The Screen Recording utility in iOS is a great way to share quick screenshots of what’s displayed on your iPhone screen. I use it all the time for tutorials or to just explain what I’m talking about in the simplest way possible. As I discussed in the last episode of iOS Decoded, in a future iOS update, the built-in screen recording utility will get three new features that will increase its usefulness.
As a user-facing utility, iOS Screen Recording serves two main functions. The default feature allows you to simply record your iPhone screen and save the recording to the Photos app. The second feature allows you to live stream your iPhone screen.
By pressing and holding the Screen Recording In Control Center, you’ll find additional options to enable the iPhone’s microphone and to set a broadcast destination for supported third-party apps like Zoom and Instagram.
In a future iOS update, screen recording will get several additional new features.
Record audio using a stereo microphone
Audio recorded during a screen recording from the iPhone’s built-in microphone is currently recorded in mono. In a future update, users will have the ability to use multiple built-in mics to create a stereo recording.
HDR support for screen recording
For now, Screen Recordings only supports SDR recording. You will notice that if you start a screen recording while viewing HDR content, the screen will darken and display everything in SDR. In a future iOS update, users will be able to capture and record HDR content using the Screen Recording utility.
View a live camera overlay using the picture-in-picture UI
Perhaps the biggest new update to iOS Screen Recording is the ability to simultaneously capture a live camera overlay while recording your iPhone screen. This feature will use the picture-in-picture UI, similar to what you’ll find during a SharePlay screen sharing session.
In the image above, you can see the new camera option to the left of the microphone option in the next screen recording UI. This Camera button will allow you to capture images from the on-board camera while recording the screen.
Take from 9to5Mac
These upcoming changes won’t shake things up for the masses, but for those who use screen recording regularly, these additions are welcome. All three features, especially video overlay, will be a more useful utility. What do you think?
To learn more, be sure to check out the latest episode of iOS Decoded, where I discuss this new upcoming feature, as well as many other new improvements coming to iOS 18.3.
