will save to Photos. Go there to view, edit, crop and share the video however you'd like.