Creating GIFs from your iOS Simulator is a great way to showcase features, document animations, or report bugs. Let’s look at the easiest ways to do this.

Record a GIF from the iOS Simulator

The simplest way to record a video of your app running in the iOS Simulator is using its built-in screen recording feature.

  1. Launch your app in the iOS Simulator.
  2. With the Simulator window active,
    1. go to File > Record Screen in the macOS menu bar, or
    2. press the shortcut Cmd + R, or
    3. hold Option and click on the record button in the Simulator’s title bar.
  3. A recording indicator (a small circle) will appear in the Simulator’s title bar. Perform the actions you want to capture.
  4. To stop, click the recording indicator again, or press Cmd + R.
  5. A thumbnail of your recording will appear.
  6. Right-click that recording then select Save as Animated Gif.

record gif from iOS simulator

Quick Tips for Great Simulator GIFs

  • Keep it Short: GIFs are best for brief interactions.
  • Resize: Smaller dimensions mean smaller file sizes.
  • Clean Status Bar (Optional): You can control the status bar of the device. Before recording you can run an xcrun simctl command:
    xcrun simctl status_bar booted override --time "9:41" --dataNetwork wifi --wifiMode active --wifiBars 3 --cellularMode active --cellularBars 4 --batteryState discharging --batteryLevel 100
    To clear it after: xcrun simctl status_bar booted clear

Setting battery level to 1 is great to unnerve colleagues. 😱

no battery iOS simulator

Conclusion

Recording GIFs from the iOS Simulator is a handy skill. By using the Simulator’s built-in video recording and a tool like ffmpeg or an online converter, you can easily create effective visuals for your development work.

Happy GIFing!