10 Screenshot Hacks Every IPhone User Should Know
While Macs have the best screenshot tools of any Apple device, the situation is somewhat different on iPhones. iOS devices are largely limited to built-in screenshot and screen recording tools , making it difficult to bypass apps that block these features. However, your iPhone’s screenshot tool is far from basic; it supports editing, annotations, and even text extraction from images. If you want to take better screenshots on iOS, these 10 tips can help.
Use AssistiveTouch to take screenshots without pressing any buttons.
I’ve always found it counterintuitive to take screenshots using hardware buttons on a touchscreen device. There are two simple ways to avoid pressing these buttons to take screenshots. The first relies on the virtual Home button, which can be enabled by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch . Here, turn on AssistiveTouch to add a virtual Home button to your iPhone. Then, tap Customize Home Menu , and if you’re only interested in using this option for screenshots, reduce the number of icons from six to one by tapping the minus button. After that, tap the remaining icon on this settings page. Go to Device > Screenshot and tap the blue checkmark in the upper-right corner. The next time you press the virtual Home button, your iPhone will immediately take a screenshot.
The second method uses the “Back to Back ” feature in iOS, which triggers various actions when you physically touch the back of your iPhone. You can enable it in Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back to Back . Select “Double Tap” or “Triple Tap” and go to “Device” > “Screenshot.” I recommend choosing “Triple Tap” to avoid accidental screenshots. Once enabled, triple tap the back of your phone to take a screenshot.
Use this gesture to add calendar events directly from a screenshot.
If someone sent you a screenshot of a ticket or you saved an image with a date or time, you can add it to your calendar using a hidden iOS feature. After opening the screenshot, tap the small “Live Text” button in the lower right corner (the icon is three horizontal lines surrounded by dotted frames). This will display the date or time in the lower left corner of the screenshot. Tap this button, and you’ll see a new page where you can quickly add an event to your calendar. Sometimes a “More” button may appear next to the date or time. This appears when there are multiple dates in the screenshot, and you can tap “More” to select the desired date to add to your calendar. Your iPhone can also recognize flight numbers in screenshots and display the current status of that flight.
Use Copy & Delete to share screenshots without saving them to Photos.
This is one of the best features for those who want to avoid the accumulation of useless screenshots in their photo library. After you’ve taken a screenshot on your iPhone, tap the thumbnail to open the screenshot editor page and tap the checkmark icon in the upper right corner. Here, you can select “Copy and Delete” to save the screenshot to the clipboard and delete it from your device. Now you can paste it into other apps like Mail, Messages, or WhatsApp. Goodbye, clutter.
Use the Live Text tool to extract text from screenshots.
Your iPhone has a powerful text extraction tool that lets you copy text from images. Simply take a screenshot, tap the thumbnail in the lower left corner, and tap the “Live Text” button in the lower right corner. This tool instantly recognizes any text in the image, making it easy to select and copy.
Hold the screen to draw symmetrical shapes in annotations.
When I’m annotating a screenshot, I often quickly draw a squiggle to highlight something for anyone who sees it. Since I’m no Picasso, my attempts to draw a circle (or any other shape) over an element in the screenshot look hopelessly unprofessional. Luckily, iOS has a feature that lets you transform your squiggles into regular shapes. Try this: draw a rough circle, rectangle, square, or other shape on the screenshot. Immediately hold the screen, and iOS will transform your drawing into a neat, symmetrical shape.
Use opaque shapes to reliably hide sensitive information in screenshots.
I’ve seen too many screenshots with poorly hidden sensitive information . When people take screenshots on iPhones, they often use the pen tool or even a highlighter to obscure email addresses, phone numbers, or names. These methods are surprisingly easy to bypass for those in the know, leaving your information vulnerable. If you’re trying to reliably hide information in an image, use opaque shapes instead. This is a built-in tool on your iPhone that carefully obscures information and is much faster than crossing out text hundreds of times. When you take a screenshot, open the image via thumbnail and tap the pen icon at the top. Tap the “+” button in the lower right corner and tap “Add Shape.” Select any shape you like and tap the first circle in the pop-up menu to add any color. This will make the shape opaque. Now drag this shape over the sensitive information and save the image.
Use this automation to remove unnecessary screenshots.
Deleting multiple screenshots manually can be tedious. However, you can use Apple’s Shortcuts app to create an automation that will do it for you. The basic logic behind this automation is to find all photos that are screenshots taken within a certain period of time and delete them in one action. For most users, this will work as a periodic cleanup tool, deleting recently taken screenshots. For example, you could use it to delete all screenshots taken in the last 30 days. I’ve created an example shortcut for you . You can modify it to suit your needs, but if you use it as is, it will find and delete all screenshots from the last month. It asks for confirmation before deleting screenshots, and even after it’s complete, you can still recover photos from the “Recently Deleted” folder.
Disable thumbnail display to prevent accidental screenshots.
Screenshots on your iPhone probably work like this: you take a screenshot, and the device displays a thumbnail in the lower left corner. It disappears after a few seconds, and the screenshot is saved to your library. If you accidentally took a screenshot and didn’t tap the thumbnail quickly enough, you’ll have to delete the screenshot from your library manually. If this bothers you, I recommend enabling full-screen screenshot previews. This way, when you take a screenshot (accidentally or not), you’ll see a preview and can decide whether you want to save the image.
Apple has changed this default setting, so there’s a chance your screenshots now open in full-screen mode. However, if your iPhone still uses thumbnail mode, you can adjust this by going to Settings > General > Screenshot and enabling Full-screen preview .
Enable microphone audio recording to create screen recordings.
In addition to taking screenshots, you can also record your iPhone’s screen. This has many uses, but one of the best is creating screencasts. I often use this to help parents troubleshoot technical issues. You can also add microphone audio to these screencasts to make them even more useful and avoid recording your voice separately. To do this, open Control Center by swiping down from the upper-right corner of the screen. If you don’t see the Screen Recording button there, you can add it by tapping the “+” button in the upper-left corner and selecting “Add Control” > “Screen Recording.”
Hold the screen recording button until a pop-up menu appears. Tap the “Mute Microphone” button, and it will change to “Unmute Microphone .” Tap “Start Recording,” wait three seconds, and the screen recording will begin. You can now begin speaking, and your voice will be included in the screen recording.
Use this keyboard shortcut to mute sound and screen capture preview.
If you want to take screenshots with maximum efficiency, try Screenshot , a screenshot shortcut I found on Reddit . This shortcut bypasses all the screenshot previews and capture sounds and instantly saves your screenshot to the library of your choice. After installing the shortcut, read the instructions and choose an album for your screenshots. (By default, your screenshots are placed in the Recent album, which may not be ideal for everyone.) Then, open Control Center, tap the “+” button, and select “Add Control” > “Shortcut.” Now select the Screenshot shortcut, and you’re done. The next time you need to take a screenshot ASAP, launch this shortcut from Control Center, and you’ll notice it’s the least invasive way to take screenshots. You can even associate this shortcut with the Back gesture for even faster access.