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TECH TIP

How to Record Your iPhone Screen

In iOS 11, you can make a video of what’s happening directly on your phone at the moment — without having to install an extra app.

To prepare to capture the action on your iPhone screen in a video, edit your settings to add the Screen Recording button to your iOS Control Center, left, so that you have a Record button to tap when the time comes.Credit...The New York Times

Q. I know it’s possible to take a still photo of what is on the iPhone 7 screen, but is it possible to record a video of what you are doing?

A. Apple includes a Screen Recording tool with its iOS 11 system to record the action on your iPhone screen, but you may need to enable it first. To do that, go to your iPhone’s home screen and open the Settings app.

On the Settings screen, tap Control Center and then on Customize Controls. Scroll down past the Include list to More Controls and tap the green plus (+) button next to Screen Recording. Once you have added Screen Recording to the list, a circular “record” button will appear on your Control Center screen when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

When you are ready to record your screen, swipe up to open the Control Center and press the Screen Recording button. If you want to include sound with the screen video, press the button until a menu pops up with the Microphone Audio option.

Once you press the Screen Recording button, you will get a three-second countdown before the iPhone begins recording a video of the activity on its screen. The status bar at the top of the screen turns red while a recording is in progress.

To stop recording, tap the red status bar or swipe up to tap the Screen Recording button again. The resultant video will land in the Photos app. You can snip off the beginning or end of the selected clip by tapping the Edit button, moving the sliders on either end and tapping the Done button.

You can also find several third-party apps in the App Store to record your screen. Android users can find similar screen recorders in the Google Play store.


Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

J.D. Biersdorfer has been answering technology questions — in print, on the web, in audio and in video — since 1998. She also writes the Sunday Book Review’s “Applied Reading” column on ebooks and literary apps, among other things. More about J. D. Biersdorfer

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