How to Make a Feature Announcement Video (30-Second Template)

A feature announcement video is a 30 to 60 second clip that shows one new feature doing one job. A line of on-screen text says what changed and where to find it. To make one on a Mac:

1. Record only the part of the screen where the feature lives.
2. Let click-based zooms point at the controls that matter.
3. Apply a saved preset so the clip matches your last release.
4. Export one file per destination: MP4 for the changelog, GIF for email and docs, and square or vertical cuts for social.

This page covers the structure, the recording setup, and a routine you can repeat every release. We make Screen Bolt and use it in the steps, but the structure works with any recorder.

What a good release video looks like

• One feature, one path. It starts where the user would start and ends on the result.
• 30 seconds for a small change. Go up to 60 seconds for something with two or three steps.
• Readable at the size people will see it. That is usually a changelog column, an email or a phone.
• Clear with the sound off. On-screen text carries the message. Narration is a bonus.
• The same look every release. Keep the background, framing, zoom level and text style the same, so customers recognize your release videos at a glance.

Why video release notes work

A changelog line like "You can now export reports as CSV" tells people the feature exists. A clip shows them where the button is, what the dialog looks like and what they get at the end. Seeing those three things is often what gets someone to try the feature.

One recording also covers several places. The same take becomes a changelog embed, an email GIF, a social post and a help-center clip. Cutting the feature down to 30 seconds also forces you to describe it in one sentence. That sentence usually makes the written release note better too.

The 30-second feature announcement video structure

Use the same four beats every time:

For a 60-second version, add a second case between the task and the result, such as a different file type or a setting that changes the output. Don't add a second feature. Two features means two videos.

Write one sentence per beat before you record. If you narrate, use Screen Bolt's teleprompter. Open it with the Script button in the recording bar or with ⇧⌘T (Shift-Command-T). It floats on your screen but stays out of the recording, and it supports cue markers like [PAUSE] and [CUT]. For more on scripts, see reading a script while recording and the product demo script template.

Pick a tool: built-in, free or Screen Bolt

Built-in (free): Press ⇧⌘5 (Shift-Command-5), choose Record Selected Portion, drag around the feature and click Record. Trim the clip in QuickTime Player with Edit ▸ Trim. That is enough for an internal heads-up in Slack. You don't get zooms, backgrounds, other aspect ratios or a saved style, and you can't export a GIF.

Free conversion: If you only need a GIF from an MP4 you already have, use our free video to GIF converter. It runs in the browser.

Screen Bolt: Use it when the video goes out publicly with every release. It turns your clicks into zooms, saves your look as a preset, exports 16:9, square or vertical from the same recording, and exports GIFs. The free version includes every editing tool. Free exports are watermarked, capped at 3 minutes and 720p, and can't be GIFs.

Record only the new feature

A short, tight recording does most of the work. A small area makes the UI larger in the frame, and a short take stays under the export limits.

Prepare the screen

1. Use a demo account with realistic fake data. Once real customer names are in a public video, they are hard to take back.
2. Close unrelated tabs. Turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center so no notification appears mid-take.
3. Size the app window the same way you did for the last release, so the framing matches.

For a longer checklist, see preparing your Mac for a clean recording.

Record the take

1. In Screen Bolt, choose Record ▸ Record area (⌥⌘5, Option-Command-5). The shortcut works only while Screen Bolt is the active app.
2. Drag a rectangle around the panel or page where the feature lives, leaving a little margin. Press Return or click Record Area. Recording starts right away.
3. Wait a beat before your first click. There is no countdown, and you'll trim the start anyway.
4. Do the task once, at normal speed.
5. If something interrupts you, click Pause in the recording bar, then Resume. If the take goes wrong, click Discard and restart. It deletes the take and returns you to setup.
6. Click Stop. With the default After recording setting (Open editor), the editor opens with your recording.

To keep the desktop out completely, record a window instead: choose Window in the recording bar, or Record ▸ Record window (⌥⌘4). Window mode records that window on its own, even when something covers it.

Keep each take under 60 seconds. Screen Bolt checks the GIF limit and the free 3-minute cap against the full recording length, not the trimmed result. So a 90-second take trimmed to 20 seconds is still refused as a GIF. Re-recording a short take is faster than working around that.

Get the zooms right

Screen Bolt creates zooms from your mouse clicks. Clicks within 1 second and 200 px of each other merge into one zoom, and drags are ignored. Each zoom holds for at least 1.8 seconds. Typing does not create zooms. These habits help:

• Click only what you're showing. Every stray click becomes a zoom. To remove one, right-click it on the zoom track and choose Delete This Region.
• Park the cursor on the thing you're showing. A zoom centers on the cursor position, and you can't move a zoom's focus point afterward.
• Add zooms where you didn't click. Press ⌘K (Command-K) to add a zoom at the playhead, centered where the cursor was at that moment.
• Don't switch off Auto Zoom on Click to get rid of a few zooms. That toggle disables every zoom region in the preview and the export, including the ones you added by hand.

