How to Screen Record on Android with & without Application? – A 2022 Updated Guide

Screen recording on Android has always been the biggest sought-after feature until Google equipped the Android 11 with it. That’s right! The previous versions of Android don’t offer such support; you will have to use an application to screen record up to the Android 10.

While we will be learning how to screen record on Android with and without application in the guide below, you will first have to determine the brand of your smartphone. Why? Because before Android 11—and now Android 12, Google didn’t offer a built-in screen recording feature, many brands offered it of their own will.

Smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, LG, and a few more allow you to record your screen, regardless of the feature’s built-in availability. You can check for the feature by swiping twice from the top, expanding the tiles, and tapping on adding or editing more tiles.

If your Android phone supports a feature like a screen recording, it will surely be there. Otherwise, fellow reader, you will be left with the only option of recording your screen, which brings back you to this guide again, where you will learn both how to screen record on Android without an app, and with an app.

That said, here’s how you can record the screen on your Android per the availability that matches you the best.

How to Screen Record on Android without a Third-party App?

Recording screen on your Android without a third-party application is the result of the feature’s built-in availability. Unless you have been a stock Android user, you may find your smartphone, regardless of its Android version, offering you the liberty of recording your screen.

It is because the stock Android, until Android 11, didn’t offer recording support, but sure does now; and thanks to that, we’ll learn how to screen record on Android without an application.

1. Start with pulling down the notification bar from the top; that you can do by swiping from the top edge or, in the latest versions, swiping downwards from anywhere on the screen.
2. Expand the quick setting tiles by swiping downwards one more time, and spot the ‘Screen Recording’ or ‘Screen Recorder’ option from the tiles listed.
3. If you can not find the tile, tap on the ‘edit’ mark, which will look like a pen, and there will open all the unlisted tiles.
4. If your smartphone supports it, it must be there. If it doesn’t, scroll down on this guide to learn how to screen record on Android with an application.
5. Anyways, once you have spotted the option, tap the + icon or add it to the tiles.
6. You should now see the option in your default quick tiles, tap on it, and follow the prompts.
7. You can select if you want to record your screen without or with media and mic sound.
8. There will appear a three-second timer before your Android starts recording the screen.
9. Once it does, you will see a floating screen recording bar on your screen, where you will be able to minimize the bar itself, pause or stop the recording, and turn your front or back cameras on.
10. Once you are done recording the screen, you can tap the stop button, and it will save it in your Android storage > Gallery > Recordings > Your recording.

The whole process is how to screen record on Android without an application; it all depends upon if your Android smartphone supports the built-in feature or not.

Let’s now get to how you can record your screen with the applications.

How to Screen Record on Android with a Third-party App?

When it comes to recording your Android screen using an application, you may run out of screens to record, but not the applications that let you do so. It is because the Google play store is ballooning with the respective apps, and most of them don’t need you to root your smartphone to avail of its offerings.

With that said, we will list some of the applications that you can use to screen record on your Android, including Google’s very own play store—starting with the AZ screen recorder, an absolutely no-root screen recording app.

Screen Recording on Android Using AZ Screen Recorder

1. To download the application, just head on to the Play store, and search for the application using the search bar.
2. It will return with the application as a result; open the application right after you have installed it.
3. On the main screen of the application, you will see a big camcorder icon in the bottom-right corner, which starts the screen recording as soon as you tap it.
4. Exit the application, as it has already been recorded, and carry out whatever you wish to record.
5. Throughout your screen recording, there will be a pop-up bubble that’s the application’s very own, and lets you control the recording without having to open the application again and again.
6. It will be of orange color, and will only expand when you tap on it, which means it will shrink into the edge of your screen, barely visible.
7. The bubble hosts the options like pausing or stopping the recording, going live with your recording on Facebook or YouTube, and opening the previous recordings within the recording.
8. There also appears a toolbar in the notification center that offers and works the same as the bubble on the screen; it is only to give you a more friendly experience of the application.
9. To save your recording, you can tap on the stop icon in the bubble, and it will save it in your Android storage, which you can either see from the Gallery or from the application.

AZ screen recorder allows you to record full HD videos @60 fps and also lets you remove that orange bubble with invisible accessibility, but for all this, you may have to upgrade to a paid membership, which costs you somewhere around $3.00.

But, that’s exclusive to your use, depends on where and who views your screen recordings, just so you get conscious enough to pay for the application.

