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Screen recording on an iOS device like an iPhone or iPad is pretty much the same setup across the board. There’s no button shortcut like when taking a screenshot and there’s a little bit of setting up to do, but it’s a hugely useful feature to take advantage of if you’re capturing game footage or trying to grab that Snapchat or Instagram message before it disappears into the ether.
It’s recorded into an MP4 format, so you can transfer it into any video editor either on iPad, iPhone, or desktop.
This will only work on iOS and iPadOS 13 or above.
How to Screen Record: Open Settings
From the Home Screen, open Settings. We want to go to Control Centre. If you can’t find it immediately, pull it down on the menu (sidebar on iPad) and search for Control Centre.
If you’ve moved the Settings App and want to get into it quickly, you can always pull it down from the Home Screen and use the search bar to find it. This also works to just hop straight into Control Centre.
Control Centre Settings
The Control Centre is the other pull-down menu you can access by swiping down from the top right of the screen (where the battery icon is situated). This is a quick menu for certain functions and the Control Centre menu allows us to modify it to fit our needs.
In the options, you’ll find a list of “More Controls”, which you’ll find the Screen Recording option amongst, along with other things. You can set what you want now if you wanted. Add Screen Recording and the little ‘hamburger’ button will allow you to drag it to where you want it to be.
Open the Control Centre
Slide down the Control Centre and you’ll now see the Screen Record button, press it and it’ll count down, at which point the screen recording will commence. If you don’t swipe the Control Centre up before it counts down all the way, the start of the recording will include the Control Centre which you’ll need to trim before you upload it anywhere.
It’s also recommended you turn off your notifications beforehand, or you’ll have messages and things appear in the video.
Finish Recording
When you’re ready to finish the recording, you can either swipe down the Control Centre to repress the button and do it that way or in the very top corner, you’ll find a small recording icon, which you can press to stop the capture.
If you’ve recorded for a long time, don’t worry if the device hasn’t given you a notification saying it has completed and saved it to your Photos app. It’ll appear once it has finished rendering, but you can use the phone as you normally would or even screen record some more.
Where to Edit Your Video
Now you have your video, where’s best to edit the video for uploading to Twitter, TikTok, or YouTube?
We’ve got guides on the best System Requirements for DaVinci Resolve, which will give you a good guide on what type of system you might need to edit the footage – especially as it’s an MP4, you might need the additional help of your hardware and want to look into the Studio version.
On the App Store, if you want to keep it all local, LumaFusion is a fully featured editor that’s pretty much on par for basic video editing purposes but does cost a bit of cash. If you’re in the mood to keep it free, iMovie and Clips or even the built-in trimmer in the Photos app will do just the ticket and you can then upload it to your chosen platform.
We’ll have more on LumaFusion in the future!
