Share an MP4 or export a file

Share a recording as an MP4 with AirDrop, Messages, Mail, or any other service in the macOS share menu. The person you send it to gets an ordinary video file that plays anywhere, with no app or account.

Click Share in the editor's toolbar and the macOS share menu opens with the recording's title and thumbnail. It lists Copy MP4 and Export File… first, then AirDrop, Messages, Mail, Notes, and any share extension you have installed.

Choose a service, such as Mail or AirDrop, and the app makes a 1080p H.264 MP4 of the edited recording. The file is a temporary copy named after the recording's title, such as Sprint 14 demo.mp4, so nothing in your save folder changes. While it works, a small popover under Share shows the progress, with a button to stop it. Then the service opens with the file.

The person you send it to gets a standard MP4. It plays on a Mac, a PC, or a phone, and in the chat apps and bug trackers that preview video, with no app to install and no account to create.

Copy an MP4 and paste it anywhere

Choose Copy MP4 in the share menu and the app makes the same 1080p MP4 and puts it on the clipboard. Paste it into Slack, a GitHub issue, Mail, Messages, a browser upload, or a Finder window.

Drag it out when you stop

When Settings says to show the overlay after recording, a card appears in the corner as you stop. It prepares the MP4 right away. Drag its thumbnail into a chat, a ticket, or an email, or click Copy MP4 to put the MP4 on the clipboard, without opening the editor.

Captions and the look in a shared MP4

A shared or copied MP4 looks the way the editor shows the recording. When captions show in the editor, they are burned in, and when you hide them in the editor, the MP4 leaves them out. The zooms, the background, the cursor, click highlights, and keystrokes are what you set in the editor too.

The save folder is ~/Movies/Screen Recording unless you choose another folder in Settings.

Choose Share… from a recording's context menu in the library, or from the More menu on the card that appears when you stop recording. The recording opens in the editor with the share menu showing.

Export a file

Choose Export File… in the share menu to pick the settings and the location yourself. The Export sheet saves an MP4 or a GIF wherever you choose, starting beside the recording in your save folder. The default export is H.264 video with AAC audio, which plays in every browser, chat app, and bug tracker. The choices are

Format. MP4, or a GIF that loops, for a README, a docs page, or a chat that plays GIFs inline.
Resolution. Native, 4K, or 1080p for an MP4. A vertical or square video keeps its shape, so a 1080p vertical video is 1080 by 1920.
Codec. H.264 for compatibility, or HEVC for a smaller file.
Captions. Burned into the video, a separate SRT or VTT file, or none.
For a GIF, the width and the frame rate. A GIF has no sound and at most 256 colors.

The export is a copy. The original recording, its transcript, and your edits stay on your Mac, so you can change the transcript or the caption style and export again. Drag the finished file out of the editor into a chat, a ticket, or an email, or reveal it in the Finder. Exports have no watermark.

Nothing leaves your Mac until you send it

Screen Recording does not upload your recordings. A recording leaves your Mac only when you send the MP4 with a share service you pick, such as AirDrop to a nearby Mac or Mail to a colleague. We operate no content servers and store nothing in any cloud, so there is no per-video limit.

No requirements for viewers

A shared MP4 and an exported file both work without anything from the person watching.

No viewer account or sign-in
No app to install
No watermark over your content
No "recorded with a free plan" banner