A normal screenshot captures only what’s visible on your screen — but what about a long chat conversation, a full web article, or a lengthy settings page? Taking five separate screenshots and stitching them together is painful. Scrolling screenshots (also called long screenshots) capture the entire page in one tall image automatically. Here’s how to do it on any Android phone, plus what to do when the option doesn’t appear.
What Is a Scrolling Screenshot?
A scrolling screenshot extends a regular screenshot by automatically scrolling down the page and stitching everything into one continuous image. Instead of five separate images of a long WhatsApp chat, you get a single tall image you can read top to bottom — perfect for sharing full conversations, saving entire articles, documenting long receipts, or sending a complete error log to support.
Most Android phones have this built in since Android 12, but the exact name and location of the button varies by brand: Samsung calls it “Scroll capture,” Pixel and Motorola call it “Capture more,” and Xiaomi/OnePlus/Oppo have their own versions.
Method 1: The Built-In Way (Android 12 and Newer)
This works on Pixel, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and most phones running Android 12 or later.
- Open the page you want to capture — a chat, article, or any scrollable screen. Important: scrolling screenshots only work in apps where the content scrolls vertically in one continuous view. They don’t work on the home screen or in apps with unusual layouts (more on that below).
- Take a normal screenshot: press Power + Volume Down together (or use your phone’s screenshot gesture).
- Immediately after the screenshot, a small preview toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen. Tap “Capture more” (Pixel/Motorola) or the down-arrow / “Scroll capture” button (Samsung).
- Your phone shows a preview of the full page with a crop box. Drag the edges of the box to choose how far down to capture — include everything or trim it to the part you need.
- Tap Save. The long screenshot is saved to your gallery alongside regular screenshots.
That’s the whole process. The key detail beginners miss: you have to tap the scroll-capture button within a few seconds, before the preview toolbar disappears. If you wait too long, you’ll need to take the screenshot again.
Method 2: Samsung’s Scroll Capture (One UI)
Samsung has had scrolling screenshots longer than anyone, and its version is the most polished:
- Take a screenshot with Power + Volume Down (or palm swipe, if enabled).
- In the toolbar that appears at the bottom, tap the scroll capture icon — it looks like a downward arrow inside a box.
- Each tap scrolls down one more “page” and extends the image. Keep tapping until you’ve captured everything you want.
- Tap anywhere outside the toolbar, or just wait — the image saves automatically when you stop.
Samsung also lets you enable this in Settings → Advanced features → Screenshots and screen recorder, where you can toggle the screenshot toolbar on or off. If you don’t see the toolbar at all, check that it’s enabled there.
Bonus Samsung tip: after capturing, tap the preview thumbnail to open the editor, where you can crop, draw, or blur sensitive parts (like phone numbers in a chat) before sharing.
Method 3: Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, and Vivo
These brands have their own implementations, usually under a slightly different name:
- Xiaomi (MIUI/HyperOS): Take a screenshot, then tap “Scroll” in the preview thumbnail at the top-right. The phone auto-scrolls to the bottom; tap Done when finished.
- OnePlus (OxygenOS): Take a screenshot, then tap “Expanded screenshot” in the preview. It scrolls automatically; tap to stop.
- Oppo/Realme (ColorOS): Take a screenshot, then tap “Long screenshot” in the floating preview. Drag to adjust, then save.
If your brand isn’t listed, take a screenshot and look at the preview toolbar — the scroll option is usually an arrow or the word “Scroll”/“More”/“Expand.”
Method 4: Third-Party Apps (For Older Phones or Stubborn Apps)
If your phone runs Android 11 or older, or the built-in option doesn’t appear in a particular app, a dedicated app can do the job:
LongShot (free, Play Store) is the most popular choice. How to use it:
- Install and open LongShot, and grant the permissions it asks for.
- Tap “Capture screenshot”, then switch to the app you want to capture.
- Take a normal screenshot (Power + Volume Down).
- Return to LongShot — it detects the screenshot and offers “Capture long screenshot.”
- Tap Start, then manually scroll through the content slowly while the app stitches it.
- Tap Done when you reach the end, then save.
Manual scrolling takes more effort than the built-in method, but it works in apps where the automatic version refuses to appear. Other alternatives include Stitch & Share and Screenshot Join, which let you combine multiple separate screenshots into one tall image by hand.
When Scrolling Screenshots Don’t Work (and Fixes)
“The Capture more button doesn’t appear.” The most common cause: the app doesn’t use a standard scrollable view. Banking apps, some games, DRM-protected video apps (Netflix, etc.), and the home screen intentionally block it. Try a different app to confirm the feature works at all — if it works in Chrome but not in your banking app, that’s the app blocking it, not your phone.
“It only captures part of the page.” Some pages load content dynamically as you scroll (infinite feeds like Facebook or TikTok). The capture can only include what’s actually loaded. Scroll through the content manually first to load it, then take the screenshot.
“The image looks glitchy or has repeated sections.” This happens with pages that have sticky headers, floating buttons, or animations. Try capturing a shorter section, or use a third-party app’s manual mode for full control.
“My phone is on Android 11 or older.” The built-in “Capture more” needs Android 12+. Use LongShot or a similar app (Method 4), or check for a system update in Settings → System → System update.
Editing and Sharing Your Long Screenshot
Long screenshots are just images, so everything you can do with a normal screenshot applies:
- Crop: open the image in your gallery and crop out anything you don’t need. Long images are tall — cropping the top and bottom to the essential part makes them much easier to read when shared.
- Blur sensitive info: most gallery editors (Google Photos included) have a blur or markup tool. Blur phone numbers, addresses, or account numbers before posting a chat screenshot anywhere public.
- Share: share directly from the gallery via WhatsApp, Messenger, email, or any app. Note that some apps compress tall images aggressively — if detail matters, send it as a document/file instead of a photo.
- Find them later: screenshots (including scrolling ones) live in the Screenshots album/folder in Google Photos or your gallery app.
Scrolling Screenshots vs. Screen Recording
Sometimes people reach for a scrolling screenshot when a screen recording would be better. Quick rule of thumb:
- Use a scrolling screenshot for static content you want to read: chats, articles, receipts, settings pages, error messages.
- Use a screen recording for anything that moves or that you need to demonstrate: a bug in action, a multi-step process, a video clip.
Android’s built-in screen recorder (swipe down twice → Screen Record tile) covers the second case.
Scrolling Screenshots in Popular Apps: What to Expect
Not every app behaves the same. Here’s what you’ll run into in the apps people capture most:
WhatsApp and Messenger chats: work perfectly — these are standard scrollable views. One tip: turn off “Enter is send” confusion by capturing in the chat thread itself, not the chat list. Very long chats (thousands of messages) may hit image size limits; capture them in two or three sections.
Chrome and web articles: work well on most pages. Reader Mode (the book icon in Chrome’s address bar) strips ads and popups first, giving you a much cleaner long screenshot of articles. If a page has an annoying cookie banner or sticky video player, dismiss them before capturing.
Settings pages: work fine and are one of the best uses — capturing your full Wi-Fi or app-permission settings to send to someone helping you troubleshoot.
Google Maps directions: do NOT work — Maps uses a custom view. Take multiple normal screenshots instead.
Banking and payment apps: usually blocked for security. You’ll get a black screen or an error. This is intentional; there’s no legitimate workaround, and you shouldn’t try to bypass it.
Games: almost never work. Use screen recording for gameplay.
Organizing a Growing Screenshot Collection
If you take a lot of screenshots, they pile up fast. A few habits keep them manageable:
- Rename important ones immediately. “screenshot_20261001_143022.png” means nothing in a month. Most gallery apps let you rename — do it while you still remember the context.
- Use albums. Create albums like “Receipts,” “Chats to keep,” or “Work docs” and file screenshots as you take them.
- Delete ruthlessly. Screenshots are the number one source of storage clutter. Once a screenshot has served its purpose — the chat was shared, the receipt was filed — delete it. Google Photos’ “Free up space” feature can clear backed-up screenshots in bulk.
- Back up the keepers. Turn on Google Photos backup for the Screenshots folder (Photos → Library → Screenshots → Back up this folder) so the important ones survive even if you lose the phone.
Saving Long Screenshots as PDF
A tall PNG is fine for sharing in chats, but if you need to email a long screenshot or archive it as a document, converting it to PDF is cleaner — PDFs scale to any page size and print properly, while a 10,000-pixel-tall PNG often gets shrunk into unreadability.
The easiest method: open the screenshot in Google Photos, tap Share → Print, then change the printer to “Save as PDF” and save it. Alternatively, the Files app on many phones offers “Convert to PDF” in the share sheet. For multi-page documents (like several long screenshots of a contract), free apps like Adobe Scan or Microsoft Lens can combine them into a single PDF in the right order.
The Bottom Line
On any modern Android phone, scrolling screenshots are two taps away: take a normal screenshot, then tap Capture more / Scroll capture before the toolbar disappears. Samsung users get the most control with per-tap scrolling, and older phones can use LongShot. Once you’ve used it for a long chat or a full article, you’ll wonder how you ever lived with five separate screenshots.
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