It's surprising how often you need to take a screenshot on your phone. Whether it's to capture a social media post, the winning screen in a game, or a funny meme, knowing how to take screenshots is vital.
Luckily, Samsung's Galaxy phones and tablets offer a variety of ways to take screenshots using the touchscreen, side buttons, and even with the S Pen.
Here's how to take screenshots on your Samsung Galaxy, whether it be a Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, or Galaxy Flip.
Power and Volume Down buttons
The easiest way to take a screenshot — which nearly every modern Android phone shares — is with the Power and Volume Down buttons.
1. Set up the screen with the content you want to screenshot.
2. Press the Volume Down and Power buttons simultaneously, and hold them for a second until the screenshot is taken. You'll see the screen flash and shrink slightly.
3. The screenshot toolstrip will appear at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds. You can use the tools here to edit the image, but if you just wait a few moments, the screenshot will slide off-screen and be saved to the Gallery.
Palm Swipe
Samsung Galaxy phones are famous for their slightly curved screens. This special screen allows you to perform common actions with just hand gestures — for example, taking screenshots with Palm Swipe.
This feature should be turned on by default. But you can check by going to the Settings app:
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Advanced features.
3. Select Motions and gestures.
4. Make sure that Palm swipe to capture is toggled on.
Once enabled, you can take a screenshot with the side of your palm.
1. Set up the screen with the content you want to screenshot.
2. Place the edge of your palm on the edge of the device's screen, so your pinkie is pointing down the long side of the phone.
3. In one smooth motion, slide your palm across the phone. You can do this in either direction — right-to-left or left-to-right.
You'll see the screen flash and shrink, indicating the screenshot was successfully captured.
Bixby
Bixby, Samsung's personal assistant (similar to Apple's Siri), can take a screenshot on your behalf as well.
Assuming that you've already set Bixby up, here's how to use it:
1. Set up your screen with the content you want to screenshot.
2. Say, "Hey Bixby, take a screenshot."
Bixby will take a screenshot and save the image in the Gallery.
Smart Select
If you only want to screenshot a specific part of your screen, rather than the entire thing, you can use the Smart Select feature.
This lets you crop your screenshot before you take it, making sure that you only capture what's important.
To use Smart Select, you'll need to enable the Edge Panel feature.
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Display.
3. Tap Edge panels to see all the available panel options.
4. Tap Panels.
5. The first panel, Apps, is usually enabled already. If not, tap Smart select to turn it on.
Once you've turned it on, here's how to capture a portion of the screen with Smart Select:
1. Set up the screen with the content you want to screenshot.
2. To bring out the Edge panel, swipe its handle – it looks like a gray transparent tab – on the left or right edge of your screen.
3. Swipe the Edge panel until you see the Smart select options. If you have more than one panel activated, you might need to swipe a few times.
4. When you see the Smart select panel, tap the tool you want, like the Rectangle tool.
5. Position and resize the screenshot selection, and then tap Done.
6. When you're ready, tap the Save button – the square with the downward-pointing arrow – in the bottom right corner of the screen to save the selection to the Gallery.
Scrolling capture
Normally when you take a screenshot, it'll only capture what you can currently see on the screen. This is usually fine, but won't work if you're trying to screenshot an entire webpage, or a long post.
In these situations, you should use the Scrolling Capture feature. This will take a long screenshot for you.
Before you can use Scrolling Capture, you'll need to enable it.
1. Open the Settings app.
2. Tap Advanced features.
3. Tap the toggle for Smart capture to turn it on.
Once you have that turned on:
1. Take a screenshot using any of the methods described above.
2. When the screenshot toolstrip appears at the bottom of your screen, tap the Scroll Capture button — it looks like a box with two downward-pointing arrows inside it.
Each time you tap the button, it makes the screenshot longer, so keep tapping until it captures everything.
There are other options on the toolstrip, including a crop button, an annotation button, and a share button.
Third-party apps
If you don't want to use any of your Samsung Galaxy's built-in tools for screenshots, you can use a third-party app instead. A great option is ScreenMaster.
1. Download and install ScreenMaster on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
2. Open ScreenMaster, and give it any permissions it needs.
3. Make sure the toggle for Show floating button is turned on. If not, tap to enable the feature.
4. Tap the green power button at the top to turn on screen capturing.
5. Since this is your first time using ScreenMaster, you'll be taken to a page in the Settings app to enable Appear on top. This will make sure the Screen Capture button always appears in front of any screen you're on. So find ScreenMaster in the app list, and then tap its toggle to turn it on.
6. Go to the screen you want to capture, and then tap the Screen capture button on the left side of the screen.
7. Tap Save in the menu at the bottom of the screen. The screenshot will be saved in the ScreenMaster album in the Gallery.
8. To stop the screen-capturing session, open ScreenMaster and tap the red power button at the top.
