8 Best Screen Recorders for Android, Built-In and Apps

Many people do not need a screen recording app at all: Pixel phones on Android 11 or later and Samsung Galaxy phones have a free built-in screen recorder in Quick Settings. If you want more control, AZ Screen Recorder and XRecorder are the best free apps, and scrcpy is the best way to record your phone from a computer.

We rebuilt this list from scratch. Every app below had a live Google Play listing and a recent update when we checked on 6 November 2026, and each one is matched to the job it does best.

Which screen recorder should you use?

• Quick clip, no install: your phone's built-in recorder.
• Tutorials with a face camera and editing: AZ Screen Recorder or XRecorder.
• Highest resolution from an app: Mobizen.
• Drawing and text on screen while you record: ADV Screen Recorder.
• Game highlights: Google Play Games.
• Recording from a Windows, Mac or Linux computer: scrcpy.

1. Android's built-in screen recorder

Best for: quick recordings on Pixel phones (Android 11 or later) and other phones that show a Screen record tile.

According to Google's Android help page, you start it from Quick Settings:

1. Swipe down twice from the top of the screen.
2. Tap Screen record. If it is missing, tap Edit and drag Screen record into Quick Settings.
3. Choose what to record, whether to record audio and whether to show touches, then tap Start.
4. To stop, swipe down and tap the screen recorder notification.

On Pixel phones the videos land in Google Photos under Collections, On this device, Movies. There is nothing to install, but there is also no editor or face camera.

2. Samsung Screen recorder

Best for: Galaxy owners who want sound options and no extra app.

Samsung's own recorder lives in the Quick panel. Samsung's support page says you can record no audio, ambient sound or the phone's media audio, show or hide your taps, and record the full screen or a selected area. Videos are saved to the Gallery app. On Android 11 with One UI 3.0 or later there is no time or file size limit; on Android 10 with One UI 2.5 it stops at one hour or 4 GB. You change quality and sound under Settings, Advanced features, Screenshots and screen recordings.

3. AZ Screen Recorder

Best for: tutorials and how-to videos with editing in the same app.

AZ Screen Recorder was on our original list and is still one of the strongest picks, with more than 100 million downloads. It records with microphone or internal audio, lets you pause and resume, shows your face in a floating facecam window, and lets you draw on the screen while recording. Its built-in editor trims, cuts out the middle, merges clips, adds music and subtitles, and it can save a recording as a GIF. The listing promises no watermark and no time limit.

How it charges: free with ads, with in-app purchases.

4. XRecorder

Best for: gameplay and smooth, high frame rate video.

XRecorder from InShot starts recording from a floating button. It exports from 240p up to 1080p at 60 fps and 12 Mbps, supports up to 120 fps recording, and records internal audio on Android 10 or later. It includes a facecam, brush tools, a basic editor and live streaming to YouTube or any RTMP server. The listing says there is no watermark and no recording time limit.

How it charges: free with ads, with a Pro upgrade for extras such as a custom floating button.

5. Mobizen Screen Recorder

Best for: the sharpest video from a phone app.

Mobizen is another survivor from the 2019 list. It records up to 1440p (QHD) at 60 fps and 24 Mbps, and its Clean mode records without a watermark for free. It also has a facecam, can save to an SD card, needs no sign-up, and its listing says recordings stay on your device rather than on Mobizen's servers.

How it charges: free with ads, with in-app purchases.

6. ADV Screen Recorder

Best for: annotated recordings with text, banners and drawing.

ADV Screen Recorder has been on Google Play for years; its package name still reads "lollipopscreenrecorder", a name from the Android 5 era. It offers two recording engines, pausing (with the Advanced engine), drawing on the screen in any color, front or back camera overlay, custom text and banners, and trimming. It needs no root.

How it charges: free with ads, with in-app purchases.

7. Google Play Games

Best for: saving and sharing a great moment in a game you are already playing.

The Google Play Games app lists gameplay recording among its features, so you can capture and share highlights without a separate recorder. It is built for games only, so use one of the apps above for anything else.

8. scrcpy (record from your computer)

Best for: clean, long recordings for YouTube, bug reports and courses.

scrcpy is a free, open-source tool that mirrors your phone to a Windows, macOS or Linux computer over USB or Wi-Fi. It needs no root and no app on the phone, only USB debugging. Its recording guide shows that one command, scrcpy --record=file.mp4, saves the screen and sound to a file on your computer. It works with Android 5.0 and later; audio needs Android 11 or later. For more ways to show your phone on a big screen, see our guide to Android screen mirroring apps.

Which apps from the old list are gone?

What we checked: on 6 November 2026 we opened the Google Play pages of the apps on our 2019 list. The listings for Shou (com.mct.aoabus_shou) and DU Recorder (com.duapps.recorder) now return "not found", so both are removed from this page. We also dropped Vysor, which mirrors and controls your phone from a PC but is not a recorder, and several others we could no longer confirm on Google Play. Avoid downloading old APK copies of removed apps; they no longer get security fixes.

Why does my recording have no sound?

Recording the sound from inside apps (internal audio) needs Android 10 or later. Android's developer documentation says the audio capture feature arrived in Android 10, and apps can opt out of having their sound captured. That is why XRecorder limits internal audio to Android 10 and up, and why some apps record silent. Apps can also block screen capture, and Samsung warns that copyright-protected photos and videos may not record.

FAQ

Does Android have a built-in screen recorder?

Yes. Pixel phones on Android 11 and later include Screen record in Quick Settings, and Samsung Galaxy phones have their own Screen recorder in the Quick panel, though Samsung notes some models do not support it.

Which free screen recorder has no watermark?

AZ Screen Recorder and XRecorder both list "no watermark" on Google Play, and Mobizen's Clean mode records without its watermark for free.

Can I record my Android screen from a PC?

Yes. scrcpy mirrors the phone to Windows, macOS or Linux and records to an MP4 or MKV file, with no root and no app on the phone.

Is there a time limit on screen recording?

Not on Samsung phones with One UI 3.0 or later. AZ Screen Recorder and XRecorder also say they have no time limit. Your free storage space is the real limit.