How to Take a Scrolling Screenshot on Android and iPhone

What is a scrolling screenshot?

A regular screenshot captures only what’s visible on your screen. A scrolling screenshot (also called a long screenshot or full-page capture) scrolls through the content and combines it into one tall image. It’s useful for saving a conversation, recipe, long receipt, purchase terms, or webpage.

Both operating systems have this feature, but it works differently on each—and not every app supports it.

On Android

1. Open the content you want to capture and go to the starting point.
2. Take a regular screenshot. This usually means pressing Power + Volume down at the same time.
3. Look for the scrolling capture button in the thumbnail that appears in the corner. Its name varies by brand: Capture more on many stock Android phones, a down-arrow icon on Samsung phones, and “Scroll capture” on some other brands.
4. Tap it to scroll and add more content. On some phones, drag a frame to choose how much to capture; on others, tap again to keep going and stop when you reach the end.
5. Save the image. It’ll be in your gallery, in the screenshots folder.

If the button doesn’t appear, the app probably doesn’t support scrolling screenshots. Some banking and video apps block regular screenshots too, for security reasons.

On iPhone

iPhone has a full-page capture feature that works in Safari and some Apple apps:

1. Take a screenshot: press the side button + Volume up (or the Home button + side button on models with a Home button).
2. Tap the thumbnail that appears in the bottom corner.
3. At the top, select Full Page.
4. Tap Done, then Save PDF to Files.

Note that the result is a PDF saved in the Files app, not an image in your gallery. In third-party apps like WhatsApp, the Full Page option usually isn’t available.

When your phone can’t capture a full page: take screenshots in sequence

For WhatsApp conversations on iPhone, apps that don’t support scrolling capture, or older phones, take multiple screenshots. Scroll so each one repeats a line or two from the previous screenshot, then combine them:

1. If you want a cleaner result, crop the excess from the top and bottom of each screenshot (status bar, text field) with Crop image.
2. Open Merge images, select the screenshots in order, and choose vertical.
3. Export as PNG to keep the text sharp.

If the final image is too tall to read (many platforms resize very tall images), try placing each screenshot on a PDF page with Images to PDF. You can scroll through the PDF like a document.

To save entire WhatsApp conversations

If you want to keep a long conversation as a record, screenshots aren’t the best option. WhatsApp has an Export chat option (in the chat menu, under More) that creates a text file with all the messages and, if you want, the media too. See How to save important WhatsApp chats, photos, and audio for details.

Before you share

• Long screenshots often show more information than you intended. Review the whole image before sharing.
• Hide other people’s names, numbers, and photos before posting. See how to hide information in a screenshot.
• Screenshots of conversations may be used as evidence in some situations, but they’re easy to fake. For legal matters, look into more reliable ways to preserve records, such as having a notary certify them.

Frequently asked questions