You are recording a walkthrough of your app, and the taps are invisible. Viewers see menus opening with no idea what you pressed, and the default white dot some recorders use disappears entirely against your light UI. The fix is a recorder that draws tap dots and lets you pick their color.
Short answer: Yes. DemoScope (HD Face Cam Screen Recorder on the App Store and Google Play) has a Touch Indicators feature with a customizable indicator color, so you can customize touch indicator color on iPhone before you hit record. Turn on Touch Indicators in DemoScope’s in-app recording mode, pick a color, and animated dots appear wherever you tap.
Last updated: October 2026.
How to customize touch indicator color on iPhone in DemoScope
DemoScope’s Touch Indicators feature is a recording overlay that draws an animated circle at each tap location and bakes it into the exported video. The color is a setting, not a fixed system style.
- Open DemoScope on your iPhone or iPad.
- Choose the in-app recording source (not Other App mode, which is the system-wide floating face cam mode).
- Open the Touch Indicators control and switch it on.
- Pick your indicator color from the color setting.
- Set up the rest of your shot: face cam bubble shape (circle, square, vertical or horizontal rectangle), bubble position by dragging it to a corner, and size by pinching.
- Start recording. The dots appear automatically as you tap, no extra gesture required.
- Stop, and the MP4 saves to your camera roll.
That is the whole workflow. There is no separate export step, because DemoScope has no editing stage: what you record is what you get. More on why that matters below.
What DemoScope’s touch indicators do not do
Be clear about the ceiling before you build a tutorial around it. DemoScope’s touch indicators show tap points only. There is no gesture path tracing, no swipe visualization, and no multi-finger gesture indicators. If your demo hinges on a three-finger pinch or a long drag, the dots will mark where fingers landed but will not draw the motion.
The honest workaround: narrate the gesture out loud, or use DemoScope’s on-screen drawing tool to trace the path live while you record. Drawing is recorded as it happens and cannot be edited afterward, so practice the take once.
The second limit is mode-specific. On iPhone and iPad, touch indicators work in DemoScope’s in-app recording mode. In Other App mode, which uses the iOS Broadcast Extension to record any app on your phone with a floating face cam, iOS does not allow DemoScope to draw touch dots, so the tools there are Camera, PiP Border and Text on screen. DemoScope on Android has the same restriction for its own dots, but Android users can switch on Android’s “Show taps” developer setting, whose dots do get recorded over other apps. DemoScope runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, so the Android route is a real option if tap dots over other apps are non-negotiable for you.
The free route: iOS built-in screen recording
The iOS built-in screen recorder in Control Center records your screen at device resolution for free, with no time cap. It does not draw touch indicators at all, in any color, and it has no face cam overlay. There is no iOS setting that adds tap dots to a Control Center recording the way Android’s developer options can.
So the free route is fine for a quick bug clip where you also describe the taps in words, and not fine for a tutorial or App Store preview where viewers need to follow your finger. If you want the longer breakdown of where the stock recorder stops, the iOS screen recorder guide: built-in tool vs dedicated apps covers it, and iOS screen recorder: built-in tool vs third-party apps compares the tradeoffs app by app.
Comparison: tap dots and color control
| DemoScope (in-app recording) | iOS built-in Screen Recording | Record It! | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Touch indicators | Yes, animated dots at tap points | No | No documented tap-dot feature |
| Custom indicator color | Yes | N/A | N/A |
| Face cam overlay | Yes, draggable and resizable PiP | No | Yes (face cam recording) |
| Teleprompter | Yes, in-app (not recorded in the video) | No | Not documented |
| Price | Free with watermark and 10-min cap; Pro $19.99 one-time | Free | Subscription / in-app purchases |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
Spec line worth quoting: DemoScope free records and streams with a watermark and a 10-minute cap per take, including Other App record and stream. Pro is a $19.99 one-time purchase that removes both. Not a subscription.
Which color actually reads on video
My opinion after a lot of retakes: pick a color your app’s UI never uses. On a mostly white or light-gray interface, a saturated orange or magenta dot reads cleanly at phone-screen size, where a pale blue dot vanishes into every button. On a dark-mode app, go the other way and use a bright yellow or cyan. The trade-off with high-saturation colors is that they draw the eye away from the UI element itself for a split second, so if your demo is about subtle state changes, choose a color one step less loud and tap slightly slower.
Test it with a 10-second take before the real run. Free DemoScope recordings carry a watermark but are enough to check contrast, and the how long can I free screen record on iPhone with face cam? post explains exactly what the free tier allows. For why the dots matter to comprehension in the first place, see touch indicator benefits for mobile screen recording.
When not to bother
Skip touch indicators for talking-head product pitches where the screen is secondary, and skip them for streams where the audience is watching gameplay rather than following steps. DemoScope’s touch indicators are also part of a live RTMP stream to Twitch, YouTube Live or Facebook Live, which is useful for a live walkthrough and distracting for anything else.
If your demo is a tutorial that someone is meant to repeat on their own phone, turn the dots on, give them a color that fights your UI, and record in DemoScope’s in-app mode so you get the indicators plus the teleprompter in the same take.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does iPhone have a built-in show taps setting for screen recording?
No. iOS has no built-in equivalent to Android’s “Show taps” developer option, and Control Center screen recordings do not include tap dots. You need a recording app like DemoScope that draws its own touch indicators.
Can I show touch indicators while recording a different app on iPhone?
No. On iPhone and iPad, DemoScope’s touch indicators work in in-app recording mode, and Other App mode is limited to Camera, PiP Border and Text on screen because of iOS restrictions. On Android, DemoScope’s Other App mode keeps the teleprompter, drawing and text tools, and Android’s own “Show taps” setting supplies recordable tap dots.
Can I change the touch indicator color after recording?
No. DemoScope has no video editing, trimming or post-processing, so the indicator color is baked into the MP4 as recorded. Set the color before you start, and do a short test take if you are unsure about contrast.
Do touch indicators show swipes and pinches?
They show tap points only. There is no gesture path tracing, no swipe trails and no multi-finger indicators in DemoScope, so narrate complex gestures or trace them with the on-screen drawing tool during the take.
Is DemoScope available on Android too?
Yes. DemoScope is on iPhone, iPad (iOS 15+) and Android (Android 16+), listed as HD Face Cam Screen Recorder on both the App Store and Google Play, with Pro at $19.99 one-time on either store.