Every time I start recording a video, or even just go to the video tab in my iPhone’s camera app, the phone automatically pauses the music I’m listening to. This made sense in the early days of the iPhone, when you didn’t want speakerphone audio interfering with your recording. But the world has changed a lot, earbuds exist, and there’s no point in forcibly stopping people from listening to music while they’re recording videos anymore. With iOS 18, Apple lets you keep your music playing even while you’re recording videos.

If you’re listening to music on your AirPods, playing it back shouldn’t disrupt the video recording in any way. If you have an always-on speaker setup that you power with your phone, you might not want to disrupt your ambiance just because your cat is being cute. Whatever your reason, you should be able to continue listening to music or audiobooks while recording.

Setting up this feature only takes a few simple steps. The most important one is iOS 18, which is currently available in a public beta. Keep in mind that installing a beta version can expose your phone to instability, so it’s best to keep it on a backup device if possible.

For older versions of iOS, such as iOS 17, there is a workaround that allows you to record while listening to music as well. To do this, you’ll need to record a QuickTake video. As the name suggests, QuickTake lets you quickly record a video without having to go to your iPhone’s video tab. To use it, open the Camera app and press and hold the Shutter button. It will turn red and your iPhone will start recording a video. Release the button to stop recording. You can drag the red button to the lock icon to continue recording the video without holding the button. QuickTake is available on iPhone XS and later.