How To Take A Screenshot On Your IPhone Without Having A Thumbnail Preview
How To Take a Screenshot On Your iPhone Without Having A Thumbnail Preview
Any time you take a screenshot on your iPhone, you will always see little thumbnail preview in the bottom-left corner. While this thumbnail is useful, it can also be really annoying. Thankfully, there’s a way you can bypass the thumbnail preview.
If your iPhone is running iOS 14.5 or it is running higher, you have access to a new “Take Screenshot” action that is in the Shortcuts app. This means that it is possible for you to create and use a shortcut that will take a screenshot for you without experiencing the pop-up preview.
If you have not heard about the Shortcuts, here we have a quick overview. The shortcuts is a built-in automation app that is on your iPhone and iPad that allows you create quick automations (shortcuts) that are strung together to form a bunch of actions that are initiated one after the other.
In this article, we’ll show you a shortcut that you can make use of to take a screenshot and save it to the Recents album in your Photos app (or any other like folder).
Once the shortcut is created, you can possibly trigger it in so many different ways, including to trigger it from the Shortcuts widget and also by using Siri. But here, we’re going to trigger it by making use of the Back Tap feature that’s available for users of iPhone X and higher iPhones.
Once all is set up, when you tap the back of your iPhone twice or thrice it will take a screenshot without it displaying the thumbnail. Once the screenshot is captured, you’ll get a notification at the top of your screen (Currently, there’s no way that you can disable these notifications.). Let’s walk through this!
Creating a Shortcut for Taking Screenshots on Your iPhone
1. First open the Shortcuts app on your iPhone, and then from the “My Shortcuts” tab, click the “+” button in the top-right corner so you can create a new shortcut.
2. Tap Plus button from Shortcuts
3. Here, click the “Add Action” button.
4. Tap Add Action in Shortcuts
5. Now, search and then add the “Take Screenshot” action.
6. Next, we have to task the shortcut to save the screenshot. To do this, click the “+” button below the action.
7. Search for and add the “Save to Photo Album” option.
8. Select Save to Photo Album Action
9. By default, this action will automatically save the screenshot to the Recents album. You can change the direction to any other album if you choose.
10. When you have configured the shortcut, click on the “Next” button from the top.
11. Tap Next After Configuring Shortcut
12. Give a name to the shortcut (You can name it “Take Screenshot” if you want.) and then click the “Done” button.
13. You have created the shortcut successfully.
14. Now configure the “Add Screenshot” Shortcut for a Back Tap Gesture
While staying in the Shortcuts app, this shortcut is not too useful. We can assign it to the Back Tap feature. The Back Tap is an accessibility feature that allows you to trigger system actions and shortcuts by making use of a double- or triple-tap gesture on the back of your iPhone.
1. To enable this setting, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Visit Settings on iPhone
3. Go to the “Accessibility” option.
4. Click Accessibility for Settings
5. From the top, select the “Touch” option.
6. Scroll to the bottom and then go to the “Back Tap” section.
7. Select Back Tap
8. Select the “Double Tap” or “Triple Tap” option based on your wish to use.
9. Choose Double or Triple Tap
Now, you can scroll down to the Shortcuts section and choose the “Take Screenshot” shortcut that we created in the previous step.
And you’re good to go. When you double or you triple tap on the back of your iPhone, the shortcut will automatically take a screenshot and save it to the Photos app. You won’t see any trace of those annoying thumbnail previews.
Note: The Shortcuts app will show you a notification for a second or two (which is less intrusive).
There are so many things that you can do using the Back Tap feature on the iPhone. You can use it to play and pause the music, also for turning on the flashlight, and even bringing up Google Assistant.
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