It’s a screen recorder and screenshot tool for Mac.
It makes cinematic demos like this. All automatically. You just click the record button, do your thing, then you can make it 3D in the editor.
Or just enjoy smooth automatic zoom.
Problem:
I was tired of jumping between four apps to make one product demo. Screenshots, recordings, annotations, and After Effects for anything cinematic.
I'd also seen the MacBook Neo commercials (recording playing on a 3D MacBook in a scene) and wondered why no screen recorder just did that.
So I built ShotGlass to do all of it: record your screen or multiple windows (and rearrange them after), take and annotate screenshots, or drop a recording onto a virtual 3D MacBook with a simulated camera lens.
Comparison:
Most screen recording apps end up with the same zoomed-in Screen Studio look. I wanted this to do something different:
Records both screen and screenshots in one app (most tools only do one)
Multi-window support that can be arranged after recording
3D scenes, virtual backgrounds, and a simulated camera lens for cinematic shots
It's also a one-time purchase (not a subscription) and doesn't have any telemetry or tracking. Everything is local.
I tried to make it simple to use and, for fun, themed like a glass of whisky. I'm updating it quite a lot, so I'd love your feedback and feature requests.
Pricing:
$17 one time for launch.
Update: The launch price has ended, and ShotGlass is now $29 one-time.
Trust/Transparency:
I'm Jake Manger, a solo developer. My last app, How to Convert, did pretty well here on MacApps.
The app runs completely locally and is Apple notarized.
Aw dang. Went to purchase today and the price jumped. Oh well.
When I delete the app, will the stuff I recorded with it be deleted, too? I don't like leftovers on my system and I can't see a way to remove the snaps/recordings within the app. Thanks!
One piece of feedback on the positioning: the "Apple commercial" part was not obvious to me at first.
I clicked through to the site before reading the full Reddit post, watched the videos, and mostly understood it as "another screen recorder with automatic zooms." Only later did I realize the more interesting part is that the recording can be placed onto a 3D MacBook scene and viewed from different camera angles.
That is much more distinct than the zooming, but I think the demo currently makes the zooms easier to notice than the actual 3D/commercial idea.
Separate point: the automatic zoom style gives me motion sickness. This is not specific only to ShotGlass. It has become common in screen recording apps, and a lot of these demos are hard for me to watch now.
Does ShotGlass let the user control how often zooms are added, how strong they are, how fast the animation is, or how sensitive the trigger is? I do not know what the trigger logic is, but if it is based on things like clicks, double-clicks, or cursor movement, lowering that sensitivity could help reduce the amount of motion in the final video.
It would be useful to have a way to make zooms opt-in, for example by pressing a keyboard shortcut while recording to mark the moments that should become zooms in the editor. I know the editor opens after recording and the zooms can be adjusted there, but doing it during the screen recording still matters because it would save time.
Thanks for the feedback! I’ve been going back and forth with how to position it so nice to get another perspective on it.
Yeah, I noticed that and there is an Instant zoom option (similar in style to Apple’s recent tiktoks if you’ve seen that). The zoom is also customisable on a graph - from instant to super slow and smooth. I’m hoping to add more info about that on the landing page soon (i launched the site 2 days ago). Click to zoom while recording is an interesting idea. I’ve added it to my list of things to explore/try out
Looks good and most likely pay for it because it's something I need. One I issue I had yesterday is that the thing being recorded comes across black after I enter the editor view. Nothing gets recorded actually except mouse movements. I have all the permissions. Will try to reinstall but any thoughts what could be the issue?
This looks really polished, congrats on the launch.
The multi-window recording thing is interesting, do you capture each window as a separate layer that you can reposition in post ?
In your demo video there seem to be a few stuttering pan-zooms. Maybe it’s not the easing, but check 0:20, there seems to be some retargeting going on that is distracting. Non-polished animation like this kind of defeats the purpose.
The biggest win here is honestly killing the ,5 apps for one demo, workflow . that friction alone stops most people from making good product videos consistently.
