Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
If you want to share your Android phone’s screen content, you have a few options: take a screenshot, cast the screen, or record it with the built-in screen recorder. The screen recorder has been around for a couple of years now, but it’s still fairly basic. Despite receiving a few new features in recent years, it lacks many quality-of-life improvements found in other operating systems. Now, in preparation for Android coming to PCs, Google is working on a major upgrade to the feature. Here’s an early look. You’re reading the Authority Insights Newsletter, a weekly newsletter that reveals some new facet of Android that hasn’t been reported on anywhere else. If you’re looking for the latest scoops, the hottest leaks, and breaking news on Google’s Android operating system and other mobile tech topics, then we’ve got you covered.
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A (brief) history of screen recording on Android
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
Android didn’t have a native screen recorder until Android 11 was released in 2020. Before then, users had to rely on third-party apps from the Play Store or hope their phone’s manufacturer had included their own screen recorder in their version of Android. Since many manufacturers did and the Play Store has plenty of options, most users had a way to record their screen, but these solutions weren’t ideal.
Third-party screen recorders, for instance, are limited in what they can do. They can only record what the system allows, which is why they couldn’t capture internal app audio until Google added a specific API in Android 10. More importantly, these apps can be a security risk, as malicious developers have frequently abused screen recording permissions to steal sensitive information. These limitations and security concerns are why Google finally implemented its own official screen recorder in Android 11, making it available to all manufacturers through the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
Initially, Android’s built-in screen recorder could only capture the entire display. With the release of Android 14 QPR2, however, it gained the ability to record a single app. Google improved it again in the first quarterly release of Android 15, adding a status bar chip to show the recording’s length and making it possible to stop a recording without pulling down the notification shade.
This year’s Android 16 update, in contrast, didn’t bring any major upgrades, though it did add support for recording external displays. This change, while minor, was a sign that Google was preparing to improve screen recording on larger devices, likely in preparation for Android’s new Desktop Mode, which projects a PC-like interface from your phone to an external monitor.
Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
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