How to Screen Record on Any Device (Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android, Chromebook)

Almost every device you own can already record its own screen without a single download. The catch is that each one hides the feature behind a different keyboard shortcut or menu, saves the file in a different place, and quietly refuses to capture certain things — system audio on a phone, the Windows desktop, a protected streaming tab. This guide covers the exact steps for the six platforms people actually use, then shows where a browser recorder fills the gaps the native tools leave behind.

The real decision is native versus browser. Native tools are zero-setup and great for a quick clip you will keep to yourself. A browser recorder makes sense the moment you want the same workflow on every machine, need to trim and caption the result, or want to send a link instead of emailing a 400 MB file. You can mix both — record natively today, edit in the browser tomorrow.

macOS: Cmd+Shift+5 and QuickTime

Modern macOS has two built-in recorders. The screenshot toolbar is the faster one.

1. Press Cmd+Shift+5. A control bar appears at the bottom of the screen.
2. Choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion (the two rightmost capture icons).
3. Click Options to pick a microphone, set a countdown timer, and choose where the file saves (Desktop by default).
4. Click Record, then click the stop icon in the menu bar when you are done.

Files save as .mov to the Desktop unless you changed it under Options. A thumbnail floats in the bottom-right corner for a few seconds — click it to trim immediately.

QuickTime Player is the alternative: open it, choose File > New Screen Recording, and you get a similar capture bar. QuickTime is handy when you want to record an iPhone plugged in over USB (it appears as a camera source).

The big limitation on Mac: capturing internal system audio is not built in. Cmd+Shift+5 records your microphone, not the sound coming out of your speakers, so a YouTube video or a Zoom call's audio will not be in the file unless you install a virtual audio driver. A browser recorder sidesteps this for tab audio.

Two practical settings most people miss: under Options you can turn off Show Mouse Clicks so the recording does not flash a circle every time you click, and you can set a 5- or 10-second countdown to give yourself time to switch windows before capture begins. If the floating thumbnail in the corner gets in your way, just ignore it — it disappears on its own and the full file is already saved to disk.

Windows 10 and 11: Win+G Game Bar and Win+Alt+R

Windows ships with the Xbox Game Bar, which records screen activity despite the gaming name.

1. Press Win+G to open the Game Bar overlay.
2. Find the Capture widget and click the circle record button — or skip the overlay entirely and press Win+Alt+R to start and stop recording directly.
3. Toggle the microphone with Win+Alt+M.

Recordings save as .mp4 to This PC > Videos > Captures. System audio is included by default, which is a real advantage over the Mac toolbar.

The catch is what Game Bar refuses to record. It only captures a single application window, so it will not record the Windows desktop, File Explorer, or your whole screen with multiple windows. If you need to show someone how to navigate folders or drag files between windows, Game Bar is the wrong tool. Windows 11 users have a better option: the Snipping Tool now includes a video record mode (open it, click the record icon, drag to select any region) that does capture the desktop and arbitrary regions.

Game Bar also has a hard frame-rate and quality ceiling you can adjust under Settings > Gaming > Captures — switch the video quality to High and the frame rate to 60 fps if your clip looks soft or choppy at the defaults. One more gotcha: if Win+G does nothing, the Game Bar may be disabled in that same Settings panel, or a corporate group policy has turned it off, in which case the Snipping Tool or a browser recorder is the fallback.

Linux: GNOME's built-in recorder and OBS

If you run a recent GNOME desktop (Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora, and most mainstream distros), there is a built-in recorder you may not know exists.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R to start recording the full screen. A red dot appears in the top bar.
2. Press the same shortcut again to stop.

Clips save as .webm to ~/Videos/Screencasts. By default GNOME caps recordings at 30 seconds unless you raise the limit with a gsettings tweak — that surprise time limit catches a lot of people. The built-in tool also does not capture audio, which makes it fine for silent demos and not much else.

For anything serious on Linux, OBS Studio is the standard. It is free and open source, captures system audio and microphone, supports multiple sources and scenes, and exports to .mp4 or .mkv. The trade-off is setup time: you configure sources, audio tracks, and an output folder before your first recording, which is overkill for a quick 20-second clip. For those, a browser recorder is faster than launching OBS.

iPhone and iPad: Control Center recording

iOS has a solid built-in recorder, but the button is hidden until you add it.

