Recording guide
How to use Recito
A short guide to the situations that come up when you record yourself reading a script — and how to handle each one.
The basics
- Write or paste your script. It autosaves on your device, with a live read-time estimate so you know how long the take will run.
- Set your length and pace. Pick a recording length, then use the Size and Speed sliders. Tap Preview scroll to watch the script move before you commit — no recording happens.
- Record. A 3-2-1 countdown, then the script scrolls high under the lens while you look into the camera.
- Review and save. Play the take back, check your pace, then save it to Photos.
Common situations
The script scrolls too fast for me
Drop the Speed slider and tap Preview scroll to test it without recording. Most people over-estimate their reading pace the first time. After a take, the pace coach shows your actual words-per-minute — use that to set speed for the next one.
I lost my place mid-take
Drag the script up or down with your finger while recording. Autoscroll pauses while your finger is down and picks up from wherever you leave it.
My eyes look like I'm reading
Raise the font size so you read in fewer, longer glances, and keep the phone at arm's length or further — the closer the phone, the wider your eyes travel. The band sits high on purpose: the smaller the gap between text and lens, the more it reads as eye contact.
I'm using a beam-splitter rig
Turn on Mirror mode to flip the text for the glass. It's free — no unlock needed.
My script is longer than the free limit
The free tier covers scripts up to 750 characters — around 150 words, or about a minute of speech at the pace the app estimates with. Longer scripts are part of the one-time unlock.
I want the video without the watermark
Free saves carry a small "Recito" mark and export at 1080p. The one-time unlock removes the mark and keeps the original file untouched. It is a single purchase, not a subscription, and it restores free on any device on your Apple ID.
Pausing, and re-recording just one bit
I fluffed a line halfway through
Tap the record button to pause. The script freezes on the word you stopped at, so you carry on from exactly there rather than starting the take again. You still get one video — the pauses are invisible in the result.
I want to re-record just that bit
While paused, tap ⌫ to delete the part you just recorded. The script rewinds with it, back to the words that part began on, and everything before it is kept. Then carry on.
How do I finish a take?
Tap the ✓. The record button pauses and resumes; it never ends a take, so you can't stop by accident with your thumb in its usual place. The ring around it shows the parts your take is made of.
The pace is wrong and I've already started
Pause, move the Speed slider, then hold Preview speed to watch the script run at the new setting. Let go and it snaps back to the word you paused on, so trying it costs you nothing.
Someone called me mid-take
The take pauses by itself and tells you why. What you recorded before the call is kept, and the prompter is still on your word — resume when you're ready.
On iPad, and on a bigger screen
The script box is in the wrong place for my setup
On iPad, drag the teleprompter anywhere or pull a corner to resize it. Where you put it is remembered per orientation, so landscape and portrait each keep their own layout — turn the iPad and it returns to where you left it that way up.
I turned my device halfway through a take
The video stays upright. What you shoot is what plays back, whichever way you were holding it when you started.
Playback looks cropped compared to what I shot
It no longer is — review shows your whole frame, exactly as recorded. If you framed yourself against the edge of the shot, that is what you will see.
Which recording quality should I pick?
1080p records on every tier and is the right answer for anything headed to social. 4K is part of the unlock and costs noticeably more storage and battery heat — worth it when the footage is going into an edit, rarely otherwise. Choose before you shoot, in Settings.
Takes and storage
I closed the review screen — did I lose the take?
No. Takes stay attached to the script they came from, so you can close, come back later, and they are waiting under that script. Keep it, discard it, or just close and decide another day.
Which of my takes are safely in Photos?
Saved takes carry a small link badge in the corner of their thumbnail. A take without one is a draft: it lives only on the device, and only until you clear it. The badge is a link rather than a copy — Recito points at the video in your Photos library instead of keeping a second one.
My takes are in a confusing order
They are ordered by when you saved them, with drafts first so the ones still needing a decision are the ones you see. If a take you saved yesterday sits below one you saved today, that is why.
