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Editorial Team · 2026-09-23
How to Screen Record With Sound on iPhone and Android
By Editorial Team · published 2026-09-23 · updated 2026-09-23
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Both phones record the screen without an extra app, and on both the sound is a separate choice you make before you start. On an iPhone you add Screen Recording to Control Center and long-press the button to switch the microphone on; on Android you pull the shade down twice, tap Screen record, and pick whether it captures device audio, your microphone, or both. Get that choice wrong and you end up with a silent clip you have to shoot again. Here is the exact route on each, plus why some apps come out as a black rectangle.
Before you start
Decide which sound you actually need, because the two are different things. Device audio is what the phone is playing — the game, the video, the call tone. Microphone audio is you talking over it. A tutorial usually wants both; a clip of a match usually wants only the first.
Then clear the screen. Recordings capture notifications as they arrive, so a banner from a private chat ends up in the file. Do not Disturb for the length of the recording is the simplest fix on either phone.
Check free space too. A minute of screen recording runs to a few dozen megabytes, and both systems stop the recording rather than filling the last of your storage.
Step 1. Record on an iPhone
Open "Settings" → "Control Center" and add "Screen Recording" to the included controls. This is a one-time step; afterwards the button lives in Control Center.
Open Control Center and tap the Screen Recording button. A three-second countdown runs, then recording starts. To capture your voice as well, long-press the same button first — the panel that opens carries the microphone option, and it stays as you set it until you change it again.
To stop, open Control Center and tap the button a second time, or tap the red indicator at the top of the screen. The finished video lands in Photos, in your library, like anything shot with the camera.
Step 2. Record on an Android phone
Swipe down twice from the top of the screen to open the full Quick Settings panel, then tap "Screen record". If it is not there, swipe right through the tiles or add it with the edit button.
Android asks before it starts rather than after, which is the better design of the two: you choose whether to record audio — device audio, the microphone, or both — and whether to show taps on screen. Showing taps is worth turning on for anything instructional, because otherwise the viewer sees menus opening with no visible cause.
Tap "Start", wait out the countdown, and record. To stop, swipe down from the top and tap the screen recorder notification. The file is saved on the device and appears in Photos under "Collections" → "On this device" → "Movies".
Step 3. Trim it before you send it
Both phones leave the same two blemishes at the ends: the Control Center or Quick Settings panel closing at the start, and your hand reaching for the stop button at the finish. Cutting them costs ten seconds.
The Photos app on either platform trims the start and end, which is all most clips need. If you want to cut something out of the middle, add a caption, or drop the recording into a vertical frame for social, that is an editing job. CapCut and InShot both do it on the phone, both read screen recordings without a conversion step, and both export without a watermark on the free tier — CapCut on everything it exports, InShot once you remove the end card it adds by default.
If it does not work
The recording plays back silent. The microphone was off, or the app's own audio was muted while you recorded. On an iPhone the long press sets the microphone; on Android the choice is on the panel that appears before recording starts.
A streaming or banking app records as a black rectangle. That is deliberate. Apps that handle protected video or payment screens block screen capture at the system level, and no recorder gets around it — the audio sometimes survives while the picture does not.
Recording stops by itself. Usually storage. Both systems end the recording when the phone runs low rather than filling the disk. An incoming call ends it too.
The Screen record tile is missing on Android. It sits in the second page of Quick Settings on many phones and has to be dragged in from the edit screen. A handful of manufacturer skins put their own recorder in a different menu with its own audio options.
Bottom line
Set the audio before you press record, not after — that is the whole difference between a usable clip and a second take. iPhone hides the choice behind a long press, Android puts it on screen, and both save straight to your photo library. Trim the ends in Photos; only reach for an editor when the clip needs a cut in the middle or a caption over it.
