Well, taking a picture (or a “screen capture,” as it’s called in tech circles) of your Android phone’s display is a fairly easy process, so long as you’re using a relatively recent Android device.
You can jump to a recently taken screenshot by opening your phone’s notification pane; just swipe down from the top of the screen.
Specifically, your phone must be running on version 4.0 of the Android operating system to use the “native” Android screenshot feature.
To find out which version of Android is loaded on your phone, tap Settings, “About phone,” and then check the number listed under the “Android version” heading.
So, ready to start snapping screenshots?
Here’s how…
- See something interesting on your Android phone’s screen you want to save for posterity? Try this: at the same time, press and hold both the Power button and the volume-down button.
- After about a second, a virtual snapshot of your screen will appear and then slide into the corner of the screen. You should also see a “Saving screenshot…” message in the notification bar along the top of your phone’s display.
- Swipe down from the top of the screen to open your Android phone’s notification pane, then tap the “Screenshot captured” entry to jump to your new screenshot. You can also access the image from the “Screenshots” folder in the Gallery app.
- Want to share your screenshot? Tap it, tap the Share icon at the top of the screen (it’s the one with two lines connected by three dots), then tap a sharing option—anything from Google Drive and Gmail to Messages and Google+.
- To edit or delete your screenshot, tap the three-dot menu button and then pick an option from the drop-down menu.
Tap the Share button to see all the sharing options for your new screenshot.
Bonus tip
Specific makes and models of Android phones may have their own custom screenshot features.
For example, certain HTC and Samsung phones will let you take a screenshot by pressing and holding the Power and Home keys.
The Samsung Galaxy Note, meanwhile, lets you take a screenshot using the “S Pen” stylus—just press and hold the S Pen button, then press and hold the display with the tip of the pen.
Looking for more Android tips? Click here!