1. Open Settings > Control Center and tap the plus next to Screen Recording to add it.
2. Swipe down from the top-right corner (or up from the bottom on older models) to open Control Center.
3. Tap the record circle. A three-second countdown starts.
4. To capture your voice, long-press the record button first and toggle the Microphone on before starting.
5. Tap the red status bar or clock and confirm Stop to finish.

Recordings save straight to Photos as .mov. The recorder captures the device's own audio output, so app sounds and game audio are included.

The notable limitation: some apps block internal audio or video capture entirely. Streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+ record as a black screen because of DRM, and certain apps mute their own audio during capture. The microphone toggle records your voice and ambient room sound, but it is not the same as a clean internal feed when an app refuses to cooperate.

A couple of details worth knowing before you record a tutorial on iPhone: notifications will appear in the recording unless you flip on Do Not Disturb first, and the status bar clock and battery icon are baked into the file. If you are recording a demo you plan to share publicly, turn on Focus mode and consider hiding personal banners ahead of time. The recorder keeps running in the background, so you can navigate between apps freely and even lock the screen without stopping it.

Android: the Quick Settings screen recorder

Android 11 and later include a native screen recorder in the Quick Settings panel.

1. Swipe down twice from the top to fully expand Quick Settings.
2. Find the Screen Recorder tile. If it is missing, tap the edit pencil and drag it into the active tiles.
3. Tap the tile, then choose your audio source: Device audio, Microphone, or both. Decide whether to show screen touches.
4. Tap Start, wait for the countdown, and use the notification's stop control when finished.

Files save to Photos/Gallery or the Movies folder as .mp4, depending on the manufacturer. Samsung, Google Pixel, and others each style the panel slightly differently, but the flow is the same.

Like iOS, Android respects DRM, so protected streaming content records as a blank frame. Device-audio capture also varies by phone — a few older or budget models only record the microphone, which means background room noise instead of clean app sound.

Chromebook: Shift+Ctrl+Show-windows

ChromeOS has a built-in screen capture tool that does both screenshots and video.

1. Press Shift+Ctrl+Show windows (the Show-windows key sits where F5 would be, with a rectangle-and-lines icon). On a non-Chromebook keyboard, that key is usually F5.
2. In the toolbar that appears, click the video camera icon to switch from screenshot to screen record.
3. Choose full screen, partial, or window, then click to start.
4. Click the red stop button in the shelf (status area) to finish.

Recordings save as .webm to the Downloads folder and a notification lets you open them in the Gallery app. You can enable the microphone from the settings gear in the capture toolbar before recording.

The ChromeOS recorder captures microphone audio but historically has not captured system/tab audio reliably, so the sound from a video playing on screen may be missing. This is the same gap a browser-based recorder closes cleanly, since it can grab tab audio directly through the browser.

Record on any device with one tool

If you bounce between a work laptop, a personal Mac, and a Chromebook, learning six different shortcuts gets old fast — and you still hit the audio gaps above. A browser recorder gives you one identical workflow everywhere there is Chrome, Edge, or another Chromium browser, including most Chromebooks and Linux machines where native options are thin.

Reqo's screen recorder runs entirely in the browser with nothing to install. It captures your screen, webcam, and microphone, and because it works through the browser it can record tab audio — the exact thing macOS and ChromeOS make hard. When you stop, the recording opens in a full editor where you can trim, cut, edit by transcript, and add captions, then publish an instant share link instead of moving a large file around.

The free plan gives you unlimited recording with no time limit and the complete editor — no 30-second GNOME cap, no single-window Game Bar restriction. Free exports carry a small Reqo badge. Reqo Pro at $19/month removes the badge for watermark-free exports, adds unlimited team members, and unlocks the AI Studio (avatars, text-to-video, and AI images). AI generation is a Pro feature. If you are comparing options, the Loom alternative breakdown covers how it stacks up for team recording.

Which tool for which device

Device	Built-in tool	Main limitation
macOS	Cmd+Shift+5 / QuickTime	No system-audio capture without a driver
Windows 10/11	Win+G Game Bar (Win+Alt+R)	Won't record desktop or File Explorer
Linux (GNOME)	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R / OBS	30-second cap and no audio on the built-in recorder
iPhone / iPad	Control Center recording	DRM apps and some internal audio blocked
Android	Quick Settings recorder	DRM blocked; device audio varies by phone
Chromebook	Shift+Ctrl+Show-windows	Tab/system audio often missing

Reach for the native tool when you want a quick, private clip and you are already on the device. Reach for a browser recorder when you want the same steps on every machine, need clean tab audio, or want to trim, caption, and share the result without leaving the page.