FaceTime calls and video calls all together are a brilliant way for families to connect, especially more so during these times of social distancing and staying away from one another just for each other’s safety. A video call has extra comfort and familiarity to it. It gives you a sense of being together even when miles are between you. Another useful feature with iOS devices is the screen-recording function, allowing you to record actions, videos, apps, whatever you have on your phone’s screen at the time of the recording, including said FaceTime calls.
While the screen-recording feature does record audio, including your own if you activate the microphone, audio recording is disabled for any and all video call screen recordings. Apple has disabled the ability to record audio of any video calls due to legal reasons, along with the multitude of different privacy and consent laws, to the disappointment of many.
However, if simply the video of your FaceTime call is sufficient, may we show you had to screen-record on your iOS devices.
How to screen record on iPhone/iPad
The screen-recording feature was added to Control Center in iOS 11, allowing you to add quick easy access to make a screen recording if you want.
Reminder: These steps will allow you to record ONLY the video of your FaceTime call, not the audio.
The first thing you want to do is check and see if the record button is already there in Control Center. To open Control Center, swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. Have a look. If you see the screen recording icon (a small solid white circle with a larger white circle) then skip ahead. If not, continue reading!
To add the screen recording feature to Control Center, go to Settings > Control Center. Make sure ‘Access Within Apps’ is turned on, then scroll down to ‘More Controls” and tap the green plus sign next to Screen Recording.
You’re now ready to screen record to your heart’s content!
You can now follow these steps to record the video part of your FaceTime call:
- Initiate the FaceTime call
- Open Control Center.
- Tap the screen recording icon (you’ll see a three-second countdown, then a red bar at the top of the screen to indicate it’s being recorded).
- During the whole recording process, you will see the status bar at the top of your screen becomes red. When you’re finished and want to stop the recording, simply tap on the red status bar at the top and then tap the Stop button at the confirmation dialog. Alternatively, you can open Control Center again and tap the recording icon one last time. Your video will be saved to Photos.
Note: By default, voice recording is disabled. If you want to record you audio with other screen recordings (that are not video calls), long press on the Screen Recorder in the Control Center, and turn on Microphone.