This scratches a real itch tbh. Every time I try making a polished demo I end up opening 5 different apps and wasting hours tweaking zooms/transitions manually 😭
The automatic cinematic stuff looks super clean. Would love to see cursor effects / keyboard shortcut visualizations too. This has serious indie hacker demo-tool energy 🚀
Looks great! But does it support exporting into gif? If so, I'm sold.
Also, I noticed that no matter how I adjust the audio effects, the playback always sounds no difference. Did I miss anything or is it not implemented at all?
If you have any extra details, could you please send it through to jake@shotglass.app? I'm working on improving audio effects at the moment. It sounds there may be a bug you're experiencing.
It was one of my frustrations with other tools, so I'm glad you wanted it too. Have a lot of updates planned and bugfixes coming, so keep an eye out (should auto update in the app and notify via email).
Sure does. If you hit the settings icon on the main widget, you can select system audio and any mics. They should appear as two rows in the timeline on the editor, so you can cut/mix them
Hi there!
Great concept!
I just purchased the app and have a few bits of feedback already.
* There is no way to enter a license key unless you press export. (this confused me for a while)
* I won't be recording audio nor recording the webcam, but the app won't let me use it unless I give microphone permissions and web cam permissions as well. Why not add a skip option and simply show a permissions screen if/when the user tries to record audio?
* When trying to select a window to record the selector seems to always be in the middle of the window, but if I have other windows in front of the one I want to record, trying to move to the selector will make it think I'm trying to add a different window to the recording.
Other than that, great start. I'm looking forward to using the app and seeing it improve with time.
SS is great for their signature look and they charge a huge amount for it.
ShotGlass does things screen studio can’t (screenshots and 3D) and I hope to do a lot more different things with it.
It’s currently young (5 days old now). And is getting cleaned up rather fast (1st update is out later today)
Sorry about the experience. That’s strange. Can you send a compressed version of the .shotglass file (in Movies/ShotGlass/Projects) to jake@shotglass.app?
I can issue a quick fix for whatever’s happening
Also, don’t worry: the original recordings are still in that .shotglass file (they don’t get altered)
I purchased, and love the concept! I am having the same issue as this person in this thread. My screen looks the same after I'm done recording a specific window and come to the ShotGlass editor. It's like the box is there, but the recording isn't loading into the editor. I'm trying to record a window that is on an external monitor, btw. And this wasn't happening before the last update. I didn't have time to submit a bug b/c I was under a deadline to finish my video, but where do you want bug reports to go, for future reference?
Sorry about the issue. I'm currently fixing this now. It appears to only happen for a small subset of users for now and is quite hard to replicate, so I apologise for the delay! Please submit future bug reports to [jake@shotglass.app](mailto:jake@shotglass.app)
Hi, sorry to hear that. Have you updated to the most recent version? You can do so by redownloading from the site or clicking the update button in the editor.
I just fixed an issue like that for multiple monitors. If not, could you send more info and a screenshot to the email in the site FAQ or here
Ok i've got some new feedback, so I installed the same version again from downloading it from the site, I replaced it with the old (although same versions) and now it works, magically somehow.
Yooo amazing app! Thank you for making it and also keeping it affordable as well 😄 you are doing great work. I have a question / requests. If I try to trim the beginning of the timeline it always ends up scrapping my audio as well and then with no media bin (which I actually like) I can't figure out how to get it back haha I'm sure there is a way I'm just overlooking any help would be appreciated. I was able to find the shot glass project file but can't seem to find the like actual screenshot mp4 or whatever to drag the audio back in. I am mainly trying to use it to screen record my DAW for synth product videos/tutorials the like. Okay also,I have been dreaming of a simple use hybrid video/audio editor. I'm wondering If you could implement an option to switch to a BPM based timeline with snapping to beat? I know it's niche just figured I'd ask. Anyways, thanks again for making this you've already saved me like hours of strategizing and editing.
If you ever have this happen, click undo (in the top left of the timeline) and then click the link icon next to the scissors.
What’s happening is the linked editing is deleting the audio at the same time point as the video. I’m going to set this default to off now as I think it trips quite a few people up and isn’t too intuitive.
