How to capture scrollable screenshots on Android

One of the most useful features of today's Samsung and Motorola smartphones can be found on any Android phone. I'm talking about "Scroll capture", which allows you to take longer to capture by scrolling screenshots of an entire page.

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There are a ton of apps that let you manually capture screenshots to make them a single file, but that's boring. Here's how to get screen scrolling on your Android without the hassle.

How to use scroll capture on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

Introduced for Samsung Note 5 users and enhanced for the Galaxy S7, this great feature is called "Capture more". It allows you to take a single long screenshot of a page from the top and scroll all the way to the end in a file. This feature has returned to the Galaxy S8 under the new nickname "Scroll capture" and can be enjoyed on the latest Galaxy S9. Here's how it done:

  • First, enable smart capture from advanced settings;
  • Navigate to the screen you want to take a picture of;
  • Take a normal screenshot;
  • After taking a screenshot, tap "Scroll Capture" (or "Capture More") from the options that will be displayed at the bottom of the screen;
  • Keep tapping the "Scroll Capture" (or "Capture More") button to continue down the page until you are finished.
samsung screenshot
Samsung's "Capture More" feature / AndroidPIT (screenshot)

Using scroll capture on Motorola smartphones

From Oreo, Motorola devices allow you to take scrollable screenshots. Here's how to do it:

  • Locate the screen you want to take a scrolling screenshot of;
  • Hold down the Power and Volume buttons at the same time (or enable the Moto App function to take screenshots with three fingers on the screen);
  • After a few seconds, an animation will appear informing you that you have captured the image;
  • Before the animation disappears, tap the first button with the down arrow;
  • Immediately, the system informs your phone to start scrolling down and adding original screen capture. It will keep rolling until you touch the button that says stop;
  • The scrollshot will now appear on your monitor for you to inspect. From here you can share, edit or delete the image.
motorola screenshot
Most current Motorola smartphones also feature / AndroidPIT (screenshot)

How to take scrolling screenshots on any Android device

But not everyone can buy a Galaxy or Huawei Mate smartphone. Fortunately, you don't need to have scroll capture as a native function. While not a feature built into Android, it doesn't mean it can't be done. There is a third party app called Stitch & Share to save the day for those who don't have Galaxy phones.

$ {app-com.glitch.stitchandshare}

This intuitive app lets you take screenshots as you normally would, then automatically joins them for you (unlike other apps that require you to do it manually). All you have to do is save the screenshot as a file and this app even lets you share it from the app right away.

You can take a screenshot of a website, news article or entire application with Stitch & Share. After downloading it and granting the necessary permissions, click the "Automatic capturing" button. An app side button will appear on the screen above all other apps. Da, go to where you need to capture and press this button.

capture stitch
After a quick setup, you're ready to start taking scrolling snapshots / AndroidPIT (screenshot)

The app starts showing on the upper left side a thumbnail of what has already been captured, and you should scroll a little and wait for the thumbnail to show more captured image. Do this slowly until you have everything you need in the image, then hit the save button over all apps on the right side.

Stitch & Share brings it all together and shows how the image will look. From there you can now save to your device. There is also another way in which you just have to take your first screenshot as usual. Scroll down until only a small portion of what was visible in the first screenshot is still displayed on your screen, then take the next screenshot.

Repeat this step until you have taken pictures of everything you want. Then swipe down to open your smartphone's notification panel and touch the "Group and share" notification to open the app. Or you can open the Stitch & Share app and select the screenshots you want automatically stitched. From l, just tap the green arrow to save your long screenshot.

To see an example of what Stitch & Share can do, take a look at the very long maximum resolution screenshot below. There are some drawbacks to the app, namely that the results are not always perfect, and a small watermark will appear in the lower right corner unless you upgrade to a paid version. That said, a very convenient and useful application.

2018 Aug 05 17 25 20
Original size of screenshot / AndroidPIT (screenshot)

The next time your friend annoyingly sends you four screenshots of a single text conversation, link to this article. And if you have any useful tips you would like to share, leave a comment below!

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