Teleprompter app for iPad: record and read on one screen

People reach for an iPad as a teleprompter for obvious reasons: the screen is bigger, the text can be bigger, and it sits steadily on a desk or a tripod. All of that is true. What most iPad teleprompter roundups leave out is the one thing that decides whether the video looks natural: where the front camera is on your particular iPad, and whether the app puts the words next to it. Apple moved the camera in 2022, and many apps still assume it is at the top of the screen in portrait.

Can you use an iPad as a teleprompter?

Yes, in one of two ways, and they need different apps.

• The iPad reads and records. A teleprompter app scrolls the script and records you with the front camera at the same time. One device, no cables, and the take is on the iPad when you stop. This is what most people searching for a teleprompter app for iPad want, and what the rest of this page is about.
• The iPad only shows the text. It sits under a glass rig in front of a separate camera, or on a stand beside it, and something else records. The eye line can be perfect with glass, but you need the rig, a mirrored display and a second device. If that is your setup, see mirror teleprompter: when to flip the text.

The three kinds of “teleprompter with camera”, and how to test an app that records in two minutes, are in teleprompter with camera: record and read at once.

Where the front camera is on each iPad

Since the iPad (10th generation) in 2022, Apple has been moving the front camera from the short edge to the middle of the long edge, so that it sits at the top when the iPad is in landscape — the way most people hold it for video calls. Apple’s tech specs call it a “Landscape 12MP Center Stage camera” on the models that have it. To find your model, open Settings > General > About and look at Model Name.

The iPad mini is the odd one out: the A17 Pro model kept the camera on the short edge, and only the newer A20 Pro model moved it. If you are not sure, open the Camera app, switch to the front camera and look at which edge the small dot of the lens is on.

Why the camera position decides where the script goes

A viewer judges eye contact from the angle between the lens and the words you are actually reading. That angle is the arctangent of two distances: how far the text is from the lens, and how far your eyes are from the screen. The full model is in why teleprompter videos still look like you’re reading. On an iPad the numbers come out like this:

This is arithmetic, not a study, and you can check every cell. Under about two degrees, almost nobody notices; around ten, it reads as reading. The point for iPad owners is the third row. An 11-inch iPad screen is roughly 16 by 23 centimetres, so an app that puts the text on the wrong edge can put it 15 to 20 centimetres from the lens — further than any phone can. On a landscape-camera iPad held in portrait, the lens is halfway down one side. An app that scrolls from the top of the screen has you reading off to the side of the lens, and turning the iPad round does not help unless the app moves the script with it.

So the first question for any iPad teleprompter app is not text size or price. It is: with your iPad, in the orientation you will record in, is the script next to the lens?

Text size and distance: what the big screen buys you

The real advantage of an iPad is that you can sit further back. The angle shrinks as the distance grows, so a script that would read as reading from 60 centimetres can look natural from 120. A phone makes that hard, because the text has to be small to fit and becomes unreadable at that distance. An iPad can show large text at a distance where the angle is forgiving.

• Make the text bigger rather than the band wider. A long line makes your eyes sweep left to right across the screen, and on camera that sweep is as visible as looking down. Keep each line short, roughly the width of a phone screen, and put it close to the lens.
• Show fewer lines. A band two or three lines tall next to the lens is enough once the speed is right. The full screen of text that an iPad invites is exactly the layout that pulls your eyes away.
• Test at your real distance. Set the iPad where it will be, sit where you will sit, and read a paragraph aloud. If you are squinting, raise the text size before you move closer.

iPad or phone?

The last row surprises people who buy an iPad Pro for video. Its 4K recording is on the back camera, which faces away from the screen. For talking-head video, 1080p from the front camera is plenty for YouTube, courses and social posts, but it is the ceiling.

What to check in an iPad teleprompter app

1. The script sits next to the lens on your model, in the orientation you record in. Try portrait and landscape before you pay for anything.
2. It records while it scrolls, and one tap starts both, ideally after a countdown. Some “teleprompter” apps only display text.
3. The script stays out of the video, and the saved file has no watermark or end card. Check the corners of a test take. Which apps export clean is in teleprompter apps with no watermark.
4. The speed can change mid-take without losing your place, or the app follows your voice. If voice scrolling matters to you, check whether it works while recording, offline, and in your language: free voice-activated teleprompter apps compares what is actually free.
5. A take survives an interruption. A notification, a call or the app being closed can end a recording. Run the test in does a teleprompter app save your video if it crashes before a long session.
6. Remote control, if you need it. Some apps take a Bluetooth remote, a keyboard or a second phone as a controller. If someone else will run the script for you, check this; if you record alone, voice scrolling or a set speed does the same job.

