Airplay is an awesome feature that wirelessly sends the screen of your iOS device onto an Apple TV. The one downfall is that it does not support steaming to your computer. That’s where AirServer comes into play. By simply installing it, you gain the ability to also stream high quality video and audio from your iOS device to your Mac.

 

About AirServer

AirServer is a paid app, they do however offer a free 7 day fully functional trial. It works just like Airplay, only with added Mac support.

Airserver supports steaming high-definition 1080 video and it handles it really well. During my usage of it, I didn’t notice any lag or choppy streaming. Even steaming gameplay was smooth. I have been testing it out on my iPhone 5S and iMac.

Here is a quick video I recorded to show off what it looks like. The first bit is showing off normal actions like opening apps. The latter part of the video is just showing off what gameplay looks like.

 

How to Record iPhone, iPad & iPod Screen

AirSever is great at streaming to your Mac, it unfortunately does not record the screen. For that we need to turn to another application.

Quicktime, an application that comes installed on all Macs will allow you to record the screen. Here’s a tutorial on recording with Quicktime if interested: Record Mac OS X Screen with QuickTime. The unfortunate thing I noticed about recording with Quicktime is that the recording quality was choppy when recording gameplay. Another huge problem with QuickTime is that it doesn’t record the audio of your Mac.

Personally, I recommend and use Screenflow. It’s perfect for recording HQ video as well as audio and it’s also a powerful video editor. There is a free trial, however after the trial is over it will cost you around $100 to purchase.

It’s actually incredibly simple to record your iOS screen to you Mac using AirServer. First you need the AirServer app installed and running, then simply enable Airplay mode on your iOS device and point it towards your Mac.

Once you open the Airserver app, nothing will pop up on the Mac screen. It will simply add itself to the menubar.

Airplay to Mac
  1. Make sure AirServer is open and running on your Mac. You will see it in the menubar.
  2. On your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, turn on AirPlay. Swipe up from the bottom to access control center where AirPlay is accessible from.
  3. Next, just choose which device you want to use to stream to. Make sure “Mirroring” is turned on otherwise it will only steam over audio.

Once that’s done, your iPhone, iPod or iPad’s screen will show up on your Mac. Then simply record the screen of your Mac using the recording software of your choice.

 

A few more things to mention about AirServer:

  1. It automatically sets itself to “Launch on Startup”. There is really no need for this, it can be shut off from the menubar.
  2. You can change the settings, security and streaming quality in System Preferences.