How to record your screen on a Mac, with audio

macOS ships two ways to record your screen: the screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5) and QuickTime Player. Both capture pixels well, and both leave you with a flat .mov file, no way to record your Mac's own audio, and nothing to make the recording easier to watch.

This guide uses Flicka, a screen recorder that runs in a browser tab. You record, then land in an editor that has already added zooms, a backdrop and cursor effects, and you export an MP4, WebM or GIF. Nothing is uploaded: the capture, editing and encoding all happen on your Mac.

What you need before you start

• A Chromium browser. Chrome, Edge, Arc or Brave give you every capture option, including tab audio and hardware MP4 encoding.
• Screen recording permission for that browser. macOS asks the first time a site wants to share your screen. If you dismissed it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording (called Screen Recording on older macOS), turn the browser on, and relaunch it.
• Microphone and camera permission if you want your voice or face. The browser asks when you turn those on.

Step 1: Choose what to record

Open the studio. The record card at the top of the library is where every take starts.

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1. 1Pick a surfaceFull screen records everything you see, Window follows one app, and Browser tab gives the crispest result for web demos.
2. 2Or grab a stillScreenshot captures one frame and opens it in the annotator.
3. 3System audioRecords the sound from what you share. Tab audio works everywhere; whole-screen audio depends on your macOS and browser version.
4. 4MicrophoneYour voice, mixed with system audio into one track you can rebalance later.
5. 5WebcamRecords your camera to its own track so the bubble stays editable. See adding a webcam overlay.
6. 6Auto-zoomTurns clicks into zooms when the take opens in the editor.
7. 7RecordStarts the capture. The shortcut is R from anywhere in the library.

The source you pick decides what the browser's share dialog offers next. On a Mac, Browser tab is usually the best choice for product demos: the result is sharp at any size and you can include that tab's audio with one checkbox.

Step 2: Share your screen and count down

Press Record. Your browser shows its own share dialog. Pick the screen, window or tab, tick Also share tab audio if you want sound, and click Share. Flicka then counts down from three so you can get into position.

Step 3: Record, mark moments, stop

While you record, a small control bar stays on the Flicka tab. It is out of the captured area when you share a different tab or window, so it never ends up in the video.

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1. 1TimerElapsed recording time, excluding pauses.
2. 2Audio levelA live meter, so you know the mic is actually picking you up.
3. 3ClicksClicks Flicka has seen, each one a candidate for an auto-zoom.
4. 4MarkPress M to flag a moment. Marks become zooms in the editor.
5. 5PausePause and resume without starting a new take.
6. 6StopFinish. The recording opens straight in the editor.

Step 4: Polish it in the editor

When you stop, the recording opens in the editor already styled: a gradient backdrop, rounded corners, a soft shadow, and zooms on the clicks Flicka saw.

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1. 1LibraryBack to all your takes. Everything is saved automatically in your browser.
2. 2Take summaryHow many zooms and cuts the take has, and how many were added automatically.
3. 3Tool railAim a zoom, cut, crop, or place the webcam directly on the canvas.
4. 4SettingsLook, Motion and Sound panels. Press Tab to open them.
5. 5TimelinePlay with Space, step with the arrow keys, and scrub to any moment.
6. 6ExportRender the finished video. More on that in the export guide.

Three edits make the biggest difference: trim the dead seconds at the start and end, check each zoom lands on the right thing (see how auto-zoom works), and pick a backdrop that fits where the video is going.

Step 5: Export an MP4

Click Export, choose a target such as YouTube, and render. Encoding runs on your Mac while you keep editing; a chip in the header tracks progress and saves the file when it's done.

Flicka vs. the built-in Mac tools

If you only need a quick clip for yourself, ⇧⌘5 is fine. When the recording is for someone else — a demo, a tutorial, a bug report, a launch video — the polish is where the time goes, and that's the part Flicka automates.