Last updated: 2026-01-15

For quick one-off captures, use your iPhone’s built‑in Screen Recording toggle and turn the Microphone on from Control Center before you start. When you need presenter-led, reusable recordings or multi-person walkthroughs, record your screen and mic through a StreamYard studio instead.

Summary

• Use the native iPhone Screen Recording button and enable the Microphone for simple voiceover captures.
• Your recordings save straight into the Photos app where you can trim or share them.
• For longer, branded, or multi-participant recordings, run your demo through StreamYard’s browser studio and capture screen + mic with local multi-track files. (streamyard.com)
• Other tools like Loom and OBS can help in specific cases, but many people prefer StreamYard’s balance of simplicity, collaboration, and recording quality. (loom.com)

How do you record your iPhone screen with the microphone on?

Here’s the fastest, reliable way using Apple’s built-in tools.

Step 1: Add Screen Recording to Control Center (one-time setup)

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Control Center.
2. In “More Controls,” tap the green + next to Screen Recording.
3. Screen Recording now appears when you swipe down from the top-right (on Face ID iPhones) or swipe up from the bottom (older models). Apple documents this as the starting point for screen capture. (Apple Support)

Step 2: Turn the microphone on

1. Open the app or screen you want to record.
2. Open Control Center.
3. Press and hold the Screen Recording button until a pop-up appears.
4. Tap the microphone icon at the bottom so it turns red and shows “Microphone On.” (Apple Support)
5. Tap Start Recording. You’ll see a three-second countdown.

You’ll know the mic is live if the button text reads “Microphone On” before the countdown. Many guides emphasize this press-and-hold step because tapping once starts a silent recording. (MacRumors)

Step 3: Stop and find your recording

• When you’re done, tap the red status bar or the red Dynamic Island indicator and choose Stop.
• Your video saves automatically to the Photos app in your library. (Apple Support)
• Open Photos, tap the video, and use Edit to trim the beginning or end.

That’s all you need for simple “talk over the screen” captures with your iPhone mic.

When is iPhone’s built-in recorder enough—and when does it fall short?

The native recorder is perfect when:

• You’re showing a quick app workflow for a friend or coworker.
• You just need raw footage and don’t care about layout, branding, or separate audio tracks.
• You’re okay sending a large video file from Photos or uploading it manually.

It starts to feel limiting when you:

• Want your face on camera alongside the screen in a consistent layout.
• Need to mix screen audio and mic audio more precisely (e.g., lowering game volume while your voice stays clear).
• Plan to repurpose the same demo for YouTube, a course, and live training sessions.
• Need multiple people on screen walking through a product together.

That’s where a browser-based studio like StreamYard becomes a more practical home base for your recordings.

How can StreamYard help you record better screen + mic content?

On a laptop or desktop, you can open StreamYard in the browser, share your screen, and capture high-quality mic audio—all in one controllable layout. From there, it’s easy to bring iPhone content into the mix via screen-sharing workflows (more on that below) while keeping your presentation clean.

Here are a few things you can do in our studio that you can’t do with the iPhone recorder alone:

• Presenter-visible layouts: You see exactly how viewers will see your screen, camera, and any guests. You can resize or switch layouts during the session instead of being stuck with a raw full-screen capture. (streamyard.com)
• Independent audio control: Screen audio and microphone audio are separate sources, so you can balance background sounds under your narration instead of hoping your iPhone’s mic picks everything up correctly.
• Local multi-track recordings: On all plans, you can capture local recordings per participant, which gives you separate audio/video files for cleaner editing later. (support.streamyard.com)
• Branded overlays and logos: Add your logo, lower thirds, and on-screen prompts live so less editing is required afterward.
• Landscape and portrait from one session: You can run a single recording, then crop and reuse it for horizontal YouTube uploads and vertical Shorts/Reels.

Compared with alternatives like Loom—which focuses on quick, shareable async videos with per-user pricing—and OBS, which expects you to manage complex scenes and encoding on your own, many creators find StreamYard a better balance of simplicity and production control for recurring demos and trainings. (loom.com) (obsstudio.app)

How do you bring an iPhone screen into a StreamYard recording?

Right now, iOS doesn’t let you “share screen to StreamYard” directly from the phone, but there are reliable workarounds. (StreamYard Support)

Common workflow with a Mac:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac via Lightning or USB‑C.
2. Open QuickTime Player and choose New Movie Recording.
3. Select your iPhone as the camera input in QuickTime.
4. In StreamYard’s studio on your Mac, share the QuickTime window (or the whole display).
5. Use your usual mic connected to the Mac, and let StreamYard capture your voice plus any audio you route from the phone.

This way, you still see your layouts in the StreamYard studio, keep your microphone quality high, and get cloud + local recordings ready for editing and reuse.

If you only need to join as a guest from an iPhone—say you’re on the go—our iOS Guest app lets you come into a host’s studio with your phone mic; external mics work via Bluetooth headphones. (StreamYard iOS Guest App)

How does this compare with Loom and OBS for iPhone-style recordings?

It helps to understand where each tool fits:

• Loom on iOS can record your screen and microphone audio and send an instant link, but on its free Starter plan you’re limited to 5‑minute recordings and roughly 25 stored videos per person before you need to upgrade. (loomhelp.zendesk.com)
• Loom focuses on quick async clips; it doesn’t aim to be a full live studio with multi-guest layouts and advanced scene control. (loom.com)
• OBS is powerful for deep local screen capture, but it’s a desktop-only install and expects you to manage hardware requirements, scenes, and encoders. (obsproject.com)

StreamYard sits in the middle: in-browser, easier to learn than OBS, more show-style and multi-participant friendly than Loom, and designed for both recording and live streaming from the same workspace. For many people who start by asking “How do I record my iPhone screen with a mic?”, StreamYard becomes the natural next step once they want repeatable, branded content.

What’s a simple workflow to move from iPhone-only to a StreamYard studio?

Here’s a lightweight path you can follow:

1. Start with native iPhone recordings to get used to narrating your screen.
2. When you find yourself repeating the same demo, move that workflow to StreamYard on a laptop so you can control layouts, add your camera, and capture cleaner audio.
3. Use the iPhone + Mac sharing workflow above to bring mobile screens into your studio when needed.
4. Keep your sessions in StreamYard’s cloud storage, then download multi-track files for editing into courses, sales assets, and social clips. (support.streamyard.com)

Because our pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, teams that move from solo iPhone captures to shared demo libraries often find StreamYard scales more affordably than per-user tools. (streamyard.com)

What we recommend

• Use iPhone Screen Recording + Microphone On for quick, one-off captures saved to Photos.
• When you’re creating repeatable demos, trainings, or branded walkthroughs, record your screen and mic inside a StreamYard studio instead.
• Bring your iPhone screen into StreamYard via a Mac (QuickTime + screen share) when you need mobile visuals without sacrificing audio quality or layouts.
• As your library grows, rely on StreamYard’s cloud and local recordings so your content is easy to edit, repurpose, and share with your team.