How to record a munchie
A munchie is a short demo video of an app you built with AI — 20 to 40 seconds is the sweet spot, 60 is the max. People watch these on their phones, on the train, with one thumb. Three things matter more than anything else:
- Vertical. 9:16, like a phone screen. Landscape videos get shown as a thin strip in a vertical feed and people scroll past.
- Your voice. Say what it does while it does it. Thirty seconds of narration beats any caption we can add.
- Start with the thing. First second: the app doing its trick. Not a logo, not "hey guys," not a loading screen.
Pick whichever recipe fits how your app runs.
Recipe 1 — Film it on your phone (best)
For anything with a physical side — an iPad on a desk, a gadget, a screen you can point at, a person reacting.
- Hold the phone upright. Don't turn it sideways.
- Get close. The subject should fill the frame.
- Talk while you film — one take, no script, say what it does and why you built it.
- Bright room, window in front of you rather than behind.
That's it. Our best-performing videos so far were made exactly like this.
Recipe 2 — Desktop app, recorded with auto-zoom (best for screen demos)
Most apps live on a desktop screen, and screen text is unreadable when shrunk onto a phone. The fix is a screen recorder that follows your cursor and zooms into what you're clicking, then exports vertical:
- Screen Studio (Mac) — record, pick 9:16, auto-zoom is on by default.
- Tella (Mac, Windows, browser) — choose the vertical layout; add your webcam in the corner if you like being on camera.
- Cap (free, open source, Mac + Windows) — turn on auto-zoom in the editor, export 9:16.
Record your mic at the same time and narrate. Keep the mouse moving with purpose: every zoom is a beat in the story.
If your app is a mobile app: record on the phone itself (iPhone: Control Center → screen record; Android: Quick Settings → screen recorder). It's already vertical. Add your voice with the mic toggle.
Recipe 3 — Plain screen recording (works, with our help)
No time for tools? Record your screen however you normally would (QuickTime, Windows Game Bar, OBS) and upload it as-is. Choose "Enhance for reach" when you submit and we'll reformat it for phones: your video full-width in the middle, a title above, captions below. Readable, but smaller than recipes 1 and 2 — so still narrate, and zoom your browser to 150% before recording so the text survives.
Before you hit upload
- 20–40 seconds. Cut everything before the first interesting moment.
- Sound on. Silent screencasts are the ones that don't get watched.
- Show it working, not the code. The code lives in your GitHub link.
- Say the name of the app once, out loud.
Then submit it. We review every video by hand, add captions, and post it on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram with your name on it — you keep everything you made.