One iPad-specific trap: iPadOS turns the camera off for an app that shares the screen with another one, in Split View or Slide Over. If the camera preview goes black when you open your notes beside the prompter, that is the reason. Record with the teleprompter app full screen.

For the wider field, with prices and what each free tier really allows, see the best teleprompter apps for iPhone and Android; most of those apps also run on iPad.

Setting up an iPad to record

1. Find your lens, using the table above, and choose the orientation that puts it at the top: landscape for recent models, portrait for older ones.
2. Lens at eye level. Use a tablet stand or a tripod with a tablet clamp. A pile of books works. Looking down into an iPad flat on a desk is the least flattering angle there is.
3. Sit further back than you would with a phone, 80 centimetres to just over a metre, and frame from the chest up.
4. Face the light. A window in front of you, never behind. The iPad screen adds a little light too, which helps in a dim room.
5. Set the text size at that distance, then the speed a little below your natural pace. What teleprompter speed to set has the twenty-second way to find your own.
6. Turn on Do Not Disturb so a notification does not cover the script or end the take, and plug in for anything longer than ten minutes.
7. Record a test take and watch it back with the sound off. If your eyes look away from the lens, move the text, not your face.

Orate on iPad, honestly

Orate is ours: a teleprompter that records video, on iPhone, iPad and Android. On iPad it needs iPadOS 18 or later and works in portrait and landscape, either way up. Here is what it does on an iPad, including where it falls short.

• The script scrolls in a band against the edge of the screen, and records from the front camera at the same time, with a countdown first. On an iPad the band starts smaller than on a phone, and you can drag it larger or smaller. However large it gets, the line of text stays about as wide as on a portrait phone, so your eyes do not sweep across the screen.
• On iPads with the camera on the short edge (the right-hand column of the table), the band sits under the lens in portrait and moves to the lens’s side when you turn to landscape. This is the layout Orate was designed around.
• On iPads with the landscape camera on the long edge, Orate currently places the band where the camera would be on an older iPad: at the top in portrait, and on a short side in landscape. That is not next to the lens in either orientation, and you cannot move the band to another edge. If you have one of these models, sit further back (the table above shows how much that helps), keep the band small, or record on a phone.
• Free: up to 1080p, which is the front camera’s own limit on current iPads, with no watermark, no account and no internet needed. If the app is closed mid-take you lose at most the last two seconds. You get three saved scripts.
• Pro adds Follow my voice, which scrolls at the pace you speak using on-device speech recognition, plus unlimited scripts and the higher quality settings. Those settings only offer what your camera can record, so on an iPad 4K applies to the back camera, not the front. There is a three-day free trial, and the price is on the app’s store page.
• No remote. Orate has no remote control, and it does not respond to a keyboard or a Bluetooth clicker. You start the take on the screen; the script scrolls at the speed you set, or follows your voice with Pro.

Orate also does not add captions, record your screen or edit a long video. If your iPad has the camera on the short edge, or you are happy to sit back from it, it does the one job of this page well: read and record on the same screen.

Questions people ask

Can I use my iPad as a teleprompter?

Yes, in two ways. A teleprompter app can scroll the script and record you with the iPad's front camera at the same time, or the iPad can show the text only, under a glass rig or beside a separate camera that does the recording. For one person filming themselves, the first is simpler.

Where is the front camera on my iPad?

On recent models it is in the middle of a long edge, at the top when you hold the iPad in landscape: iPad Pro (M4 and M5), iPad Air (M2, M3 and M4), iPad (10th generation and A16) and iPad mini (A20 Pro). Older models, and the iPad mini (A17 Pro), have it on a short edge, at the top in portrait. Settings, General, About shows your model name.

Is there a free teleprompter app for iPad?

Yes. Several iPad teleprompter apps have a free tier, but many add a watermark to recorded video or limit how long a take can be. Before relying on one, record a test take, save it and check the corners and the end of the file.

Is there an iPad teleprompter app with voice recognition?

Yes. Some apps follow your voice and scroll as you speak. Check that it keeps working while the camera is recording, that it works offline, and that it supports the language you read in. In Orate this is called Follow my voice and is part of Pro.

Can I control an iPad teleprompter app with a remote?

Some apps accept a Bluetooth remote, a keyboard or a second phone as a controller. Orate does not: it has no remote, keyboard or clicker control. You start the take on the screen after a countdown, and the script scrolls at a speed you set or, with Pro, follows your voice.

Is an iPad or an iPhone better as a teleprompter?

An iPad is better when you record sitting at a desk or on a tripod further away, because the larger screen lets you use bigger text from a greater distance. An iPhone is better handheld, on the move, or when you want the best front-camera video, since Apple lists current iPad front cameras at 1080p.