Guides / Recording, mirroring and AirPlay

Screen recording, mirroring and AirPlay: what others can see

Updated 4 November 2026 · By the FirstHour team

Short answerWhile your screen is recorded, mirrored or shared on a call, whatever you open can be seen by the other side or saved. You can usually tell it's happening from an indicator on your iPhone, and you can stop it in a few taps. Check before you open anything private. This is our advice, and the steps below come from Apple.

How to tell it's happening

How to stop it

  1. Recording. Apple says to tap the Screen Recording button at the top of your screen, then tap Stop. Or open Control Center and tap the red Record button.
  2. Mirroring. Apple says to open Control Center, tap Screen Mirroring, then tap Stop Mirroring.
  3. FaceTime. Apple says to tap the More button, then tap Stop next to Screen Sharing. Ending the call also ends screen sharing.

Settings to check

Apple describes a setting called Automatically AirPlay. You'll find it in Settings, under General, then AirPlay & Continuity. Apple lists three options: Never, where you choose a device yourself; Ask, where you get suggested AirPlay connection notifications; and Automatic, where you get suggested and automatic AirPlay connection notifications. Menu names can differ between iOS versions, so yours may look a little different.

Apple also says some apps might not allow you to record audio or video, and that you can't record your screen and use screen mirroring at the same time.

A simple habit

Before you open pictures, messages or banking, glance at the top of the screen and at Control Center. On a TV, a shared call or a screen recording, a private photo shows to everyone watching. This is our advice, not Apple's.

What FirstHour does

FirstHour asks iPhone whether the screen is being recorded, mirrored or sent over AirPlay. If it is, every picture in FirstHour is swapped for a plain panel. On a large picture the panel says "Hidden while screen sharing or recording". The Vault also locks and won't open while this is going on. The picture hiding is on by default. In Settings › Privacy Display, the switch is called Protect during screen capture. If you turn it off, pictures show again, but the Vault still locks. More on this is in App lock and Privacy Display and on the feature page.

It can't do everything. It can't stop a screenshot, because iPhone tells apps only after one is taken. It can't stop another phone or camera photographing your screen. It only covers FirstHour's own screens, so Apple's photo picker, the share sheet and other apps aren't hidden. We haven't confirmed that it reacts to FaceTime screen sharing, so don't rely on it there.

Pictures can also show in the App Switcher; see App Switcher previews. If someone else is holding your phone, see I handed someone my phone.

Questions

Does a recording include sound?

Apple says to tap and hold the gray Record button in Control Center, then tap the Microphone button to turn it on, before you start recording. So a recording can carry sound you make.

Can I stop FaceTime screen sharing partway through?

Apple says to tap the More button, then tap Stop next to Screen Sharing. It also says ending the FaceTime call stops screen sharing.

Sources

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