Moving between takes without losing your place
Swipe left or right across a take to move to the next or previous one, the way Photos and Files work. The arrows are still there — on a Mac there is no swipe habit to rely on.
Recito is using more space than I expected
Takes you have not saved to Photos still live on the device. Settings → Storage shows what they are using and clears them in one go. Anything already saved to Photos is untouched — that copy belongs to Photos, not to Recito.
Reading aloud: the script follows your voice
Just read. The script keeps pace with you as you go, instead of scrolling at a fixed rate: speed up and it speeds up, stop talking and it waits, carry on and it carries on. There is nothing to switch on first — the Voice icon on the record screen, beside Appearance, opens its panel, where you can turn it off when you would rather set a fixed pace.
It is included free. Voice-following is usually the thing a teleprompter app charges a subscription for; in Recito it works on every script you can write for free, and the one-time Pro unlock is about script length and the watermark, not about this.
You do not have to record to try it: the Preview button runs the same thing, so you can find a comfortable setup before you shoot anything.
Speed still matters
The speed slider is the fallback, not the alternative. It is what the script runs at whenever the voice is not driving — while you pause, or if a stretch does not recognise — so it is worth setting to a pace you would be happy reading at anyway.
Top or middle
The word you are on sits at a fixed place on the band and the text moves to it, which is what keeps your eyes still. Choose whether that place is near the top — the most warning of what is coming — or nearer the middle, which some readers find easier to settle on.
Your finger always wins
Scroll with a finger at any point and the script goes where you put it, and carries on from there. It will not snap back to where the voice had reached.
Repeated lines
Speeches repeat themselves — "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds". Recito prefers carrying on over jumping, so a repeated line resolves to the copy in front of you rather than the one further down. Reading on beats jumping unless the match ahead is clearly better.
What it recognises, and where the audio goes
Recognition happens entirely on your device. No audio is uploaded, and it works with no connection at all — which is also the limit: it can only recognise languages your device has downloaded a speech model for. English is reliable; Spanish and French work on many devices; German, Italian and Portuguese generally have no on-device model today, and Recito says so rather than pretending.
The language comes from the script itself — there is nothing to set. Write in French and it listens in French, whatever language your phone is in. Settings lists exactly what your device can recognise offline, so you can check before you rely on it.
Getting the best out of it
- Read as you normally would. It is built to tolerate ad-libs, skipped lines and the odd missed word, and it holds position rather than guessing when it loses you.
- Give it a quiet-ish room. It uses the same microphone as the recording, so what helps your audio helps the tracking.
- If it drifts, scroll to where you are and keep reading — that is the fastest correction and it re-anchors from there.
- Prefer a fixed pace for a take? Turn Voice off in its panel and the speed slider takes over, exactly as before.
It starts off; switch it on with the Voice icon when you want it. It will keep improving — a script that keeps pace with a reader beats one that does not, even when the tracking is imperfect.
What "Experiments" means
Settings has a section called Experiments. It holds features that are built and working, but not yet confirmed as right for everyone — so they ship switched off, and nothing about recording changes unless you turn one on.
It exists so a feature can be tried by the people who want it before it becomes part of the app everyone gets. The rule is that an experiment either graduates — it becomes normal, with no toggle — or it is removed. The video quality picker started here and graduated; it is simply in Settings now.
Choose your microphone
The one experiment today. On iPhone and iPad it lets you pick which microphone records, instead of letting the device decide. Off is the old behaviour, and the honest default: your device usually chooses well, and this matters most when you have a headset or an external mic connected and want to be certain which one is live.
Is it safe to turn one on?
Yes — an experiment is finished work, not a beta of the whole app, and you can switch it off again at any time. What it is not is permanent: something here may change shape or disappear in a later version, which is exactly why it is behind a switch rather than in the app proper.
Still stuck?
Email support@suprun.ca — a real person reads it. See Support for FAQs and Privacy for what the app does and doesn't collect (it doesn't).
Your next take starts here.
Get Recito for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Start recording for free.
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