How to annotate screenshots on iPhone without Figma

Figma is great. It’s also overkill for adding an arrow to a screenshot before you paste it into Slack.

If you’re annotating screenshots to explain a bug, highlight a UI problem, or walk someone through a flow, you don’t need a design tool — you need something fast that works where your screenshots already live: your phone.

What annotation actually means

“Annotate” is a wide term. For most people sharing screenshots, it means one or more of:

• Arrows pointing at the specific thing you mean
• Text labels like “tap here” or “this button”
• Highlight boxes drawing a rectangle around an area
• Numbered steps if you’re showing a sequence
• Redaction if you need to hide something

None of this requires Figma. All of it can be done on your phone.

The case against the built-in markup tool

iOS has a built-in markup tool in Photos and the screenshot preview. It works for rough, fast edits — but the output looks rough. The colors are garish, the tools are limited, and there’s no way to frame or compose the result as a finished image.

If you’re sharing something externally — to a client, in a blog post, in a product changelog — “it looked fine in the markup tool” is usually not true on the receiving end.

Arrows that point at the right thing

The most useful annotation tool is a simple arrow. The trick is pointing it at the right level of zoom and making sure it reads clearly against the background.

In ScreenEdit, you can add arrows in any color and adjust their weight, so they stand out without overwhelming the screenshot. White arrows on darker UIs, dark arrows on lighter ones.

Labels that add context

An arrow pointing at a button is better than nothing. An arrow pointing at a button with a label that says “Crashes on iPad 10.2” is actually useful.

Keep labels short — five words or fewer if you can. The screenshot itself provides the context; the label just names what you want the viewer to notice.

When to use highlight instead of arrow

Arrows work well for pointing at a single element. Highlight boxes — a rectangle drawn around an area — work better when you want to show a region: “all of this section loads slowly” or “this whole card needs to be updated.”

In ScreenEdit, you can draw a filled or outlined rectangle over any area, adjust the opacity, and combine it with a label above or below.

The workflow

1. Take the screenshot
2. Open it in ScreenEdit
3. Set the canvas to your export size (1:1 or 16:9 for most sharing contexts)
4. Add your arrows and labels
5. Export and share

From screenshot to annotated image: about 90 seconds. No laptop required.