Audio & camera

A screencast is stronger with your voice and your face. The recording bar’s Microphone and Camera toggles let you capture both alongside your screen.

Microphone

Turn on Microphone to record narration. Click the mic chip to open the device chooser — it lists every input (built-in, external, and Continuity mics from a nearby iPhone), with the system default first and a live level meter so you can check you’re being picked up. There’s also an Off row to disable it again.

• Playback remembers your choice. If the device you picked is unplugged by the time you record, it quietly falls back to the system default rather than losing your narration.
• The first time you enable the mic, macOS asks for Microphone permission.
• Use Rescan in the chooser if you just plugged in a mic that isn’t listed.

Camera

Turn on Camera to add a webcam. Click the camera chip to pick which one to use. Enabling the camera requests Camera permission the first time.

When a take includes the camera, Playback composites it as a picture-in-picture overlay in the corner of the frame. You can style that overlay — its shape, position, and mirroring — while editing; see the webcam overlay section.

The self-view

While you record with the camera on, a small round self-view floats on screen so you can see yourself. It’s one of Playback’s own windows, so it never burns into the recording — display and area captures exclude it automatically.

The self-view does something clever: drag it to any corner and, when you let go, it snaps to the nearest corner of your recorded area. Wherever you leave it is exactly where the picture-in-picture overlay lands in the finished video. Set your framing once, while recording, and it carries through to the edit.