The external monitor video recording feature is in Android 16

Android has long had a feature that allows you to record your phone screen. However, the developers have "upgraded" it and allowed users to record what is happening on an external monitor to which an Android 16 device is connected.

Android Authority writes about it.

How to use the new feature

When a smartphone running Android 16 Beta 3 is connected to an external monitor, a third option, "Record HDMI screen," appears in the screen recording dialogue box. When disconnected from the external monitor, the options returned to the usual "Record one app" and "Record this screen".

This feature is not available on smartphones with the latest stable version of Android 15, which means that it appeared in one of the beta versions of Android 16.

The HDMI Screen Recording feature allows you to record what's happening on an external monitor, separate from the phone's built-in display. The resulting screen recording is encoded and stored in the same way as standard phone screen recordings. There was also one small difference in the file name — an internal identifier was added, which Android assigns to the external monitor.

The feature has certain limitations. For example, the option to select an external monitor was not available when a third-party screen mirroring application asked to record the screen. Also, this option was not available when trying to play back the screen using the Playback tile built into Android.

Android 16 only allows you to record what's happening on external monitors, which is a shame, as there are apps that could benefit from this feature. Google is expected to expand this feature in future Android 16 updates. The company is currently working on a new desktop mode called Desktop View, so the ability to record what's happening on an external screen could be useful.

The new feature is an extension of the lesser-known ability in Android 15 to take screenshots of external displays.

As a reminder, Apple unveiled the iPhone 16e, the successor to the iPhone SE and, according to Tim Cook, a "new member of the family" meaning the iPhone 16 series. Novyny.LIVE explained the difference between them.

We also wrote that Google has unveiled the third beta version of Android 16. Compared to previous releases, this version has not received many updates.