If you have Adobe Captivate on an Apple Mac and an iPhone / iPad, you may very well know that you can capture iPhone and iPad screen activity directly into Captivate.

We want to show you how you can capture Android mobile screen activity using Captivate and an app called Airdroid, all for free.

There may be other apps that allow you to do this, however, we found that capturing the Android screen from the desktop gave more flexibility when recording the screen, allowing you to either capture in Video Demo mode or Software Simulation mode from within Captivate.

First, you’ll need to download the Airdroid app from Google Play Store:

Airdroid on Playstore

Once you’ve entered the relevant sign- up details (no credit card required), visit the http://web.airdroid.com home page on your desktop browser.

Airdroid web page

Launch the Airdroid app on your phone, and pressing the square icon as directed will allow you to connect using a QR code.

Connecting your device to Airdroid via QR code

Once you’ve connected the device to the desktop Airdroid, select the Screenshot icon on the desktop.

Select the Screenshot icon

You will get a notification on your device that Airdroid will start capturing everything that’s displayed on your screen. Just press “Start Now”

Airdroid Start Capturing

You will then see your device screen appearing on your desktop. You still operate the phone as is, and the screen on the desktop will mimic what is happening on the phone.

Device screen displayed in desktop browser

Launch Captivate if you haven’t already  done so, and select either Video Demo or Software Simulation.

(NOTE: if you select Software Simulation, you will need to manually trigger the screenshots in Captivate as the mouse is not being used, therefore Captivate can’t automatically capture each screen)

Once Captivate’s red select rectangle appears, resize to cover the device screen, as shown.

Click “record” in Captivate when ready!

Ready to record

When you have captured the screen, continue to work as you would with a normal screen capture. Shapes, buttons, text captions can all be added to enhance the demo.

Please also note that device gestures aren’t highlighted, so you will no doubt need to add shapes and callouts to help direct the learner.

Mobile screen ready to edit

Airdroid does also have the ability to screen record your screen directly via the app, however you will still need to get the video off the phone in to Captivate to add further functionality and make ready for an LMS.

There you go, you can capture an Android device using Adobe Captivate, and all for free!

We would love to hear if you have any other suggestions for capturing Android device screens using Adobe Captivate.

Happy mLearning!