How to use a teleprompter during a FaceTime or Zoom call on iPhone
A sales call, an interview, a webinar you are presenting from your phone: you want notes in front of you and your eyes on the camera. On an iPad you can put two apps side by side. On an iPhone you can't, so the usual advice is "use a second device". It can be done on the one phone, with one thing to get right.
The setup that works on one iPhone
- Start the prompter before the call. Open your teleprompter app, paste the script or notes, choose fixed or timed pace (see the microphone note below), and start its floating window. In Teleprompter PIP that is the Start Picture in Picture button.
- Now open FaceTime or Zoom and join. The call takes the full screen; the script keeps floating on top.
- Drag the window to the front camera. Top edge, as close to the lens as it snaps. Make the window small and the font large: three or four words per line.
- Stay in the call app. If you need to pause or restart the script, switch to the prompter app, do it, and come straight back; the floating window itself has no buttons.
The thing to get right: one floating window
FaceTime and Zoom support Picture-in-Picture themselves, and iOS shows only one PiP window at a time. If you swipe out of the call to adjust something, the call shrinks into its own floating window, which replaces your script, and your camera may pause for the other side. So: prompter first, call second, and stay in the call app until you hang up. If it happens anyway, tap the call's window to bring the call back to full screen, then restart the floating script from the prompter app.
The reverse arrangement, call in the small window and script full screen, also works, but your video to the other side is then coming from a backgrounded app, and some call apps pause it. Keeping the call in front is the safer order.
Microphone: voice scroll on a call
Voice-following prompters listen through the microphone. On a call the microphone is already in use. Whether both can listen at once depends on the call app and the iOS version, and the failure is silent: the script just stops following you. For a call that matters, use a fixed or timed pace and rehearse it once; keep voice mode for recording.
When a second device is better
- Long notes. A PiP window holds a few words per line. For a 20-minute presentation, an iPad or a laptop behind the phone is easier to read.
- Screen sharing. If you will share your screen in the call, the floating window is in the shared picture. Notes on another device are not.
- Eye line with the back camera. If you use the rear camera for a better image, you can't see the screen anyway. Second device, or a mirror rig.
Put the second device directly behind or just above the phone, text as close to the lens line as possible, and use a teleprompter app there so the notes scroll instead of needing a hand.
On a call, notes beat a script
Bullet points work better than full sentences here: you glance, then talk to the person. Window at the top edge under the camera, big type, few words per line. The general eye-line advice is in the recording guide.
Questions
Can the other person on the call see my script?
No. They see your camera feed. The floating window is drawn on your screen only. If you share your screen in Zoom, though, the shared screen does include it.
Does the floating teleprompter work in Google Meet, Teams or WhatsApp video calls?
The mechanism is the same: a Picture-in-Picture window floats over whatever app is in front, so it works over any call app that keeps its video running while another window is on top. The two-windows trap applies to all of them.
My call shrank into a small window and my camera paused. What happened?
You left the call app. iOS then turns the call itself into a PiP window, which replaces the script window, and may pause your video. Start the prompter first, join the call second, and stay in the call app. If it happens, tap the call window to bring the call back to full screen and restart the floating script.
What Teleprompter PIP does here
It floats your notes over FaceTime, Zoom or any other call app as a system Picture-in-Picture window, with fixed, timed or voice pace. Scripts stay on the phone, no account. iOS 18 or later; free on your first two scripts, Pro lets you run any number of scripts.