How to make an app tutorial video from screenshots

Kario Team · October 24, 2026 · 3 min read

Kario turns screenshots of your app into a video of one task. Send the screens in the order someone moves through it and say what happens on each. Kario rebuilds every screen as layers, so it can animate the parts that change: a row selected, a field filled in, a total updating, a confirmation appearing.

The video above follows one invoice in Fernbill, an invoicing app, from tracked hours to paid. It was made from six screenshots.

What happens in it

Fourteen time entries are selected, and the rows move into the invoice as its four line items.
The total counts up to $3,640.00. It's a text layer, not a recording, so a new amount is one edit.
The invoice is sent and opened. The client pays from a phone, and the desktop marks it paid in the same frame.
The payment is matched to the bank account, and a late invoice gets reminders on day 1, 7 and 14.
There's no voiceover. The app's own labels tell the story, so it works with the sound off.

What to send

A screenshot every time the screen changes in a way the viewer needs to see: the starting screen, the form empty and then filled in, any dialog on the way, and the result.
The same window size in every screenshot, so the screens line up as one app.
What happens on each screen, with buttons and fields named exactly as the app names them.
Who it's for and where it will live: a help centre article, an onboarding email, a post.
A voice, if you want it narrated. Describe it, or attach your own recording, and the animation is timed to each word.

How long

In edX's study of 6.9 million viewing sessions, students watched on average 2 to 3 minutes of each tutorial video, whatever its length, and rewatched tutorials more often than lectures (Guo, Kim and Rubin). One task per video keeps the whole task inside those minutes, and a short video is easy to rewatch.

A tutorial or a demo

The screenshots can be the same; the pace isn't. A tutorial holds each step long enough to follow and zooms in on the field being filled. A demo moves faster and sells the outcome, like the Fernbill video. Say which one you want.

When the app changes

The screens in the video are layers. When a label or a price changes, retype it, or ask Kario to swap in a new screenshot, and the rest of the video stays as it is. Export an MP4 for the help centre, a GIF for a single step, and the subtitles as an .srt file for a narrated version. Keep a GIF under five seconds or stop it after a few loops: WCAG asks for a way to pause anything that moves for more than five seconds next to other content (2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide).

Product demo videos shows the Fernbill video on its own.