Reel vs the built-in iPhone screen recorder

What the built-in recorder is good at

Capturing the screen, quickly, at the device's native resolution, with the microphone on if you long-press the button and turn it on. For a bug report, a quick how-to for a friend, or saving something before it disappears, it is exactly enough and there is no reason to install anything.

What it cannot do

• Show your camera. There is no way to have your face in the recording.
• Control app audio and mic audio separately. It is one on/off for the mic and whatever the app plays.
• Choose a resolution. It records at native size, which makes large files for a two-minute clip.
• Lock orientation, add a background behind a camera, or play a video inside itself to react to.
• Exclude or include specific windows on Mac, or start from a keyboard shortcut.

What Reel adds

All of the above, and the camera is the reason it exists. Screen and camera are captured together into one file; the camera can float, sit in native Picture in Picture, or on Mac live in its own pop-out window. Mic and app audio are separate levels. Resolution is a choice — 480p, 720p, 1080p free, native with Pro. Orientation locks. Backgrounds go behind the camera.

It uses the same system capture the built-in recorder does — ReplayKit on iOS, ScreenCaptureKit on Mac — so there is no quality penalty for the extras.

When to use which

No face, no audio mixing, no particular size: use the built-in one. Anything with a person in it, anything you will publish, anything where the sound matters: Reel.