The Screenshot Trick You Did Not Know Your Phone Could Do
My mom sent me a screenshot last week of a recipe she wanted to save. It was five separate screenshots, each one cut off mid-sentence, and I had to scroll between them to read the ingredients list. I called her and told her about scrolling screenshots. She had owned her phone for two years and had no idea this existed.
If you also did not know — this will change how you use your phone.
Scrolling screenshots (both iPhone and Android)
On an iPhone: take a normal screenshot (press the side button and volume up at the same time). Before the thumbnail disappears in the bottom-left corner, tap it. At the top of the editing screen, you will see a tab that says “Full Page.” Tap it. Your phone captures the entire scrollable page — a long webpage, an email thread, a text conversation — as one continuous image. Tap Done and choose “Save PDF to Files.”
On Android: take a screenshot, then tap the “Scroll capture” or downward arrow button that appears in the toolbar. Keep tapping until you have captured everything you want. Your phone stitches it all into a single long image saved in your gallery.
Screen recording is built in
You do not need a separate app. On iPhone, add Screen Recording to Control Center (Settings → Control Center → add the record button). Swipe down, tap the button, and it records everything on your screen including audio if you long-press and enable the microphone. On Android, screen recording is in the Quick Settings panel — swipe down twice and look for the screen record icon. If it is not there, edit the panel to add it.
I use this constantly to show my parents where to tap on their own phones. A 30-second screen recording is worth about fifteen minutes of written instructions.
Markup before you send
After taking a screenshot, tap the thumbnail to open the markup tools — the pen, highlighter, and shape tools. Circle the important part. Draw an arrow. Crop out the stuff at the top and bottom that nobody needs to see (like your battery percentage and the time). A marked-up screenshot saves the recipient from playing “find the thing I am supposed to look at.”
My mom now sends me single scrolling screenshots instead of five separate ones. She told me she feels “techy.” I will take it.
📋 Quick Summary: Tap the screenshot thumbnail → “Full Page” (iPhone) or “Scroll capture” (Android) to capture entire pages. Built-in screen recording in Control Center / Quick Settings. Markup before sending.