How to Record Vertical Screen Videos for Shorts, Reels & TikTok

Short-form vertical video dominates today’s social feeds. If you’re demoing an app, teaching a quick tip, or repurposing a tutorial for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or Instagram Reels, recording in the right aspect ratio from the start saves you hours of reframing in post. Here’s how to capture clean, vertical screen recordings with Recorded.

Why Vertical Matters

Most short-form platforms display video in a 9:16 aspect ratio. A standard 16:9 screen recording gets cropped, letterboxed, or awkwardly resized when uploaded to these platforms, often cutting off the exact UI element you wanted to highlight. Recording natively in a vertical-friendly frame keeps your content full-bleed and readable on mobile screens.

Option 1: Custom Area Capture

Recorded’s custom area capture mode lets you draw a precise selection on your screen, so you can define a tall, narrow region instead of capturing your entire display.

1. Open Recorded and select Custom Area as your capture mode
2. Draw a selection box using a 9:16 ratio (for example, 608×1080 or 810×1440)
3. Position the region over the app window or content you want to feature
4. Start recording as usual

This approach works well when you only need to capture a portion of your screen, such as a mobile app running in a simulator or a narrow panel of your app’s UI.

Option 2: Record Full Screen, Then Reframe in the Editor

If your content spans a wider area, it’s often easier to record normally at full resolution and reframe during editing:

1. Record your full screen or a specific window as usual
2. Import the recording into Recorded’s editor
3. Use zoom and crop tools to focus on the relevant portion of the frame for each section of your video
4. Apply zoom effects to keep the viewer’s eye on the key action, since a vertical crop leaves less horizontal space to work with

This method gives you more flexibility, since you can adjust framing shot-by-shot rather than committing to one region for the entire recording.

Tips for Vertical-Friendly Content

• Keep UI elements centered. Avoid demoing features that live in the far corners of a widescreen app; they’ll be the first things cropped out.
• Increase zoom level. Vertical frames show less at once, so zoom in more aggressively than you would for a horizontal recording to keep text and buttons legible.
• Use larger cursor highlights. A small default cursor gets lost in a narrower frame. Turn on click highlights and consider a larger cursor size in your recording settings.
• Add text overlays for context. Since a vertical crop often removes surrounding UI chrome, a short text overlay can replace the context viewers would normally get from seeing the whole window.
• Record your webcam as a vertical picture-in-picture. Pairing a webcam bubble with your screen capture adds a personal touch that performs well on Shorts and Reels feeds.

Exporting for Social Platforms

Once your edit is complete, export directly from Recorded:

1. Open the export dialog and choose MP4 (H.264) for maximum compatibility across platforms
2. Set your output resolution to a vertical size such as 1080×1920
3. Keep your frame rate consistent with your original recording (30 or 60 fps) for smooth playback
4. Export and upload directly to your platform of choice

Wrapping Up

Recording vertically from the start, or reframing thoughtfully during editing, makes a big difference in how your screen recordings perform on short-form platforms. Combine custom area capture, zoom effects, and text overlays to create vertical content that feels native to Shorts, Reels, and TikTok rather than an afterthought crop of a widescreen recording.