How to Screen Record With 'Internal Audio' Only

The Problem With Default Screen Recordings

A phone's built-in screen recorder usually defaults to capturing the microphone alongside your screen, which means every recording picks up room noise, keyboard clatter, and whatever's happening around you. For tutorials, app demos, or bug reproduction videos, you almost always want the opposite: clean system/app audio (button taps, video playback, game sound effects) with the microphone completely off. Both platforms support this, but the toggle is easy to miss.

iOS: Recording Internal Audio Only

iOS screen recording captures whatever audio the active app is playing by default — the microphone is a separate, additive option you have to deliberately turn on, so leaving it off gives you clean internal audio automatically.

1. Add Screen Recording to Control Center first if it isn't already there: go to Settings > Control Center and tap the green + next to Screen Recording.
2. Open Control Center (swipe down from the top-right corner on Face ID iPhones, or up from the bottom edge on Home button models).
3. Press and hold (don't just tap) the Screen Recording icon — a circle with a dot inside it. This opens the options menu instead of immediately starting the recording.
4. Confirm the Microphone toggle is off (it appears grayed out or unhighlighted when disabled).
5. Tap Start Recording. A three-second countdown plays, then recording begins — a red status bar appears at the top of the screen for the duration.
6. To stop, tap the red status bar (or the red recording indicator) and confirm Stop, or open Control Center again and tap the Screen Recording icon.

The finished recording saves to the Photos app automatically, containing only whatever audio the app on screen was playing — game sound effects, video playback audio, or button/UI sounds — with no ambient microphone noise.

Android: Recording Internal Audio Only

Android's approach varies slightly by manufacturer, but the built-in screen recorder on Android 11 and later (stock Android, Pixel, and most current OEM skins) gives you an explicit audio source choice before recording starts:

1. Open Quick Settings (swipe down twice from the top) and look for the Screen Record tile. If it's not there, tap the pencil/edit icon at the bottom of Quick Settings and drag it in.
2. Tap the Screen Record tile.
3. You'll see an audio source option — typically No sound, Device audio only (sometimes labeled "Media sounds"), or Device audio and microphone. Choose Device audio only for internal-audio-only capture.
4. Optionally toggle Show touches on screen if you want tap locations visible for a tutorial.
5. Tap Start. A three-second countdown plays, then recording begins.
6. Stop it from the persistent notification, or by pulling down Quick Settings and tapping the recording indicator again.

Why "Device Audio Only" Sometimes Isn't Available Per-App

A small number of apps — particularly banking apps, some streaming services (Netflix, and similar DRM-protected video), and certain games — deliberately block screen recording or mute their own audio during recording as a copy-protection measure enforced at the OS/DRM level. If your recording comes out silent despite choosing the correct audio source, this is almost always why, and there's no reliable workaround since it's enforced by the app itself, not a setting you control.

Checking the Result

Play back the recording immediately after stopping it — both platforms save to the default gallery/Photos app. Confirm there's no ambient room noise bleeding in (a sign the microphone toggle was accidentally left on) and that the audio you wanted is actually present and in sync with the video.