There are a variety of situations in which you might want to quickly record a video on your phone without it looking like you’re recording a video on your phone, such as staying safe in a vulnerable situation, protesting in a country that doesn’t necessarily want to see anyone protesting, or holding law enforcement accountable.
This puts Apple and Google in a bind because they do not want to encourage hidden video recording on smartphones.
Yes, it can be beneficial and potentially life-saving—but it can also be easily abused for a variety of sinister purposes. With that in mind, there aren’t any apps or tricks you can use to secretly record video.
However, there are tricks for quickly recording clips while your phone is locked, dimming the screen while video is being recorded, and more. It’s important to understand what these options are on your phone in case you ever need to rely on one of them.
When the screen is locked, press the power button, long press the camera button (lower right), and then press and hold the shutter button to quickly access the video recording functionality on an iPhone: The photo mode switches to video mode, and a recording is started.
For the recording to continue, you must keep your finger pressed down. When it’s finished, only the most recent video clip will be accessible without fully unlocking the device—to prevent anyone from accessing this most recent video as well, lock the phone again with another tap on the power button.
With the I’m being pulled over Siri shortcut, you can add some more functionality (the work of Robert Petersen). After you’ve installed it, say “I’m getting pulled over” within Siri’s hearing range, and a video recording from the front-facing camera begins. To prevent unwanted attention from being drawn to your smartphone, the screen is dimmed and Do Not Disturb is enabled.
There is an accessibility trick that allows video recording while the screen is turned off, but the recording must begin while the screen is turned on and unlocked.
Select Accessibility and Accessibility Shortcut from the Settings menu, and then enable VoiceOver (the screen reader utility). Start capturing video in the camera app, then triple-tap the power button to enable VoiceOver and triple-tap the screen with three fingers. The screen goes black, but the recording keeps going. To return to normal, reverse the process with the triple-taps.
Android
Android phones differ in terms of software features from manufacturer to manufacturer, so you may need to do some research on your specific model. You also have to deal with different versions of Android, so you may have to wait for an update, but you should be able to find something suitable for your phone.
The quickest way to record video from the lock screen on Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones is to double-tap the power button to bring up the main camera app, then press and hold the shutter button: Even though you are initially in Photo mode, the press and hold action begins recording a video.
Because you launched the camera from the lock screen, the only video available without some kind of authentication will be the one you just recorded; to hide it, lock the phone again by pressing the power button again.
If your photo software is set to automatically upload the video, you’re done: For example, in the Google Photos app for Android, tap your avatar (top right), Photos settings, and Backup and sync.
To read our blog on “How To utilize uploader widgets on WordPress blogs,” click here
