#969·Recordly

Feature request: keystroke overlay — optionally capture keyboard events during recording

Author: Bill-shengCreated Sep 15, 2026Updated Sep 16, 2026

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Recordly already beautifies mouse activity (cursor smoothing, click ripples, click-based auto zoom), but there is no way to show what the user is typing during a recording. For tutorial and demo videos, viewers often need to see which keys were pressed (e.g. Ctrl+C, Enter, arrow keys), similar to the keystroke overlay in tools like Screen Studio.

Describe the solution you'd like

An optional "keystroke overlay" feature:

  • During recording, capture keyboard events (key identity + modifiers) so they can be rendered as a visual overlay in the editor and in exports.
  • Make it strictly opt-in, and never capture keystrokes typed into password fields.
  • Ideally allow styling the overlay (position, font size, "shortcuts only" mode vs. showing all typing).
  • Note: PR #964 (typing-aware auto zoom suggestions) already wires up keydown capture via uiohook-napi / the native cursor monitor, but only as privacy-safe timing telemetry. Extending that pipeline to optionally record key identity would be a natural next step.

Describe alternatives you've considered

  • Manually adding text annotations for shortcuts after recording (tedious and error-prone).
  • Running a third-party keystroke visualizer app on top of the recording (extra setup, inconsistent styling).

Additional context

Happy to help test on Windows if this gets picked up.