How to activate hidden screen recorder in Android 10

For some unknown reason, Google once again decided to skip a built-in screen recorder for Android 10. Actually, that was a feature of the beta, but it disappeared for the final version – mostly. While it’s not obvious, you can enable hidden screen recording in Android 10 and avoid having to download a third-party app.

Why activate hidden screen recorder in Android 10

With so many apps available, why go through all the trouble? The answer is simple: confidentiality. Most apps collect your data while you are recording. While there’s no guarantee that Google won’t store certain information, at least you don’t have to share your data with another company.

Plus, why not just use what’s already built into your phone? If you have a Samsung or LG device, the feature may already exist without having to do anything. If you have Android 10, swipe down to expand the Quick Settings menu. Look for the Screen Recorder tile, which can be on any of the quick settings pages, then swipe up to see additional pages. You can always move it to the first page if you use it often.

Tap the tile to activate screen recording. For other phones it takes a little more work, but it’s pretty straightforward and you don’t need to download another app.

Enable USB debugging

The first step to enable hidden screen recorder in Android 10 is to enable USB debugging. This is necessary because you will later connect your Android device to your computer.

Start by opening the settings and tap “About phone”. Quickly press the “build number” seven times. If you have a passcode for the lock screen, enter it when prompted. Otherwise, you will see a message stating that you are now a developer. All this just opens up the developer tools on your device.

Then go back to Settings and tap System. Select Advanced and “Developer options”.

Make sure developer options are enabled. Then turn on “USB Debugging”.

Confirm that you want to enable USB debugging.

Install the Android SDK platform

Android has a wide array of developer tools, but to enable the hidden screen recorder in Android 10 you only need the ADB part. For small projects like this, all you need is the much smaller Android SDK platform. You can download the latest version of your operating system directly from Google Android Developer Tools. Unzip or extract the files once downloaded.

Using ADB

Open the “platform_tools” folder. The steps may vary slightly from here as I am using Windows to run the commands. Type cmd in the File path box and press Enter.

This opens a command prompt in the platform_tools directory, which saves you a few steps.

Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable. Then type adb devices and press Enter. This lists your connected devices and verifies your connection.

Then type or copy and paste the following and hit enter:

adb shell settings put global settings_screenrecord_long_press true

This should add the hidden screen recorder in Android 10 to your power menu.

Try the screen recorder

Press the power button on your device and long press Screenshot.

Choose your settings.

Finally, accept the warning.

Press “Start Now” to start recording. Swipe down to open your notification panel to pause or stop recording.

There have been some bugs in this feature because it is not official. Usually, you can overcome them by simply restarting your device.

If you want to take screenshots instead, find out how you can take screenshots on Android without an app.

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