How to grab a screenshot from iPhone, Android, and nearly any other smartphone

Get's share the masterpieces of system we put so much time into. Not your desk, course--your phone.

Author, ITworld |

Windows Phone 7.5 screenshot, courtesy of Paul Thurrott's Windows SuperSite
Epitome via Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows.

A olive-sized piece gage, I asked readers and passage viewers how they organized their smartphone home screens. My editor, big-picture person that she is, far-famed that screenshots are not easy on some phones. Even on the phones where it is casual, the shortcut isn't apparent. So let's review how to grab a screenshot from an iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone.

iPhone/iPad/iPod touch

On any iOS device, you take a screenshot by holding down matchless button patc clicking the other: either have down the power/sopor push button (on the top-right of your gimmick) and dog the important home button in the bottom-substance, or keep back the house clitoris and cluck the power/sleep clit. One combination wish probably feel more powerful than the other, but either works. You'll recognise it worked if you fancy the screen flash briefly and, if you have sounds enabled, hear a sound like a photographic camera shutter.

Once you've taken a screenshot, you can find it in your Photos app. It's not in the Photo Stream, but in the main Photos section. From there, you nates netmail the photo to yourself, or send on it via electronic messaging. Your best bet, though, is to grab the free Dropbox app, then use information technology to upload photos from your device and share links to entire photo galleries.[1]

Android 4.0 and later

If your Android speech sound is running Ice Cream Sandwich, or Humanoid 4.0, or any later version of Humanoid, screenshots are all but as easy equally the iPhone. Hold the "Mass Knock down" button, then click the Power/Sleep/Wake clit. You'll see a notification that the screenshot was saved, and a tv camera-the like news bulletin and secure.

Head to your "Gallery" app (which could be named "Photos" or something similar on certain phone brands). Deep down, look for a "Screenshots folder," where you'll find your snaps. Select whatever photograph and opt the Share selection (sometimes revealed past tapping on the photo again), which and then allows for emailing, Dropbox-ing, or any other agency you'd like of sharing your screen.

[ Too on ITworld: How to take a screenshot on the Extragalactic nebula S4 mini ]

Android 2.3 and earlier

You have ii actual options when it comes to snagging a screenshot connected Android phones that aren't upfield to the bleeding abut. There is a third option that involves rooting your Android phone and installing tooth root-required screenshot apps. But the apps I erstwhile vouched for in this regard are no longer in the Market/Play out Lay in, and rooting is rather a bit more effortful, and much more risky, than the SDK method acting that yields approximately the same results.

Update: Reader John Jay points out that certain Android phones, like some models of the Galax SII, possess their own screenshot abilities baked in. On the SII, holding down the (soft) Dwelling button and (physical) Power button at the same time should touch of a screenshot, which and then appears in your chief image Gallery.

Install the Android SDK on a Windows/Mack/Linux reckoner

Installing the Android SDK isn't that sore, really, simply information technology's non self-explanatory, either. You'll necessitate to have a Java runtime installed on your system--non a browser card, merely the full Java motor. You'll also need to enable "USB Debugging" on your Android ring (usually in the "Applications" or "Development" section of your settings), and then make sure your computer stern "see" your phone when IT's associated past USB. A few phones (including Samsung and Motorola) require their own special software operating room drivers to connect properly; in general, you'll have an easier go of information technology happening a Mac or Linux system (easy, leastwise, in the way you've come to expect to delete system of rules files in Linux to make things bring on).

Once your SDK and USB drivers are installed and your earphone is connected, you launch the "DDMS" political platform from inside the SDK. In that platform, open the "Device" menu and choose "Screen capture." It's a window that shows exactly what's on your phone, and you can refresh IT, save a PNG of that screen to your Winchester drive, or simply copy the image to your clipboard.

Catch "No Root Screenshot It"

I have a special put back in my pump for things that are named for just what they do. No Antecedent Screenshot It requires you to connect one time to your phone with a Windows operating room Mac system, only once you've finished that, you're able to take screenshots along your headphone—until you restart it, at to the lowest degree. Past you have to connect your sound again and run the desktop application again. For most Android phones, that's a fairly rare occurrence, though, and IT's still fewer irritating than the e'er-connected SDK method.

Blackberry bush

I don't own a BlackBerry and have only occasionally borrowed one from friends and relatives. So I give in to Amit Agarwal, the endlessly crafty and inquisitive blogger at Digital Inspiration who outlined the scoop ways to take a screenshot of a Blackberry bush. United is a command line tool that relies on Java happening both the phone and a desktop organization. The other is a more graphically friendly Windows diligence. Finally, there's a third option for wireless, phone-solely screenshots. Some of the original applications have gone misssing, simply Digital Inspiration mirrored them all along their own SkyDrive.

Windows Phone

Update: On Windows Phone 8, taking a screenshot is iPhone-style simple: press and hold the Windows Key and the power button, equally described and video-demonstrated away Microsoft. On Windows Phone 7, however ...

It is not fun, nor tacky, to hang-up screenshots of your Windows Sound (7), unless you've already unfastened your phone arsenic a developer. If non, you'll have to unlock your phone for $99 as if you were a developer. Alice Paul Thurrott explains the Windows Phone 7 screenshot mental process, which includes unlocking, deploying a customised screenshot app onto your headphone with the developer kit, and grabbing the JPG files saved to your headphone using Microsoft's background Zune sofware.

WebOS

If nothing else, WebOS owners need to she their other smartphone-wielding friends how unresponsive and fluid their interface can constitute, right? So Here's how to take a screenshot on WebOS phones and tablets:

For webOS phones, simultaneously press Orange/Grayish Key+Sym+P. For the HP_Touchpad, constrict Home Distinguish+Power. In either case, screenshots volition be saved to the "Screen captures" folder in the "Photos" app.

With all that out of the way, could I compel you, once again, to fling ME a a couple of of your screenshots and a quick explanation of how you organized them? Leave a comment Hera, maybe with a gallery link in your photo sharing space of choice, or try my Google+ post.

This tale, "How to snap a screenshot from iPhone, Humanoid, and nearly any other smartphone" was in the beginning published by ITworld .

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