How to Screen Record on Android

Android has a built-in screen recorder that makes it super easy to make videos of what’s happening on your screen. If you didn’t know about this handy feature, we’ll show you how to use it.

For a long time, if you wanted to make a screen recording of your Android device you needed to use a third-party app. However, Android 11 introduced a native screen recorder tool. This is a much better solution.

Note: We’ll be demonstrating the screen recorder tool on a Google Pixel phone, but the feature is available on Samsung Galaxy and other Android 11+ devices as well.

First, we’ll need to move the “Screen Record” tile into the Quick Settings if it’s not already. Swipe down twice from the top of your device’s screen and tap the pencil icon to edit the tile layout. On a Samsung phone, tap the three-dot menu icon and select “Edit Buttons.”

The tiles at the top section are in the Quick Settings area (this is flipped on a Samsung phone). Find the “Screen Record” tile, tap and hold, and then drag the tile to the top area. Lift your finger to drop the tile.

Tap the back arrow in the top-left corner when you’re done.

Now we can actually use the screen recorder. First, go to the screen that you want to record, then pull down the Quick Settings again. Tap the “Screen Record” tile.

Next, you can decide if you also want to record audio tap the down arrow to choose between media, microphone, or both and show your touches on the screen.

Tap “Start” when you’re ready and you’ll see a countdown appear.

When you’re done recording, swipe down from the top of the screen to show the notifications and tap “Stop” on the screen recorder.

That’s it! The recording will be saved to the “Movies” or “Screen Recordings” folder on your device. It’s very handy to be able to do this without any third-party software. It’s nice to see more operating systems getting this as a native feature.