When it comes to the need to record your Mac’s screen, your first impulse is probably to use QuickTime Player. It’s thought to be the easiest and simplest way of doing the task and Apple was generous enough to have equipped the video player with screen recording functionality.
However, there is another even easier way to screen record on your Mac. In this guide, I will show you how you can easily screen record on Mac without using QuickTime. For those who need to do more than just record their Mac’s screen, there are third-party screen recorder apps available for your Mac. These apps offer more advanced features than QuickTime Player and the Mac’s Screenshot feature.
The Forgotten Screenshot App on MacOS
In case you have already forgotten, or might have missed it when Apple released macOS Mojave in 2018, it came with a built-in app called Screenshot. The app may not have ever really become popular, but regardless Apple has kept it around across newer versions of macOS. Perhaps even Apple forgot about it.
So yes, you can use the built-in macOS app Screenshot to record your Mac’s screen.
Time needed: 1 minute
To launch and use Screenshot, just follow these steps
- Hold Shift + Command + 5 keys together to open the Screenshot app.
You can also search for it in Spotlight by pressing Command + Spacebar.
- You may then click Options to select other preferences for your screen recording.
- Once you’re ready to screen record your Mac’s screen, click Record.
- Press Control + Command + Esc simultaneously to stop recording
You can also end the recording by clicking on the Stop icon at the top right corner of your screen. Furthermore, pressing Command + Shift + 5 again will reveal control bar, which also includes a stop button.
- Your screen recording video will appear as a thumbnail on the lower right side of the screen.
- Press the Spacebar to preview your screen recording video.
After you’ve closed the preview of your screen recording, you can find it on your Mac desktop as a QuickTime video. From there you can use Quicktime or any other Mac video editors to trim or edit your recording.
Final Words: Using Third-Party Apps to Record your Mac’s Screen
If you find Screenshot or QuickTime Player too simple for your screen recording needs, there are third-party screen recording apps available. We’ve rounded up some of the best choices for you in a previous article. However, you should note that most if not all of them are paid applications. The cheapest is probably IceCream Screen Recorder, which will cost you $14.99 for its premium version. For that price, you’ll be able to do basic screen recording on your Mac. However, the app seems to be a bit buggy when running on newer versions of macOS, particularly Ventura.