How to record your screen and webcam at the same time on a Mac

You want a video where people see your screen and your face at the same time: a demo for a colleague, a walkthrough for a client, a short lesson. A Mac can do this with the apps it already has, and it works fine for a quick one. This guide shows that way first, then how to do it in Easy Take.

The built-in way: QuickTime Player and the screenshot toolbar

macOS has no single “screen and camera” button. The usual trick is to open your camera in a QuickTime Player window, keep that window on top, and then record the whole screen, camera window included.

Step 1: Open your camera in QuickTime Player

1. Open QuickTime Player from your Applications folder.
2. Choose File, then New Movie Recording. A window with your camera appears.
3. Choose View, then Float on Top, so the camera window stays above your other windows.
4. Make the window smaller and drag it to a corner of the screen.

Do not press record in this window. It only keeps your camera on screen.

Step 2: Record the screen

1. In QuickTime Player, choose File, then New Screen Recording. Or press ⇧⌘5 from anywhere. Both open the same screenshot toolbar.
2. Click Record Entire Screen. A window or selected portion would cut out the camera window if it sits outside that area.
3. Click Options and choose your microphone, or your voice will not be recorded.
4. Click Record. To stop, click the stop button in the menu bar.

The recording is saved as a movie file, by default on your Desktop.

What to know about the built-in way

It is free and needs nothing extra. It also has limits:

• The camera is part of the picture. Its position, size and shape are fixed in the video. If it covers something important, you have to record again.
• You cannot switch to “just me” or “just the screen” in the middle. To do that you would need to edit the video in another app.
• Everything on your screen is recorded, including notifications and the windows you did not mean to show.

For a one-off clip this is often enough.

The Easy Take way

Easy Take records the screen, the camera and the microphone at the same time, each to its own file, all starting from the same clock. Nothing is mixed together while you record. That is why you can change how the video looks afterwards, and why your voice and the camera stay in sync.

Steps

1. Open Easy Take and click New Recording.
2. Choose a whole display or a single window under Screen, then pick your camera and microphone. Turn off any of the three you do not need.
3. Pick Screen + Camera for a camera bubble in a corner, or Side by Side. Choose landscape, portrait or square. You can change both later.
4. Click Record or press ⌘R. A 3-second countdown starts, which you can cancel. The main window steps aside for a small floating panel.
5. Press ⌘1 for just you, ⌘2 for just the screen, ⌘3 for you and the screen, or ⌘4 for side by side. These work from any app.
6. Press ⌃⌥S or click stop in the floating panel. Easy Take opens the editor with your recording.
7. Click Export or press ⌘E, pick 1080p, 1440p or 4K in the save dialog, and save the MP4.

Layouts are never final

Each time you switch layout while recording, Easy Take starts a new clip. So a video that goes “just me, then my screen with me in the corner, then just me again” needs no editing at all.

If you change your mind later, select any part of the video in the editor and give it a different layout. You can also change the video shape, the background, the padding and the rounded corners. Your original recording is never changed.

Small things that help on camera

• The camera preview is mirrored, the way you are used to seeing yourself. The video is not.
• You can hide your own camera preview while recording if it distracts you. The camera keeps recording.
• Easy Take warns you if the microphone is silent, before a take is ruined.
• Speaker notes are shown in the recorder and never appear in the video. Neither does the floating panel.
• To show your iPhone, open iPhone Mirroring and pick its window as the screen.

If something goes wrong

Easy Take writes the recording to disk in short pieces as you go. If the Mac crashes or loses power, the recording is recovered the next time you open the app.

Which one should you use?

Use QuickTime if you need one short clip today and the camera position does not matter much. Use Easy Take if you want the camera as a neat bubble, want to switch between you and your screen while you talk, or want to fix the layout after recording.

Easy Take needs macOS 15 or later. Recording and editing are free, and your first three exports are free at full quality with no watermark. After that it is $14.99 once, with no subscription. See pricing for the details.

Next: how to cut mistakes out of a screen recording.