If you want to take a screenshot on your Android smartphone or tablet, forget what you may have read online: if you're running Android 4.0 or later (that's Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean) then the ability to capture, edit and share screenshots is built directly into the mobile operating system. See Android Advisor.
How to take a screenshot in Android
It's the various older flavours of Android still in circulation that make the process somewhat confusing. According to Android Developers, as of 1 May 2013 only a little over half (55.9 percent) of Android devices are running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean. Believe it or not, there are still devices out there running Donut, Eclair, Froyo and Honeycomb, and a great many smartphones still on Gingerbread (38.4 percent).
For these older devices, the scary-sounding process of needing to root your phone or tablet, then download a third-party screenshot app, remains a reality. However, depending on your device, some hardware manufacturers have tweaked the software to include the capability. We'll look at a couple of examples of these later on.
Take a screenshot in Android: 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich - 4.2 Jelly Bean
The most common way to take a screenshot on a device running Android 4.0 or later is to simultaneously hold down the power and volume-down buttons for a few seconds.
The device will vibrate, then capture what's on your smartphone or tablet's display. There is a slight knack to this action: press the power button too soon and the display will switch off; press the volume-down button too soon and your screenshot may be marred by an onscreen volume slider. And if your device restarts, you were most likely holding down volume-up.
To view your screenshot you can either pull down Android's Notification bar and tap on the small thumbnail image of your screenshot now displayed there, open Android's Gallery, or find the file through a file browser. You should also find options for editing and sharing the image.
Take a screenshot in Android: Other methods
Other ways to take a screenshot in Android are specific to certain devices, for which the hardware manufacturer has tweaked the software to make the function more prominent or the task simpler to execute.
On the Galaxy Tab 10.1, for example, Samsung has included a dedicated screenshot touch button. This is on display at all times: look to the left of the bottom taskbar, then select the right-most icon. The tablet will take a screenshot, then immediately open the file in Android's Gallery. Note that you will need to click Save if you wish to keep the screenshot, or you can share it with various online services including Dropbox, Gmail and social media.
On many Samsung phones you can simultaneously press and hold the power and Home buttons to take a screenshot. And on other devices, such as Sony's Xperia range, there is a screenshot option in the power-off menu. On the Sony Xperia Z, for example, you hold down the smartphone's power button, then select 'Take screenshot' from the menu. Whatever is shown below the power-off menu will be captured, and you can find the resulting screenshot by looking in Android's Gallery or pulling down the Notification bar.
You may find with these devices that the power/volume-down solution is also effective.
Take a screenshot in Android: Gingerbread, Honeycomb and older devices
If you're running an older Android operating system (Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread or Honeycomb) on your phone or tablet, and the manufacturer hasn't tweaked the software to include screenshot functionality, you'll need to go down the app route.
You'll find thousands of both free and third-party screenshot tools in Google Play, many of which require you to 'root' your Android device (check out our workshop for more details on device rooting). If that sounds scary, look for a tool such as No Root Screenshot It (£2.99), with which you'll need to hook up the phone to a PC to take screenshots.
