How to Show Taps and Touches in iPad Screen Recordings

Before you start

The tap indicator is a local iPadOS display feature, not a cloud service. Make sure Screen Recording is available in Control Center and that the iPad is running a version of iPadOS that supports the touch indicator setting for recordings.

Step-by-step instructions

• Open the Settings app.
• Tap Accessibility.
• Tap Touch.
• Turn on Show Touches.
• Open Control Center and start a screen recording.
• Perform the taps you want to capture.
• Stop the recording from Control Center or the status bar.

Show Touches displays a small circle or similar marker at each point where your finger contacts the screen. The marker follows your touch while your finger remains down, so a deliberate tap reads more clearly than a fast swipe in the finished recording.

To stop showing touches later, return to Settings, then Accessibility, then Touch and turn off Show Touches. This changes the display setting only; it does not delete or alter recordings you already saved.

Check the output

Open the saved recording in Photos and scrub through the section where you tapped. The touch marker should appear at the contact points without covering the interface detail you are demonstrating. Because the marker is part of the screen image captured by iPadOS, it appears in the video at the display resolution and frame rate of the recording.

Some apps that draw their own full-screen visuals may still record normally, but the marker can be less visible against busy or matching-color backgrounds. Check a short test clip before recording a longer demonstration.

Common problems and next steps

If touches are not visible in the recording, confirm that Show Touches was enabled before the recording started. The setting does not insert markers into existing videos, so you need to capture a new recording with the option turned on.

Keep the touch indicator separate from microphone audio in your thinking. The screen recording captures the display marker from the enabled touch setting; speech or app sounds depend on the microphone and app audio choices you make when starting the recording.

For a sharper demonstration, reduce on-screen motion around the part you are showing, position the tap point against a plain background, and keep each touch long enough for the marker to register. If the marker is too small in a reduced-size export, record again at the original full-screen size instead of trying to enlarge the saved clip.