How to keep your camera on over other apps while you screen record on iPhone

The short answer

iOS lets an app keep its camera running in a Picture in Picture window, the same floating window video-calling apps use. That window stays on top of whatever app is in front, and the system screen recording captures everything on the screen, the window included. So the screen, your face and your voice end up in one video.

Reel is a screen recorder built around exactly that. On iPhone and iPad it keeps your camera in Picture in Picture while you record other apps, with no watermark, no time limit and no account. It needs iOS 26 or iPadOS 26.

Step by step

Picture in Picture is the camera mode on a new install, so most of this is checking rather than changing.

1. Open Reel and allow camera access when asked.
2. Go to Settings → Camera. Make sure Show Camera is on and Mode is Picture in Picture.
3. Tap Screen Recording in Reel's toolbar. iOS opens its own recording sheet: turn on Microphone there if you want your voice, then tap Start Broadcast.
4. Leave Reel. Your camera moves into a floating bubble that stays on top of everything. If it does not appear, go back to Reel, tap Picture in Picture in the toolbar, then leave again.
5. Open the app you want to show and use it as you normally would. Drag the bubble to a corner, or pinch it to resize it.
6. To stop, return to Reel and tap Stop Recording, or tap the red indicator at the top of the screen. The finished MP4, with the screen, your face and the sound in one file, is saved to Photos.

Why the bubble stays on and ends up in the video

Two things make it work. The camera keeps running while another app is in front, because Reel uses the camera access iOS gives to apps in Picture in Picture. And the recording is the system's own screen capture, which records what is on the screen, not what is inside one app. The bubble is on the screen, so it is in the file, at the size and place you put it.

That is also the difference from recorders whose camera exists only inside their own screen: there, your face disappears the moment you switch to the app you wanted to show.

Tips for a clean recording

• Put the bubble where it does not cover what you are pointing at. It cannot be moved after the recording, because it is part of the picture.
• Do not push the bubble off the edge of the screen. iOS then tucks it away as a small tab, and the recording shows the tab instead of your face.
• Blur, an image or a video can replace the room behind you (Settings → Camera → Background). Remove Background is not offered in Picture in Picture; it works with the camera inside Reel.
• Recording a game in landscape? Set Lock Orientation and Locked Mode in Settings → General before you start, so the recording does not turn halfway through.
• If iOS's Start PiP Automatically is off (Settings → General → Picture in Picture), the bubble will not appear on its own. Start it with the Picture in Picture button in Reel before you leave.
• Record five seconds first and play them back, to check your voice, the app's sound and where the bubble sits.

Other ways people do it, and how they differ

• The built-in recorder in Control Centre: records the screen and, with a long press, the microphone. It has no camera at all.
• Recorders that add your face afterwards: you record the screen first, then record a reaction in their editor. It works for commentary, but you are not filmed while you use the app.
• Recorders with the camera inside their own screen: fine for reacting to a clip inside the app, but your face is gone once you open another app.
• Two devices and an editor: one records the screen, another films you, and you line them up later. It works, and it is the most work.

What it costs

Recording with the camera over other apps is free in Reel, at every tier: no watermark, no time limit, no account. On iPhone and iPad the free version shows an ad between sessions. Pro removes the ads and adds Source (Native) resolution; in the US it is $0.99 a month, $9.99 a year or $14.99 once.