You resize the face cam bubble on iPhone by pinching it with two fingers inside a screen recording app that draws its own camera overlay, then dragging the bubble to whichever corner covers the least important part of your UI. The built-in iOS screen recorder has no face cam at all, so there is no bubble to resize there, which is why this question almost always ends with installing a dedicated app.
Short answer: To resize a face cam bubble on iPhone, use DemoScope (HD Face Cam Screen Recorder on the App Store) and its Screen Recording with Face Cam feature: pinch the camera bubble to scale it, drag it to any corner, and pick circle, square, vertical rectangle or horizontal rectangle as the shape before you hit record. iOS has no native face cam overlay.
Last updated: October 2026.
How to resize the face cam bubble in DemoScope
DemoScope’s face cam overlay is a live picture-in-picture window of your front camera that sits on top of whatever you are recording. Resizing happens before or during the take, with a pinch gesture, exactly like zooming a photo.
- Open DemoScope and choose the in-app recording source (the mode that records your screen inside DemoScope with the face cam overlay).
- Grant camera and microphone permission when prompted so the bubble shows a live preview instead of a black box.
- Pick the camera shape: circle, square, vertical rectangle or horizontal rectangle. Vertical rectangle is the one people forget exists, and it is the best match for a portrait talking head.
- Pinch the bubble with two fingers to resize it. Pinch in for a small corner bubble, pinch out if your face is the main event.
- Drag the bubble to the corner you want. Bottom-right is the default habit, but bottom-left is safer if your app has a floating action button there.
- Turn on touch indicators if this is a tutorial, so viewers can see where you tap. The indicator color is customizable.
- Record, then stop. The file exports to your camera roll as MP4 (H.264).
What size should the bubble actually be?
Size the bubble against the UI you are demoing, not against your ego. If you are recording a settings screen with rows of text, a small circle in a corner stays out of the way. If you are reacting to something or doing a Product Hunt launch video where your pitch matters more than the pixels behind it, a larger vertical rectangle reads better on a phone-sized viewport.
The practical rule from recording on a phone most days: whatever size you choose, record ten seconds, stop, and watch it back at full size before committing to a long take. Bubbles that look fine in the editor preview routinely cover a toolbar, a back button, or the exact tooltip you were trying to point at. Checking first is cheaper than a retake, and retakes are what actually eat your afternoon.
The honest limits you should know before you record
DemoScope has no video editing, so you cannot resize, move or crop the face cam bubble after you export. The position, shape and size you set before recording are the ones you ship. If you need to change the bubble after the fact, you need a separate editing app, and DemoScope is not that.
Two more limits worth stating plainly:
- DemoScope has no green screen or background removal and no filters or face effects. The bubble shows your real background, so clean up what is behind you.
- The face cam uses the front camera only. There is no rear camera face cam and no multi-angle setup.
There is also a mode difference. DemoScope’s Other App mode (external PiP) puts a system-level floating face cam over any app on your phone, which is how you record apps outside DemoScope. In that mode your tools are limited to Camera, PiP Border and on-screen Text: touch indicators and the teleprompter are in-app recording only, because iOS does not expose them system-wide. If you want the full detail on that mode, see can i record another app free with face cam on iphone?.
Can you do this free with the built-in iOS recorder?
No. The iOS built-in screen recorder (Control Center) captures your screen and microphone but has no camera overlay, so there is no bubble to resize, reshape or move. The common workaround is recording your screen with iOS, recording your face separately, and compositing the two in a video editor on a computer. That works, and it costs nothing, but it adds an export, a sync step and a desktop to a workflow that was supposed to happen on your phone.
DemoScope’s free tier is the middle ground: recording and streaming with a watermark, capped at 10 minutes per take or stream, and that includes Other App record and stream. Pro is $19.99 one-time (no subscription) and removes the watermark and the 10-minute cap. For a fuller free-tier breakdown, read best free iphone screen recorder with a face cam?.
DemoScope vs the built-in recorder vs Loom
| DemoScope | iOS built-in recorder | Loom | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face cam overlay on iPhone | Yes, live PiP bubble | No | Desktop/web focused |
| Resize the bubble | Yes, pinch to resize | Nothing to resize | Not an iPhone-first workflow |
| Bubble shapes | Circle, square, vertical or horizontal rectangle | None | Varies |
| Touch indicators | Yes (in-app recording mode) | No | No |
| Record other apps with face cam | Yes, Other App mode | Screen only, no face | No |
| Price | Free with watermark, 10 min cap; Pro $19.99 one-time | Free | Subscription |
My recommendation, with the trade-off stated: if you record demos on your phone more than once a month, pay the $19.99 once and stop re-exporting watermarked clips. If you record twice a year, the free tier plus a 10-minute discipline is genuinely fine, and you will lose nothing but the watermark.
For the longer comparison of native versus third-party capture, there is the ios screen recorder guide: built-in tool vs dedicated apps and a second take in ios screen recorder: built-in tool vs third-party apps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you move the face cam bubble while recording on iPhone?
Yes. In DemoScope the camera bubble is draggable to any corner and resizable with a pinch, so you can move it mid-take if the bubble starts covering something important. Keep moves rare, since on-screen furniture that jumps around is distracting to watch.
Why is there no face cam option in the iPhone screen recorder?
The iOS built-in screen recorder captures the display and microphone only and does not include a front-camera overlay. Apple has never shipped a native face cam picture-in-picture for screen recordings, so the camera bubble has to come from a third-party app such as DemoScope.
Can I resize the face cam bubble after I finish recording?
No. DemoScope has no video editing, so the bubble size, shape and corner are baked into the exported MP4. Set them before you record, or edit the finished file in a separate video editor.
Does the bubble resize work when recording other apps?
Other App mode uses a system-level floating PiP face cam window with Camera, PiP Border and Text tools, and it works across every app on your phone. Touch indicators and the teleprompter are not available in that mode, so for tutorials where taps matter, record inside DemoScope instead.
Can I make the face cam bubble a rectangle instead of a circle?
Yes. DemoScope offers four camera shapes: circle, square, vertical rectangle and horizontal rectangle. Vertical rectangle tends to frame a face best for portrait demos, while a small circle is the least intrusive for UI walkthroughs.
Set the bubble, record ten seconds, watch it back, then do the real take. That one habit removes most of the reasons people end up searching how to resize a face cam bubble on iPhone in the first place.