Gear VR now has screenshot and video capture; we show you how to find them

We reported back several weeks ago that doing screenshots on Samsung’s Gear VR takes some workaround. At that time though, Samsung had yet to provide software capabilities for screenshots and video recording.

If you’ve been unsatisfied with the workaround, have no fear: Samsung has finally brought screenshot and video capture to the Gear VR within the last several weeks – and you need no longer download a single app or unlock any hidden features. To find the Gear VR screenshot and video capture settings, perform the following steps:

• Once you arrive at your app screen in Gear VR, you need only long press the back button found on the right side of the headset. You can find it right above the navigation controls that appear as a “plus” sign (+) with a hole in the intersection.
• You should hold the back button until you see a menu with the volume, brightness, battery percentage, and other settings appear. This is your Gear VR settings menu.
• You won’t find the screenshot and video capabilities at the forefront of your Gear VR settings, though, so you’ll need to select the “utilities” icon, which you can find in a circle to the right of the settings screen. The utilities icon features a wrench and screwdriver that are on top of each other, just below the settings icon (which looks like the same settings icon you’ll find at the top of Samsung’s familiar TouchWiz layout.

I’ve attached two photos below, one of the original settings and the other of the screenshot and video recording capabilities that are buried beneath other settings such as the passthrough camera, Do Not Disturb, brightness, and so on. These screenshots are not clear or aesthetically appealing, but they’re provided to prove that these capabilities have now been added to Gear VR.

Before you celebrate and go off to screenshot everything in Gear VR, you should know that you still can’t screenshot settings, for example: I had to use the Galaxy S6 Active to capture Gear VR settings by placing the device against Gear VR in the same location that you’d place your nose and eyes when using the device. Next, you must visit your utility settings, then wait for eye detection to kick in before you screenshot a game scene. Finally, you can only screenshot and video record in certain apps, such as game apps. I tried to screenshot and video record in the Flickr VR app, but these capabilities were disabled within it.

After you take off the Gear VR headset, you can access your screenshots in a separate album from your screenshots taken on the phone. You may even see two “screenshots” sections in your albums if you’re a screenshooter who’s always capturing something on-screen.

We’d like to see Samsung provide voice commands (“capture,” for instance) for Gear VR, in the same way Samsung has provided voice commands (“capture, cheese, shoot,” etc.) for its Galaxy smartphones. But we’re excited Samsung has added these capabilities, and we hope to see Samsung continue to improve Gear VR.

Have you used screenshot and video capture in Gear VR? Are there any specific moments in which you’ve found them necessary? What capabilities would you like to see Samsung add to Gear VR?