How to Shoot Video and Play Music at the Same Time in the iOS 18 Beta

Apple released the third public beta of iOS 18 on Aug. 6, more than two months after the company announced the iPhone software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The beta brings new features to the iPhone’s of developers and beta testers, like RCS messaging and T9 dialing. It also lets you use your iPhone to shoot video and play music at the same time, making it easier to shoot video for social media.

Before iOS 18, if you were playing music on your iPhone and started shooting a video, your music would stop playing. So you’d have to edit any music into your videos later, which could be frustrating and tedious. But in iOS 18, you can queue up the right song and start rolling without issue.

Remember, iOS 18 is still in beta, and I recommend downloading a beta on something other than your primary device. Betas can be buggy and cause short battery life, and it’s best to keep those problems on a secondary device. I download and test betas on an old iPhone XR in order to keep those issues away from my primary phone, an iPhone 14 Pro.

However, the beta isn’t the final version of iOS 18. More features could be available on your iPhone when the software is released in the fall.

If you’re testing the iOS 18 betas, here’s how to ensure your iPhone keeps playing music when you’re shooting a video.

How to play music in the background of video on iPhone

1. Go to Settings.
2. Tap Camera.
3. Tap Record Sound.
4. Tap the switch next to Allow Audio Playback.

The Record Sound menu in the iOS 18 beta — Apple/Screenshot by CNET

When I went to enable this feature, I found it was on by default, so you may not need to turn it on. Once you’ve enabled the feature — or made sure it’s turned on — you can record a video in your Camera app like normal and you’re set.

Apple writes in the setting’s description that after enabling Allow Audio Playback, any audio you’re playing will not pause when you record a video, and your iPhone will record the audio in mono.

I tested this feature using the Music, Spotify and Podcast apps and was able to play music or audio while recording a video. The audio quality wasn’t the best when I tested this feature, but it could improve as Apple continues to work on the iOS 18 betas.

Will this audio play when shooting screen recordings?

Unfortunately no. I tried to play music and audio from the above apps and tried to screen record, and as soon as I started the recording the audio stopped.

Again, this feature is still in beta so Apple could allow screen recordings to record audio when iOS 18 is released to the general public this fall. There will likely be more betas before the OS is released to the public this fall, so there’s plenty of time for Apple to address this and any other issues. As of now, there’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18 to the general public.

For more on iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with the public betas, all the ways you can customize your home screen in iOS 18 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet.