How to Screen Record in Android 4.4 (KitKat)

Screen recording on an Android device isn’t a new concept to those with root access, they’ve been doing it for years frankly. But for the millions of users that don’t root, screen captures (still shots as opposed to video recordings) are all they’ve been able to do. This changes with Android 4.4 (aka KitKat). Now you can use ADB (Android Debug Bridge aka using the Android SDK) to achieve this without root access at all. Simply setup the Android SDK, plug in the device and type the one line command to begin recording. Here’s how to record your Android device’s screen running Android 4.4 (KitKat).

I. Before You Begin

1. You must be using Android 4.4 or higher (KitKat).

2. My instructions here are for Windows. If enough people ask for the Mac procedure, I’ll add it, too.

II. Setup ADB and Drivers

1. Download my ADB Package and save it to your Desktop (you can also just use the SDK/ADB if you have that already installed and setup, but I’ve put this package together for simplicity sake for those only wanting to use ADB and record the screen).

2. Extract the .zip file you just downloaded by right-clicking it and selecting Extract All.

3. Download the ABD drivers from here and install them on the computer.

4. On the device, head to Settings > About Phone.

5. Keep tapping Build Number until it says you are a developer.

6. Hit back then tap on Developer Options.

7. Turn on USB Debugging.

III. Record your Android Device’s Screen

1. Plug the device in via USB cable. Wait for the drivers to install.

2. Open the ADB_Package folder you extracted earlier.

3. Hold shift on the keyboard and right-click in any blank section in that folder and select Open Command Prompt Here.

4. In the command prompt, type the following and hit enter at the end of the line:

adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/demo.mp4

5. You are now recording the screen and can hit Control + C on your keyboard on your computer to stop the recording. When you stop it, you will have a new video MP4 recording called demo saved in your device’s gallery with the screen recording. Feel free to change the demo in the above step to whatever name you want to save the video as that name.

6. You can also adjust different settings like bitrate and time-limit by typing in other options from the documentation on the Android SDK site (it defaults to 4mbps for bitrate and will automatically stop recording at 3 mins if you don’t adjust these). Simply use one of the options in the table they have to adjust things. An example would be:

adb shell screenrecord — bit rate 8000000 --time-limit 30 sdcard/filename.mp4

This would change the bitrate to 8mbps instead of 4mbps, stop recording automatically at 30 seconds instead of 3 mins, and make the video called filename.

Now, go and record something fun and post it on YouTube, and link to it in the comments below. Seriously, do it.