How to record your screen on any device
Every device you own already has a screen recorder built in. The differences that matter are not the keyboard shortcut but what audio each one captures and how readable the result is on a phone.
8 minute read
The recorder you already have
You almost certainly do not need to install anything. On a Mac, press Shift-Command-5 to bring up Apple's Screenshot toolbar, which records the entire screen, a selected window, or a portion you drag out. On Windows 11, the Snipping Tool records video now: press Windows-Shift-R, drag a box, and hit Start. On iPhone, add Screen Recording to Control Center and long-press it. On Android, pull down Quick Settings and tap Screen record. Each takes under a minute to learn. The thing worth knowing before you start is not which key to press, it is what audio each tool can actually capture, because they are not equivalent and the gaps are where recordings go wrong.
macOS: Shift-Command-5 and the audio you cannot get
Apple's support page lists three capture modes behind Shift-Command-5: Record Entire Screen, Record Selected Portion, and Record Selected Window, the last of which arrived in macOS Tahoe 26. Under Options you can pick a microphone, set a countdown, choose where the file lands, and turn on Show Mouse Clicks. QuickTime's New Screen Recording now opens the same toolbar, so the two are effectively one tool. What Apple's page does not offer, anywhere, is the sound your Mac is playing. There is no checkbox for it. If you record a Zoom call, a video, or an app's own audio using the built-in recorder, you will get your microphone and nothing else, and you will usually discover this after the recording is finished.
The macOS system-audio fix, stated plainly
Nothing has quietly changed here: macOS still does not expose desktop audio capture to its own screen recorder. OBS's documentation says it directly, that macOS provides no built-in method for desktop audio capture. The route around it is a virtual audio device that presents your Mac's output as an input the recorder can select. OBS names three: the free VB-CABLE, and the paid Loopback from Rogue Amoeba and Sound Siphon, with the paid ones able to route a single application rather than everything at once. BlackHole is the other free driver people commonly install for this. The alternative is to skip Apple's recorder entirely and use OBS, which captures system audio natively through Apple's ScreenCaptureKit framework on macOS 13 and later, no virtual driver involved.
iPhone and Android capture the audio desktops make you fight for
The phones are, oddly, better at this than the Macs. On iPhone, Apple's instructions are to open Control Center, touch and hold the screen recording button, tap Microphone if you want your voice, then Start Recording after the three-second countdown. App audio is captured either way, so a recording of a video or a game keeps its sound. If Screen Recording is not in your Control Center, touch and hold the background, tap Add a Control, and add it. Android is the same idea: Google's Pixel help says to swipe down to Quick Settings, tap Screen record, and choose Record device audio, Record microphone, or both. Neither platform lets you record only part of the screen, so you crop afterwards.
The mistake that ruins most screen recordings
This is the one worth reading twice. If you record a 4K display and then post the result into a vertical phone frame, your interface text will be illegible and no editing will save it. The arithmetic is unforgiving: a 3840-pixel-wide capture shown full width inside a 1080-pixel-wide vertical frame is displayed at 28 percent of its captured size, so menu labels and body copy shrink to a handful of pixels tall on a screen held at arm's length. There are two real fixes and both happen before you press record. Either record a selected portion roughly the shape of your output rather than the whole display, or scale the interface up first, using browser zoom at 150 to 200 percent, larger display scaling, or a bigger font in the app you are demonstrating.
Cursor, clicks and the notification that ruins the take
Small settings, disproportionate effect. Turn on Show Mouse Clicks in the macOS Options menu so viewers can see when you actually clicked rather than guessing why the screen changed; OBS and most paid recorders offer their own click highlighting and cursor emphasis. Then hide everything that can interrupt you. Put macOS into a Focus mode or Windows into Do Not Disturb, quit your mail and chat apps rather than just muting them, close every tab that is not part of the demo, and use a clean browser profile or guest window so your bookmarks bar is not a list of things you would rather not publish. Move the mouse deliberately and slowly. Fast cursor movement reads as chaotic once the footage is scaled down.
What to do with the enormous file you just made
Screen recordings are big. Using YouTube's own recommended upload bitrates as a yardstick, a minute of 1080p at 8 Mbps is about 60 MB and a minute of 4K at 35 Mbps is roughly 260 MB, so a twenty-minute walkthrough at full resolution can pass 5 GB before you have edited anything. Recording a region instead of the whole display is the cheapest reduction available; re-encoding afterwards handles the rest, and there is a separate guide on compressing video worth reading if the file is fighting your upload limit. If the recording is long and you want short clips out of it, that is the part worth automating rather than scrubbing manually, which is the job FrameOS does with the transcript.
FAQ
How do I record my screen on a Mac with sound?
Press Shift-Command-5, open Options, and choose a microphone. That captures your voice only. macOS has no built-in way to record the sound your Mac is playing, which OBS's own documentation confirms, so for system audio you need a virtual audio device such as BlackHole or VB-CABLE, or you record with OBS, which captures desktop audio natively on macOS 13 and later.
Can the Windows Snipping Tool record system audio?
Yes. Since the 2023 update, the Snipping Tool records video and can capture both your microphone and your PC's system audio. Press Windows-Shift-R, drag out the area, and use the microphone and system audio icons in the bar above your selection to toggle each one. Settings lets you turn either on by default for every recording.
Why does my screen recording look blurry on a phone?
Usually because you recorded a large display and shrank it into a small frame. A 3840-pixel-wide capture placed inside a 1080-pixel-wide vertical video is shown at about 28 percent of its original size, which pushes interface text below the point where it can be read. Record a smaller selected portion, or zoom the interface up before you start.
Do I need OBS to record my screen?
Not for a simple capture. The built-in recorders on macOS, Windows, iPhone and Android cover most needs. OBS is worth installing when you want system audio on a Mac without a virtual driver, a webcam inset over the screen, multiple sources you can switch between mid-recording, or direct control over resolution, frame rate and bitrate.
Sources
- How to record the screen on Mac · Apple
- Take a screen recording on iPhone · Apple
- Use Snipping Tool to capture screenshots and recordings · Microsoft
- Record your Pixel device's screen · Google
- macOS Desktop Audio Capture Guide · OBS Project
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