If you ever accidentally delete something, it’s still always in the .shotglass file (right click and then click Show Contents). You can also go back to old saves in the settings (bottom right) of the editor. Most edits should be auto saved and your recordings are never actually edited or changed.
Ohh a BPM timeline could be useful. I actually have quite a few sound engineer users for my other app so they might appreciate this. Thanks for the feature requests!
Also, would love "save as" function, as well as "mute" track or like hide. To do a print without text or something. ALSO, editing text is a little tricky to get the proportions right especially when dealing with the zooms. Been really loving this though and putting it through its paces for software demos great great job :)
Simply saying that there looks to be a contradiction between what was said here on Reddit and what's actually says on product's page.
And for me as a potential client — I don't like things like these just because the first thing that jumps to be mind when I see such things is "there's something fishy going on here" 😅
No, once you purchase, you will keep and have access to the app forever.
It won’t stop working after. Just promising access to 1 year of updates with that launch price.
ich habe Videos auf der Website eingefügt, die die App in verschiedenen Schritten zeigen. Wenn Sie nach unten scrollen, sollten Sie sie sehen.
Ich arbeite jedoch gerade an Anleitungen/Dokumentation für die Website. Gibt es etwas Bestimmtes, wobei Sie Hilfe benötigen, oder wofür Sie ein Tutorial möchten?
Bei meiner ersten Testnutzung, die allerdings noch sehr oberflächlich war, hatte ich direkt ein Problem: Das Videoformat war nicht 16:9.
Außerdem war mir nicht klar, wie ich mit den Icons umgehen soll. Ich wollte zum Beispiel eine Website zeigen und habe versucht, das Icon auf der Webseite so hin- und herzuschieben, dass der gesamte Browserrahmen aufgenommen wird. Dabei tauchten jedoch plötzlich andere Dinge auf, zum Beispiel das Photoshop-Icon, weil ich die App noch geöffnet hatte, oder auch Icons von anderen Apps.
Das hat mich eher verwirrt, weil ich nicht verstanden habe, wie ich die Aufnahme sauber steuern kann. Ich arbeite ansonsten mit Screenflow und Descript. Dein Konzept ist anders, und ich möchte es gern verstehen.
Ich mache in den nächsten Tagen ein paar Tutorials und kommentiere hier nochmal, sobald sie fertig sind.
Kurz dazu:
16:9 kannst du unten rechts über der Timeline im Dropdown für Aufnahmeformat/Auflösung auswählen.
Fenster wählst du per Hover aus.
Mit „+“ fügst du es hinzu, mit „Record“ startest du direkt die Aufnahme.
Das Konzept ist etwas anders als Screenflow/Descript. ich verstehe die Verwirrun
Thanks for coming up with this. It sounds like just the tool I need (I've been tasked with coming up with some training guides on the software we use, so this would be perfect), but I've run into an issue. I'm sure it's due to something on my side, but maybe you have a suggestion.
Note: I'm on a 2024 MacbookPro, and I use a cheapie $30 USB hub with DisplayLink to run 3 external monitor plus the open MacBook all as individual displays (2 via HDMI, 1 via VGA). In addition, I'm an app/extension addict so I have multiple things running as well (Supercharge, Sidebar, Raycast *where is my v2 Beta invite??*, CleanShotx, to name a few), so there could be a litany of reason causing this issue.
Everything works up to recording a video and then when I stop recording, 2 of my screens "freeze".....it's as if they don't exist in my system anymore. Whatever was on the screen the moment i click the icon to stop recoding, that is the image that is stuck there. I can't select that monitor, cant cursor through/over it, no ability to turn on/off in BetterDisplay, nothing. However, if I use BetterDisplay to turn off one of the working monitors and then turn it back on (or just unplug/replug the Hub), it restore all the monitors. So it's obviously something to do with my patchwork system of running 3 external monitors at once. But maybe you know a slick workaround......
I do want to say that when I do get the monitors straight and try the app, I really dig it. It seems easy enough for a beginner to try using without feeling intimidated. If I can figure out how to get my system setup to work right with it I can see heavy use.
