The most common reply to the last touch indicator post went something like this: “I turned the dots on, recorded a walkthrough of my banking app, and there were no dots in the export.” Nothing was broken. You were recording in a mode where tap dots physically cannot exist, and nobody tells you that until you watch the file back.
Short answer: DemoScope’s touch indicators only work in in-app recording mode on iPhone and iPad, where the app owns the screen. In External PiP mode, which uses an iOS Broadcast Extension to capture other apps system-wide, iOS does not hand tap data to third-party apps, so no dots appear. Plan your mode before you record, not after.
Why the dots vanish when you record another app
Touch indicators are an in-app feature. DemoScope draws animated circles at your tap locations because it can see those taps happening inside its own recording view. The moment you switch to External PiP mode and send DemoScope to the background, iOS takes over capture through the Broadcast Extension, and the system does not expose touch events to the recording app. That is an iOS limitation, not a settings toggle you missed.
The practical version: External PiP mode gives you Camera, PiP Border, and Text on screen. That is the full toolset. No touch indicators, no teleprompter, no DemoScope HUD controls.
| In-app recording | External PiP mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Touch indicators | Yes, customizable color | No (iOS limitation) |
| Teleprompter | Yes | No |
| Face cam overlay | Yes | Yes, floating window |
| Records other apps | No | Yes, any app |
| On-screen text | Yes | Yes |
| Recording controls | DemoScope HUD | iOS system UI |
What tap dots actually do for a demo
A touch indicator is a visual marker rendered at the point of contact during recording. It works by drawing an animated circle wherever your finger lands, so viewers see the cause before they see the effect. The main touch indicator benefits are that your narration stops carrying navigation duty (“now tap the icon in the upper right, the small one next to the avatar”) and your viewer stops rewinding to figure out what changed. I covered the script-shortening side in how tap dots let you cut lines out of your narration, and the broader case in why touch indicators are essential for mobile screen recording.
What they do not do: trace swipe paths, visualize drags, or show multi-finger gestures. They mark taps. If your demo hinges on a long swipe or a pinch, the dots will not rescue that moment.
The workaround when you need to record outside DemoScope
Record in External PiP mode and replace the dots with two things you still have.
- Slow your taps down. Land the finger, pause half a beat, then let the UI respond. Fast tapping without indicators is the single biggest reason viewers get lost.
- Use Text on screen for the two or three moments that actually matter (“Settings → Notifications”), not for every step.
- Narrate positionally with anchors that exist in the frame: “bottom tab bar, third icon,” not “the button.”
- Keep the face cam bubble away from the corner you tap most. A draggable bubble parked over your own hand is worse than no bubble.
When to skip touch indicators on purpose
If you are recording a bug report for your own team, dots are optional. The engineer watching wants the reproduction steps and the screen state, and your verbal count (“tap, tap, crash”) is enough. If you are recording an App Store preview or a tutorial for strangers, turn them on and pick a color that contrasts with your app’s primary UI color. Default-ish blue on a blue app is invisible, and you will not notice until export.
My actual recommendation, with the trade-off stated plainly: record inside DemoScope whenever the demo is about your own app, because you get touch indicators and the teleprompter together. Accept External PiP mode’s missing dots only when the content genuinely lives in another app. Trading the teleprompter away hurts more than trading the dots away, since most people can slow their taps down but few can freestyle three minutes of narration cleanly.
For the wider setup context, the complete iOS screen recorder guide covers audio routing and storage, and if you are still deciding on tooling, built-in iOS recording compared with third-party apps lays out the gaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why aren’t touch indicators showing up in my recording?
You are almost certainly recording in External PiP mode. DemoScope’s touch indicators only render during in-app recording, because iOS does not share tap events with third-party apps during Broadcast Extension capture.
Can any iPhone screen recorder show tap dots on other apps?
Not without a jailbreak or a connected Mac. The tap-event restriction is at the iOS level, so no App Store recorder can draw indicators over a system-wide capture of another app.
Do touch indicators show swipes and pinches?
No. DemoScope’s touch indicators mark tap points only. There is no gesture path tracing, swipe visualization, or multi-finger indicator, so plan to narrate gestures verbally.
Is there an extra cost to use touch indicators?
No. DemoScope Pro is a single $19.99 one-time purchase that removes the watermark and includes all features, including touch indicators and the teleprompter. There is no subscription and no per-feature unlock.