How to use your iPhone as a teleprompter — four setups

2026-09-05 · 5 min read · HomePrompter Team

You don't need studio hardware to use a teleprompter — the phone in your pocket is one. Here are four setups, cheapest first, and what each one is good for.

Setup 1: One phone, handheld (free)

Open a teleprompter app that records while prompting, hold the phone at arm's length, and read from the text box directly over the camera preview. Good for: selfie-style social clips, talking-head Reels and Shorts, anything under a minute. The trick is a small text box positioned at the top edge, nearest the front camera, so your eye-line stays honest.

Setup 2: One phone on a tripod (about $20)

Same as above with the phone on a cheap tripod at eye height. Stepping back a metre does two things: your eye movement disappears, and the framing stops being a selfie. With a voice-tracking prompter you don't need to touch the phone once recording starts — the script moves with you, hands stay free.

Setup 3: Phone as camera, second device as prompter

Shoot on your main phone or camera, and run the prompter on an iPad or second phone mounted directly above or below the lens. Keep the prompter device as close to the lens barrel as physically possible. If your prompter app syncs scripts between devices with one account, you can write on the big screen and prompt from either device.

Setup 4: Beam-splitter rig (studio look, from ~$100)

A beam-splitter rig puts a 45° two-way mirror in front of the lens: you read the reflected script while looking straight into the glass, so eye contact is perfect. Two requirements for the app: a mirror mode that flips the text horizontally so the reflection reads correctly, and an adjustable text box so the script fills the glass, not the phone bezel. Mount the phone in the rig's tray, flip mirror mode on, and set your text size for the reading distance.

Recording and prompting on one device

The two-app juggle — camera app plus prompter app — used to mean recording your screen or buying a rig. A prompter with a built-in camera removes the juggle: the script overlays the camera preview, and the recording is saved clean, without the text. Check the recording caps before you buy anything: HomePrompter records up to 4K at 60 fps straight from the prompter screen, and recordings stay on the device.

Whichever setup: three settings that matter

• Text position: as close to the lens as the layout allows.
• Width: a narrow column, 5–8 words per line.
• Speed: slower than rehearsal pace — or voice tracking, so speed stops being a setting at all.

HomePrompter is a free voice-tracking teleprompter for iPhone and iPad — under 4 MB, 20 languages, and your recordings never leave your phone.

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