How to use a teleprompter on top of the TikTok and Instagram camera on iPhone
Yes, in four ways. TikTok and Instagram each have a small teleprompter built into their own camera, and iPhone apps that use Picture-in-Picture can float a script over any camera, theirs included; CapCut sits in between. The built-in ones are free and need nothing extra; the floating ones work in every app. Here is how each works and where it stops.
Why an iPhone teleprompter can't just "draw over" TikTok
On Android an app can draw a window on top of other apps. iOS does not allow that. The only way an app can stay visible while you use another app is Picture-in-Picture, the same floating window a video keeps playing in when you leave a video app. A floating teleprompter on iPhone is a tiny video player showing your scrolling script. That is why the floating prompters on the App Store talk about "PiP" or "floating", and why the window never appears in what the camera records.
Option 1: the teleprompter built into TikTok
- Open TikTok, tap + to open the camera.
- In the side toolbar look for Teleprompter (on some versions it sits under the tools or effects menu; the name has moved between releases).
- Paste your script, pick a scroll speed and a font size, and record. The text scrolls near the top of the screen and is not part of the video.
What it is good for: a quick vertical clip, nothing to install. What it can't do: the text scrolls at a fixed speed only, you can't move it closer to the lens, it only exists inside TikTok, and if you record with another app and post the file later, there is no prompter at all.
Option 2: the teleprompter in Instagram Reels and the Edits app
- Open the Reels camera (or Instagram's separate Edits app, which got a teleprompter first).
- On the left-hand camera controls tap the Teleprompter icon, paste your text, set the pace.
- Record. The text is overlaid on the viewfinder for you, not for viewers.
Same trade-offs as TikTok: fixed pace, a fixed position on the screen, Instagram only. If you shoot once and post the same video to TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Reels, you end up learning three prompters or using none.
Option 3: CapCut
CapCut's camera has a teleprompter too, and you can drag its text window around, which makes it easier to keep near the lens. You then export the video and upload it to TikTok or Instagram yourself. The limitation is the same in a different shape: you record in CapCut, not in the app you are posting to, so TikTok's own filters, duets and live streams are out.
Option 4: a floating Picture-in-Picture teleprompter
This is the option that works with the actual TikTok and Instagram cameras, with FaceTime, with Zoom and with the iPhone's own Camera app, because the script floats above whatever is on screen. The flow is the same in every PiP teleprompter; with Teleprompter PIP it looks like this:
- Open Teleprompter PIP, paste or import your script (TXT, RTF, PDF; line breaks stay), and pick a scroll mode: fixed, timed, or Voice.
- Tap Start Picture in Picture. The status line says "Playing in Picture in Picture — open your camera app."
- Open TikTok or Instagram, go to the camera. The script is already floating. Drag it right under the front camera and pinch to resize.
- Record. To pause, restart or skip five seconds ahead, switch back to Teleprompter PIP; the floating window itself has no buttons, so it stays clean over the camera.
Other apps that float a script this way, according to their App Store pages and sites: VoicePrompter (voice-following), CueCard (free and open source per cuecard.dev, fixed-speed), FloatText, Cue: Floating Teleprompter, and Teleprompter for Video, which has a "floating" mode in its Premium tier. They differ in price, in whether the floating window follows your voice, and in how far the free version goes. Teleprompter PIP's floating window follows your voice and only ever moves forward, so an improvised line doesn't drag the script back.
What doesn't work, in any of these
- Screen recordings. Camera recordings never include the prompter; a screen recording includes everything, prompter too.
- Two floating windows. If you are on a FaceTime or Zoom call and leave the call app, the call itself becomes a PiP window. Keep the call in front and the script on top.
- Microphone sharing. Voice scroll needs the microphone, and a camera that records sound needs it too. Whether both get it depends on the camera app; if the script stops following you in one app, switch that script to fixed or timed pace.
- Old iPhones. Teleprompter PIP needs iOS 18; Picture-in-Picture itself has been in iOS since version 14.
Four habits that keep your eyes on the lens
- Put the window as close to the front camera as it will go. The further down the screen it sits, the more your eyes drop.
- Keep the column narrow and the font large: three to five words per line, so your eyes move down, not sideways.
- Stand a little further from the phone than feels natural. Small eye movements vanish with distance.
- Write the script the way you talk, in short lines with a blank line where you'd breathe.
Questions
Does the floating teleprompter show up in my TikTok video?
No. A Picture-in-Picture window is drawn by iOS on top of the screen; the TikTok or Instagram camera records what the lens sees, not the screen. The one exception is a screen recording: that captures everything on the display, including the prompter.
Can I use the TikTok teleprompter with the Instagram camera, or the other way round?
No. Each built-in prompter lives inside its own app and only works there. A floating PiP teleprompter is the one option that works in both, and in FaceTime, Zoom and the iPhone Camera as well.
Why does my floating window disappear when I open TikTok?
Order matters: start the floating window in the prompter first, then switch to TikTok. If you open TikTok first and then the prompter, you get a full-screen prompter and a backgrounded camera. Also, iOS shows one Picture-in-Picture window at a time: if another app (a video, a call) opens its own, the script window closes.
What Teleprompter PIP does here
It is the floating option above: a Picture-in-Picture script that stays over TikTok, Instagram, FaceTime, Zoom or the Camera app, with voice scroll that only moves forward, mirror mode for rigs, a built-in recorder, and imports that keep your line breaks. Free to download on iOS 18 or later; every mode works on your first two scripts, Pro lets you run any number of scripts.