Your First Recording

This guide walks you through creating your first screen recording with Recorded.

Step 1: Configure Audio (Optional)

When you open Recorded, the main window shows the capture modes and your audio and camera controls. Set up audio first, because choosing a capture mode opens the picker right away:

  • Microphone — Turn on to record your voice narration. You can select which microphone to use from the device list.
  • System Audio — Turn on to capture sounds from your computer (music, app sounds, notifications, etc.). On macOS, this requires macOS 13 (Ventura) or later.

Step 2: Enable Webcam (Optional)

If you want to include a camera feed in your recording, select your camera. A small live preview appears so you can check your framing before you start.

Step 3: Choose a Capture Mode

Choose one of the three capture modes:

  • Monitor — Records your entire display
  • Window — Records a specific application window
  • Area — Records a custom rectangular region

For your first recording, Monitor is the easiest option.

Step 4: Select Your Target and Start Recording

Depending on the mode you chose, Recorded opens a picker overlay:

  • Monitor: Hover over the display you want to record.
  • Window: Hover over a window to highlight it (on both macOS and Windows).
  • Area: Click and drag to draw a rectangular region, then drag the corners or edges to fine-tune it.

Then click Start Recording. You can press Escape at any time to cancel the selection and go back.

A compact floating control panel appears while you record, showing:

  • A recording indicator (pulsing red dot with “REC” text)
  • An elapsed time counter
  • Stop and Cancel buttons

If you enabled your webcam, the control panel also shows a live camera preview, along with audio level indicators.

Step 5: Record Your Content

Perform the actions you want to capture. Recorded tracks your cursor movements and clicks in the background — this data is used to generate automatic zoom effects that highlight the important parts of your recording.

Step 6: Stop Recording

When you’re done, click the Stop button on the floating control panel. Recorded will process your recording (finalizing the video, saving metadata, processing audio, and saving the webcam video) and then open the editor automatically.

If you want to discard the recording instead, click the Cancel button — this deletes all recorded files and returns you to the main window.

Step 7: Edit (Optional)

After stopping, Recorded opens the editor where you can:

  • Trim and cut unwanted sections from your recording
  • Adjust zoom effects — Recorded automatically generates zoom segments based on your cursor activity, and you can add, adjust, or remove them
  • Customize the background with wallpapers, gradients, solid colors, or your own image
  • Adjust the cursor appearance, size, smoothing, and click effects
  • Lay out the webcam overlay and adjust its size and style
  • Add text overlays and AI-generated captions
  • Control playback speed for different sections
  • Add background music from preset tracks

Step 8: Export

Click Export Video in the editor. Choose a format (MP4 or GIF) and a resolution, then click Export Video and pick where to save the file. To get a link instead of a file, click Share.

On the free plan, videos shorter than 25 seconds export for free with a small “by recorded.app” watermark and a short outro; longer videos require a Pro license. See License.

Your raw recordings (not exported videos) are kept in:

  • macOS: ~/Movies/Recorded/Recordings/
  • Windows: Videos\Recorded\Recordings\

Congratulations — you’ve created your first professional screen recording!