How to record your iPhone screen with your camera on
The built-in recorder captures the screen and nothing else. If you want to be in the video — explaining, reacting, presenting — you need an app that records the camera at the same time and composites it in. Here is how that works and how to set it up.
Why the built-in recorder is not enough
Control Centre's screen recorder is good at exactly one thing: capturing the screen. It cannot show your camera, so a tutorial made with it is a silent cursor, or a screen with a voiceover and no person. To have your face in the frame you would record a second video on another device and line the two up in an editor — which is where most people give up.
A recorder that captures both at once solves this at the source. The camera is composited onto the screen recording while it happens, and you get one file.
Set it up
With Reel Screen Recorder installed, the whole thing is four steps.
- Open Reel and allow camera and microphone access when asked. Both are needed only for the features you use; screen recording permission is requested by iOS the first time you start.
- Turn on Show Camera in Settings → Camera and choose a mode: Camera in App keeps the preview inside Reel; Picture in Picture floats it over whatever you record, so you stay visible when you switch to another app.
- Tap the record button. iOS shows its own confirmation — that is ReplayKit, the system's screen capture, which Reel uses rather than a workaround.
- Do the thing you are showing. Stop from the red status indicator or by returning to Reel. The finished MP4 is saved to your photo library.
Where your face goes
Picture in Picture is the mode for recording other apps: the camera bubble follows you out of Reel and stays on screen. Drag it to a corner where it does not cover what matters. Camera in App is for when Reel itself is the stage — playing a video to react to, for instance.
The size and position you choose are what gets recorded. There is no fixing the layout afterwards, which is a reason to do a ten-second test first.
Sound
Your microphone and the audio from apps are recorded as separate levels. Leave Record audio in single track on if you want one simple mix; turn it off if you plan to edit and want to adjust your voice and the app sound independently later.
Do I need to hold the phone a certain way?
No, but lock the orientation in Settings → General if you will move the phone while recording, so a portrait recording stays portrait.
Does it record at full resolution?
480p, 720p and 1080p are free. Source (Native) — the device's own resolution — is a Pro tier.
Is there a watermark?
No.
