How do you show taps in an iPhone screen recording?

On an iPad, a connected mouse or trackpad is the simplest route; see showing touches in an iPad screen recording.

The recording shows the result, not the finger

When a button opens another screen, the recording shows the new screen. Where your finger landed is lost. Walkthru works from those visible changes and gives you a screenshot for each step to annotate.

So the marker is your instruction, placed by you. Put it on the control the reader should use, and check that it agrees with the caption and the screen.

Add markers after recording

Walkthru has four marker types: tap, double-tap, press-and-hold and swipe. Each comes in seven colours, so you can pick one that stands out against the app. A swipe marker shows a direction; a press-and-hold marker shows a long touch.

Where the marker ends up depends on the export:

• PDF guide, Step images and Markdown bundle: the marker is drawn into the picture.
• Video reel: with Animate markers on, each marker animates in after the screen settles. With it off, markers show from the start of each step.

The video uses the recording’s footage where it can. A step with a redaction stays on its still picture, so private content cannot slide out from under the cover. Steps made from screenshots also stay still while their markers appear.

Try AssistiveTouch while you record

If you want circles in the raw recording itself, try an AssistiveTouch custom gesture (Apple’s guide):

1. Open Settings → Accessibility → Touch → AssistiveTouch and turn it on.
2. Choose Create New Gesture, record a tap, and save it.
3. Open the AssistiveTouch menu, choose Custom, then choose your saved gesture.
4. Drag it onto the control you want and let it replay there.
5. Make a short test recording with the same device and recording method, and play it back.

Each tap you want to show has to go through the custom gesture. Apple’s guide covers the replay, but it says nothing about screen recordings, and reports differ by iOS version. Some people in Apple’s forums see the circles in their recordings. An iPadOS 18.4 report found the touches missing. That is why the test recording matters.

Or drive the demo with a mouse

An iPhone can use a Bluetooth mouse through AssistiveTouch, and the mouse’s round pointer shows where you are about to tap. MacMost’s tutorials use exactly this: the circle in them “is just the pointer you get when you connect a mouse to your device” (MacMost).

1. Turn on Settings → Accessibility → Touch → AssistiveTouch.
2. Under Devices, pair the Bluetooth mouse.
3. Record the demo using the mouse for every tap, not your finger.

The pointer is easier to keep in the recording than a custom gesture, because every click shows it. As with any method, play back a short test first.

Match the marker to the instruction

A dot helps only if it explains the action. Pick the gesture the reader should perform and place it where the control is visible.

Action	Marker and wording
Open a named control	Tap marker on the control, with “Tap Save” or the real label.
Double-tap something	Double-tap marker, and say “double-tap” in the text.
Open a menu by holding a control	Press-and-hold marker, and describe the menu that opens.
Move through a screen	Swipe marker showing the direction, and name where it leads.

Keep the marker off the label the reader needs to read. Use a contrasting colour, and make the words work alone: “Tap Save” beats “Tap the blue circle”. Explain any other gesture, such as a pinch, in words or with the recorded footage.

Mark the control that starts the step. In the site’s Alder return demo, the tap marker goes on Return items in the order details picture. On the next screen it would be too late: that shows where the reader arrived, rather than how they got there.

Why does a marker look wrong in the export?

Problem	What to check
The dot points at an empty area	The picture was replaced or cropped after the marker was placed. Move the marker.
The gesture is hard to spot	Check the colour and position in the exported file rather than the zoomed editor.
The marker appears later than the real tap	The animation is timed for viewing, separate from your actual touch.
The instruction is missing from the video	Add a short label on the picture or a voiceover. See what each export includes.

For spoken guidance, see adding a voiceover to a screen recording.

Showing touches in a live presentation

Markers added after recording are for recorded tutorials. If you are showing a phone through a cable or screen sharing, test your setup with the real connection first. An AssistiveTouch circle on your own screen can fail to reach remote viewers, and it shows one point rather than several fingers at once.