Sometimes. Screen recording captures audio only when the recorder is told to, and — this is the part that trips everyone up — “audio” means two different things: your microphone, and the sound your device itself is playing. Most built-in screen recorders capture one, the other, or neither by default, which is why so many recordings come out silent.
The two kinds of audio, and why recordings end up silent
Every “no sound in my screen recording” problem comes down to this table:
Audio source | What it is | Typical default |
|---|---|---|
Microphone | Your voice, the room | Off until you allow the mic permission or flip a toggle |
System / tab audio | The video, call, or music playing on the device | Off on most desktop tools; often not supported at all |
Want to be sure your recording has both voices and system sound? If you’d rather not juggle mic toggles and tab-audio settings, use a browser recorder that handles both from the start. Record in the browser
A recorder that “supports audio” may still ship with both switched off. So the real question isn’t does screen recording record audio — it’s which sources did I turn on before hitting record? Here’s the answer for each platform.
Windows
The built-in Game Bar recorder (Win + G) captures system audio by default and can add your mic — click the mic icon on the capture widget or press Win + Alt + M while recording. The Snipping Tool’s screen recorder also records system audio, with a mic toggle in the toolbar. If a Game Bar clip is silent, check Settings → Gaming → Captures → “Audio to record”.
Mac
macOS’s built-in recorder (Shift + Cmd + 5) records no audio at all by default. Under Options you can pick a microphone — but macOS still won’t capture system audio (the sound your Mac is playing) without a third-party audio driver. That’s the classic “recorded a video call, got a silent movie” trap: the built-in tool never captured the other side’s voices.
Chromebook
ChromeOS’s screen capture (in quick settings, or Ctrl + Shift + Show windows) records the microphone if you enable it in the capture tray’s settings — but not the Chromebook’s own audio. To get both your voice and the sound of a tab into one recording, use a browser recorder that mixes them: our Chromebook screen recorder guide walks through it step by step.
iPhone and iPad
iOS screen recording captures device audio by default. For your voice, long-press the screen-record button in Control Center and tap “Microphone On”. The mic setting is sticky — it stays how you last set it, which is why last week’s setting decides whether today’s recording has narration.
Android
Most Android versions show an audio picker when you start a screen recording: device sound, microphone, both, or none. The wrinkle is that some apps block internal audio capture for copyright reasons, so a “both” recording can still come back with silent gaps where a protected app was playing.
Recorded, but no sound? Run this checklist
- Play the recording elsewhere. Wrong player volume or muted tab fools everyone at least once.
- Check which sources were on. Mic toggle, system-audio toggle — most tools show them somewhere on the record button or its settings.
- Test the mic itself. Use the mic test: if the meter doesn’t move, the recorder never had a signal to capture — check the physical mute switch, then the input device your system has selected.
- Check app permissions. On macOS and Windows, the recorder app needs OS-level microphone permission; browsers additionally ask per site.
- Close the app hogging the device. A video-call app can hold the mic exclusively, leaving the recorder with silence.
- On Mac, wanting system audio? The built-in recorder can’t do it. Record the tab in a browser tool that captures tab audio, or install a loopback audio driver.
Bottom line
Screen recordings record audio when you turn the right sources on: microphone for your voice, system or tab audio for what the device is playing. Built-in tools each miss at least one of the two — macOS records neither by default, ChromeOS and iOS capture one side, and Windows comes closest.
If you’d rather not think about it: Chairkick records your screen with mic and tab audio mixed together, straight from the browser. Free recordings run up to 10 minutes at 1080p, every video gets a transcript, and you share a link instead of a file.