How to Record the Screen on Your Apple iPad
We’ve discussed how to take screenshots on your iPad for quickly capturing and sharing or saving content, but sometimes a screenshot just isn’t enough. If you want to record your screen for a longer period of time to capture what’s happening, you’ll need a different approach. Fortunately, the latest version of iPadOS makes natively capturing video a straightforward process with plenty of options for sharing when you are done. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Step 1: Head to the Control Center
Unlock your iPad, and select the Settings app with the gear-like icon. In Settings, scroll down until you see Control Center. Select it to continue.
Step 2: Enable Screen Recording
In the Control Center management window, you can view all of the significant capabilities that you can access at any time from the Control Center, which you can open by swiping down from the top right of your iPad. The Control Center is already a very popular way to quickly adjust volume and brightness, enable Airplane Mode, and so on — but it can do much more based on how you customize it. Right now we’re going to customize it with the ability to record your screen while you are working.
Scroll down past Included Controls to More Controls, and look for the option called Screen Recording. Since it is not innately enabled in the Control Center, it should be in this section with a plus sign next to it. Select the plus sign.
Screen Recording should have shifted to the top and will now be in Included Controls.
Step 3: Open your Control Center and start recording
Swipe down from the upper right corner of your iPad to open the Control Center. You will now see a small new circular icon, the traditional media control sign for recording or going live.
When you press the Screen Recording button, it will give you a three-second countdown before starting to record. Since you aren’t livestreaming and can always edit later, the countdown is nice, but there’s no need to feel pressured by it. When recording, the Screen Recording button will turn white. You can tap on your screen to leave the Control Screen and record whatever you wish. Unless you are muted, audio will also be recorded at the same time
Step 4: End the recording
Ending the recording is very easy: You will see a red notification at the top right of your iPad showing that the recording is ongoing. Select it and choose Stop Recording to stop. Remember, you can always edit these last moments out later so there’s no rush here.
When you stop the recording, you will see a notification pop up that says the video was saved in your Photos app. You can select this icon now to immediately visit your video, or you can head to Photos and check your most recent saved files at any time to find it.
Step 5: Edit and share your recording
With your recording open, look at the upper right-hand corner for important controls. Let’s start with the Edit option. Select it to visit the editing screen, where you can make a variety of changes like:
- Use the touchscreen controls to drag the beginning and ending points of the video to where you prefer.
- Change the shade of the video.
- Crop and rotate the video.
- Adjust contrast, saturation, brightness, and similar effects.
When you are finished, you can save your edits, return to your file, and choose the Share button with the upward-pointing arrow to email the clip, send it on a messaging app, and upload it in a variety of different ways depending on your preferences.
Interested in recording on your iPhone instead? We have a guide to walk you through the iPhone version of the process too!
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