Screen Recording on Android Using Google Play Games

Note: you can only record game footage with Google Play Games.

Google Play Games is a complimentary application for the downloaded games to run. It is because it saves your progress throughout the game, and elevates your ranks per your performance.

Apart from these features, the application also lets you record your video game footage from your smartphone, all while you record your reactions playing the game using the front-facing camera.

Once again, it is not ‘Google Play Store,’ it is ‘’Google Play Games,’ which you can find in the play store, and download on your smartphone. Or if you download and play a supported game, it will first ask you to install the application, as it is a mandatory requirement for some of them.

Here’s how to screen record on Android using Google Play Games.

1. Download and open Google Play Games, and if you have installed your favorite games on your smartphone, you will see them all listed within the application.
2. Select the game you want to play and record by tapping on the game’s thumbnail.
3. In the next prompt, you will find a ‘Play’ button, and on the ribbon at the top, some options like the ‘Play Store’, ‘Camcorder’, and ‘three dots.’
4. Since we are learning to record the screen, you will tap on the camcorder icon, and it will ask you the video quality, which varies from 480P SD to 720P HD.
5. Choose your preferred quality, and tap ‘Next.’
6. In the next prompt, tap ‘Launch,’ and it will launch your game, where you will see a floating bubble on the screen, having the options like switching on the front-facing camera, recording itself, and microphone.
7. The recording option, which is a red color button, once tapped, will start recording your screen with a prestart three-second countdown.
8. Once you are done recording, press the recording button again, or drag the bubble from the video display of your footage to the cross button at the center of the screen. It will stop the recording.
9. You can find the recorded footage in your Gallery, which you can also edit and upload on your YouTube channel.

It is an excellent choice for the people who are game-conscious, and want to have a sidekick to keep their discord or YouTube gaming channel alive, no matter what.

Screen Recording on Android Using ADV Screen Recorder

Like AZ screen recorder, ADV screen recorder is a third-party application that lets you record the screen on your Android regardless of what you are recording. Also, it is completely free and has a good deal of positive reviews on the Google Play Store.

Here’s how you can record your Android screen using the ADV screen recorder:

1. You can find the application on the Google Play Store, download it, and open it. You will see a plane interface with a + icon in the bottom right corner.
2. As you tap the icon, there will open an overlay or you could say floating bubble on the screen, where it will have the options like drawing on the screen, turning on the front-facing camera, recording the screen, and accessing the previous footage.
3. Whatever you choose will have you permit the application, as it is the protocol that the ADV screen recorder follows.
4. You can record full HD recordings @60 fps, supported by the 15Mbps bit rate; and to start the recording, you will only have to tap on the red button from the overlay that pops up from the floating bubble.
5. The recorded videos can be viewed from the application itself and in your Gallery.

Some of the highlights of the ADV screen recorder are you can change the icon of the floating bubble with an image or text, control its visibility by fluctuating the opacity, or hide it completely for a more clean screen recording experience.

You could also enable the touches to be shown throughout your recording, but for that, you will have to enable developer options, and mark the respective settings enabled. If you are wondering how you can enable developer options, don’t wonder anymore:

1. Go to settings > About Phone, and find the build number.
2. Keep tapping on the build number, unless it says ‘You are already a developer’ or something like that.
3. Return to the main screen of the Settings app, scroll to the bottom, and you should see the ‘Developer options there.
4. If not, tap the ‘Additional settings’ or use the search bar to enter those options.
5. There you will see ‘Show touches,’ enable it, and you are good to go.

Anyways, after you have cleared the ADV screen recording application from the recent items, you may still see that floating bubble or overlay on your screen, which you can close by dragging it to the cross icon that pops up at the bottom center of the screen.

Conclusion

All these applications can be found on the Google Play Store. Not only the AZ, ADV, and Google Play Games, you can use any screen recording application from the play store that is excellently reviewed and boasts an easy and friendly user interface.

As for the process, it is more or less the same as described in this guide, a few tweaks may be there that you can figure out all by yourself, as you will spot and understand them in the first place.

Now that you have learned how to screen record on Android with and without an application, you can record everything from games to videos on your Android smartphone. The best way, if available, is through the built-in recording capability, as there are no upgrade limitations and you get to save overall storage as well.

Otherwise, depending on your usage and preference, you have all the options for the applications to screen record on Android.