The fastest way to capture your screen

On most iPhones, press the Side button and the Volume Up button at the same time, then release both when ready. The screen will flash white, you'll hear a camera sound, and a thumbnail will appear in the bottom left corner. That thumbnail is your screenshot — tap it within a few seconds to edit or share it, or swipe it away to save it to your Photos app without editing.

If you have an iPhone 8 or earlier, use the Top (or Side) button and the Home button together instead. The timing and result are the same: flash, sound, thumbnail, and a saved image in Photos.

Your screenshot captures exactly what's on your screen at that moment — the web page you're reading, the text message thread, the map, the app window, all of it. It does not capture anything behind the screen or anything you haven't scrolled to yet.

Key Takeaways

  • Press Side button + Volume Up together on iPhone X and newer, or Top/Side button + Home button on iPhone 8 and earlier.
  • The screenshot saves to your Photos app automatically, and a thumbnail appears in the bottom left for a few seconds if you want to edit it first.
  • You can take as many screenshots as you want — there is no limit, and they take up storage space like any other photo.
  • Screenshots capture only what is visible on your screen right now, so scroll to the content you need before you press the buttons.

What happens to your screenshot after you take it

The image lands in your Photos app under the Screenshots album, which iOS creates automatically the first time you take one. You can find it by opening Photos, tapping Albums at the bottom, and scrolling down to Screenshots. From there you can share it by text, email, or social media, delete it, or move it to a different album.

Screenshots count as photos on your device, so they use storage space. If your iPhone is running low on storage, deleting old screenshots is one way to free up room. You can also set your phone to automatically delete screenshots after 30 days — go to Settings > Photos, scroll down to Cleanup, and turn on "Remove Screenshots".

Editing a screenshot before you save it

After you take a screenshot, a thumbnail appears in the bottom left corner for about five seconds. Tap that thumbnail to open the editing window. You can draw on the screenshot with your finger, add text, magnify part of it, or crop it down to just the section you need.

When you're done editing, tap Done in the top left, then tap Save to Photos. If you don't edit it, just swipe the thumbnail away or wait for it to disappear, and the original unedited screenshot saves automatically.

Taking a full-page screenshot of a website or email

When you screenshot a web page or email, iOS gives you the option to capture just what's visible or the entire page from top to bottom. After you take the screenshot, tap the thumbnail and look for the option that says Full Page at the top of the editing window. Tap it, and iOS will scroll through the whole page and stitch it together into one long image.

Full-page screenshots are useful when you need to save an entire article, a long email thread, or a complete web form. The resulting image can be quite tall, so it may be harder to share by text or email, but it saves to Photos just like any other screenshot.

Troubleshooting: your screenshot button combination isn't working

If you press the buttons and nothing happens, check whether you're holding them long enough. You need to press and release quickly — holding them down for more than a second will trigger Siri or the Emergency SOS menu instead. Try again with a quick, simultaneous press.

If you're still not getting a screenshot, make sure you're using the right buttons for your iPhone model. Look up your model number in Settings > General > About, then check Apple's support page to confirm which buttons to use. Some older iPhones and some special editions have different button layouts.

If the buttons are working but you're not hearing the camera sound or seeing the flash, check your volume. Mute the phone by flipping the mute switch on the side, and the sound will turn off — but the screenshot will still save. If you want the sound back, flip the switch again.

Screenshots and privacy: what gets saved and who can see it

Your screenshots save only to your own phone, in your Photos app. They don't automatically upload to iCloud unless you have iCloud Photos turned on in Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Photos. If iCloud Photos is on, your screenshots sync to your other Apple devices and to iCloud.com, where you can view them from any web browser.

No one else can see your screenshots unless you share them. When you send a screenshot to someone by text, email, or social media, that person receives the image file — they don't get notified that you took a screenshot, and the app you screenshotted doesn't know you did it. The only exception is some messaging apps like Snapchat, which notify the sender when you screenshot a message, but that's a feature of Snapchat itself, not of iOS.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I take a screenshot of a video or movie?

Yes, you can screenshot video while it's playing. The screenshot will show a still frame from that moment in the video. Some streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ may blur the image or prevent the screenshot from saving, depending on their content protection settings, but the button combination will still work.

Do screenshots use a lot of storage?

A typical screenshot uses between 100 and 500 kilobytes of storage, depending on the size of your screen and the colors in the image. You would need to take thousands of screenshots to use up a gigabyte of storage. If you're running low on space, deleting old screenshots helps, but they're usually not the main culprit.

Can I take a screenshot without the sound and flash?

The flash and sound are built into iOS and can't be turned off separately for screenshots. You can mute your phone by flipping the mute switch on the side, which silences the sound but keeps the flash. There's no way to disable the flash itself.

What if I accidentally take a screenshot and want to undo it?

You can't undo a screenshot, but you can delete it when ready. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open Control Center, tap Photos, and delete the screenshot from there. Or open Photos, find the screenshot in the Screenshots album, and swipe left to delete it.

Can someone tell if I screenshotted their message?

On most messaging apps like iMessage, SMS, WhatsApp, and email, no one is notified when you take a screenshot. Snapchat and a few other apps do notify the sender, but that's their own feature. Regular text messages and emails have no way to know.