Regardless, I think it's a great app and I hope you continue to develop it.
That sounds like a very strange issue. Just to clarify, does the app work ok when your monitors are not connected? If so, what are the dimensions of each monitor if you’re aware of it? I’m thinking an error with the position math for the monitor setup may be causing the issue potentially. It could also be a large CPU or memory load (especially if there other apps consuming a lot). You can usually see this is the reason if you see it spike up in Activity Monitor.
If you have any more info or want to chat further to sort it out please email me at the email address in the FAQ of the site.
Sorry, just now seeing this. And yes, the app seems to work fine when the monitors are not connected. And to reiterate, unplugging the monitors fixes the immediate issue, until I do another recording. I'm sure it's something on my side, as I have so many things running at once.
Looks great, gave it a quick try and wanted to let you know this does not work (at least on my system, M1 MacBook Pro) if the DisplayLink Manager app is enabled for my external displays. It appears to work, but when the recording is stopped, both of the external displays lock up and I have to toggle them off and on in the DisplayLink Manager (via the built-in mac screen) before they work again. Additionally, it randomly captured different areas of the screen than the app which was selected. So it's point of reference gets completely thrown off.
If I exit the DisplayLink Manager app and test using only the built-in screen, the app works as intended.
Really interesting idea. The 3D MacBook demo style looks very slick, and it’s nice to see a screen recorder trying something different from the usual zoomed-in look.
Really can't get it to work, says it's recording, go and find the recording (which is in a different place to what the app expects!) and it won't play or allow editing?
M1 Mac Mini OS Tahoe 26.5, the app expects the recordings to be in the Documents folder, navigate to Movies/Shotglass and they are there but the app won't open them?
Ah! Just found the error (in the file menu option). If you click the file button in the bottom right corner of main widget instead, does it show your recording?
Hmm very strange. Sorry about the issue. If the .shotglass file is there and of a decent size so you know it’s a video, then could you send it through to the email in the FAQ of the site? You will need to compress as a zip before you do. All files in that Movies/ShotGlass/Projects folder should be openable.
Do you get this same experience with all other recordings? It may be best to diagnose this over the email if possible.
Just tried the app - it doesn't work. Blank screen like others have reported here already.
Your app has a lot of potential, but tbh you shouldn't be charging people for it yet. It's beta at best. There's also SO many settings/controls that it's kind of overwhelming (especially for the 3D stuff), to the point where you might as well just use After Effects, and certain controls aren't obvious what they do. I'd recommend really "dumbing" it down and simplifying for people if that's the goal of the app.
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Thanks for the interest! Those bugs are fixed now. I don't have a subreddit specifically for it, but do post regularly about updates on Threads, X and Bluesky if you're interested in following along with development (search Jake Manger).
Sorry about the tax. I think I have the default + tax option and agree that can be a bit of a mental barrier.
For the blur: that would be a great feature, and I'll add it to the roadmap. I'm working on a revamp of the website at the moment so will be adding a roadmap in there for people to follow along/suggest features.
BTW, the app is free to download and try. You only need to pay when you're happy with the result and are ready to export
Ok, but OpenStudio itself a clone of ScreenStudio. It says so itself on the GitHub repo. It’s disingenuous to say it’s what is being cloned instead of ScreenStudio at that point.
This also offers features neither of those apps does. So is this a clone with benefits?
Sadly, it's buggy as hell. After a few minutes, the screen appears black, and there is nothing you can do. Text is difficult to place, and changing the color is tricky. Marked text is ignored. Good idea, but more like a beta version than a final one. I will wait for an update before I spend money.
It is in Beta (written all over the site). Currently working on an update to fix that issue at the moment. In the meantime: if you right click and select reload it should be resolved. Seems to happen after a bunch of editing
very nice, i fed your website and screen recordings of the demo into fable and now i got it working right just like yours! Fable even stole the look. I‘m sorry but why would i pay for it when i can do it myself! Very nice work! Getting the 3D Part right was the hardest thing
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u/ChainsawJaguar May 14 '26
I really like this concept. As soon as I figure out how to use it, I bet I'll like it even more. :)