Hi Applevis community.
I'm running past you an often overlooked feature, screen recording. This is because it's not in Control Centre by default as of today, therefore it needs to be added manually, depending on the iOS/iPadOS you have. For example in both iOS and iPadOS 18 you can add screen recording directly to Control Centre, otherwise you add it under settings/control centre.
The good news is screen recording will record all system sounds, including VoiceOver. Do not use the microphone toggle unless you're prepared to use the earpiece, iPhone only of course.
The idea is you could show Apple or a third party developer or even another user a problem you are facing, without having to describe word for word steps to reproduce. A screen recording is at the very least hard proof that the problem really does exist. I'm sure we've all been there; describing steps to reproduce a problem only to be responded with a less than helpful 'sorry we cannot reproduce'.
Hope you find this of use, particularly when preparing for next week and beyond, but that's for another thread.
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Have a good day!
Comments
I love screen recording
Hi,
I use screen recording to record foreign language content from YouTube, and then I send the file to Aiko to get a transcription of the audio. It's the closest thing to using subtitles I've ever experienced. I also used it to help me record what was going on in an ap to help me submit a bug report to Apple once.
I just wish
I just wish there was a super fast way to start a screen recording without going through control centre.
Interestingly Enough
Siri at one time did have a way to start a screen recording session via a shortcut.
https://9to5mac.com/2023/04/04/screen-record-on-iphone-with-siri/
Though, as mentioned in the article (with an update blurb), Apple removed it and it never made it out of the iPhone 16.5 beta phase.
No idea if it has ever returned.
Screen recording
I love the screen recording feature, but there’s this one bug that’s been around forever, and I don’t know why it still exists. Like you mentioned in your post, whenever you turn on the microphone from the Control Center in the screen recording section, the audio output switches from the iPhone speaker to the earpiece. It doesn’t stay on the iPhone speaker like you’d expect. I have no idea why it does that—it’s really annoying. It means that when this happens, I have to physically hold the phone up to my ear to hear voiceover, and then awkwardly navigate back to Control Center to manually switch the sound output back to the iPhone speaker. It’s not that you can’t use screen recording with headphones or earphones, but there’s a bit of a learning curve, especially if you want to record something quickly. You can plug in headphones and then switch the output to the iPhone speaker again, if you want to keep the mic active—but yeah, kind of a hassle. If you’re someone who absolutely needs your earphones or headphones to work properly while screen recording, then yeah, this bug is a hard pass. I’ve reported this issue to Apple more than once, but nothing’s ever come of it. After a while, I stopped reporting bugs—I don’t have the time or energy to keep following up on bugs that doesn’t get fixed.
Another weird thing I’ve noticed is when you try to add new controls to the Control Center—it becomes a mess. Before, everything fit neatly into that one little section. Now, it’s like the controls are scattered across multiple pages or something. I’ve definitely seen others mention it too—maybe here or in the iPhone and iPad group on Facebook. Either way, it’s awful. Now, I will say that when it comes to troubleshooting issues, screen recording is a fantastic tool. It’s perfect for showing exactly what’s happening on your screen—whether you’re trying to report a bug or help someone understand a step-by-step process. That said, even when I’ve sent recordings to Apple, it doesn’t always lead to them fixing the issue. But still, for those who weren’t aware of this functionality, I hope the info helps—it really can make a difference.
And speaking of future upgrades, the next step should be live screen sharing. Like, instead of just recording and sending over a clip, we should be able to share our screens in real time and maybe even talk to an AI assistant while we’re doing it. Imagine saying, “Hey, what’s this button do?” and getting an answer in the moment. When you turn on the microphone during screen recording, it does pick up your voice too. For example, if I’m showing someone how to create a ringtone or how to remove the subject from a picture on their phone, I’ll say, “Okay, I’m tapping this button here,” instead of them having to guess based on visuals or VoiceOver alone. That extra context is helpful—especially when you’re sending recordings to Apple or trying to explain a process to someone who might not be familiar with what’s on your screen.
Re: Screen recording and Control Center, etc.
Yes, the fact that Voiceover suddenly gets very quiet when screen recording starts definitely makes it more difficult to make a screen recording when sending the requested info to Apple Accessibility. Rather than go through the hassle, I often give up on providing the requested screen recording for a bug which, I know, is a bad thing, but it would be nice if this worked better for Voiceover users.
As for the issue with items being drastically rearranged when adding something to the Control Center, I think this is because some of the items you can add to the control Center take up more than a single grid location. I believe some of the controls might, for example, take up a 2 by 2 area and thus replace more controls when added.
--Pete