The zoom-in guide covers zoom levels and transition speeds.

Tidy the edit

• Cut loading spinners and waits. Press I at the start of the wait and O at the end, then press Delete or click Cut I-O.
• Don't use J or L to skim. They change the project speed, and that speed applies to the whole export. Speed ramps on a marked range play in the preview but don't export, so cut slow parts instead of ramping them.
• Add text with T. It adds a text overlay at the playhead. Set Animate In to Fade In, because exports render every text animation as a fade anyway.
• Hide anything private. Press B to add a blur region. Or run Effects ▸ Blur / Privacy ▸ Auto-Detect Sensitive Text, which scans the recording on your Mac for email addresses. It can also find phone numbers and keywords you enter. Review the blur regions it adds on the Blur track before you export.

Keep a consistent look with presets

A preset saves the look of a recording, so release 14 matches release 3. In Screen Bolt a preset stores:

• padding, corner radius and aspect ratio
• background, cursor and zoom settings
• 3D camera and speed
• audio volumes and enhancement toggles
• sound effects
• camera 1 styling

It also stores shadow, inset and device frame, but those settings don't export (see the list below). Build your preset once:

1. Open a finished release recording.
2. In the Screen panel, set Aspect Ratio (start with 16:9), Padding and Corner Radius.
3. In the Background panel, pick a Wallpaper. To use your brand color, choose Image, click Choose Image, and pick an image in that color. The export list below explains why.
4. In the Zoom panel, set Default Level and click Apply to All Regions.
5. In the Cursor panel, set Size. If you want click sounds, turn on Click Sounds in the Sounds panel and pick a preset.
6. Check that playback speed shows 1x, because the preset saves speed too.
7. Click Presets in the toolbar, choose Save Current as Preset..., and name it "Release 16:9".

For every release after that, open the new recording, click Presets and apply "Release 16:9".

Some settings show in the preview but don't appear in the exported file. Leave these out of a release preset:

• Device frames and their reflection
• Shadow and Inset in the Screen panel
• Background Blur
• Solid Color backgrounds, which export as a dark gradient
• Custom Gradient colors, which export as the selected wallpaper's gradient

Wallpapers, Mac wallpapers and custom images export as you see them.

Presets don't store text overlays, so write your text style down and reuse it. For example: 48 pt, Bold, Bottom Center, Background on. By default, user presets live in ~/Documents/Screen Bolt Presets/UserPresets.json. File ▸ Import preset... reads a preset file, but the app has no export command. In practice, each teammate builds the same preset from your written values.

Rename each project as you go. Click the title in the editor toolbar and enter a name such as "v3.2 CSV export". Otherwise recordings land in ~/Screen Bolt Projects with date-and-time names. There is more on this in keeping recordings on-brand with presets.

Formats for changelog, email and social

Export the same edit several times. Between exports, change the aspect ratio or apply a different preset.

Changelog page

Export MP4 at 1080p. Screen Bolt disables quality presets that are larger than your recording, so a small recorded area may only offer 720p or Original. MOV (HEVC) gives smaller files at matching quality, which suits archives or handing the file to an editor. For the trade-offs, see MP4 vs MOV.

Email

Most email clients won't play video inline, so send a GIF or a still image that links to the video. Screen Bolt's GIF export has two sizes:

• Standard is 640 px wide. The app calls it the safe default.
• HD is 960 px wide. Files can be 3–4× larger.

GIFs export at about 10 fps, with no sound, and they loop. For clips over 15 seconds the app asks before exporting, and clips over 60 seconds are refused. GIF export needs a Pro license.

Some desktop email clients show only the first frame of a GIF. Make that first frame readable on its own, with your text overlay over the starting screen. To send a still image instead, grab a frame with the free video thumbnail extractor.

Docs and GitHub

Use an HD GIF of just the task, without the opening text, so it reads as a clean loop next to the documentation. See adding a demo GIF to a GitHub README.

Social

Square (1:1) and 4:5 suit feed posts, and 9:16 suits Reels, Shorts and TikTok. Check the preview before exporting a vertical cut. A wide desktop recording on a tall canvas can leave the UI small. Fix it with a second preset ("Release 9:16") that uses a higher zoom level, or record a narrower area for the vertical version. The vertical screen recording guide and the LinkedIn product video guide go into each format.

Exports save to the Desktop by default, with a date-and-time name. Rename each file as it lands, for example v3.2-csv-export-9x16.mp4. If a destination has a file size limit, the video file size calculator gives you an estimate.

A repeatable release routine

1. Pick one feature per video and write one sentence for each of the four beats.
2. Load the demo account and set the window to its usual size.
3. Record a take under 60 seconds with Record ▸ Record area.
4. Delete stray zooms and add missing ones with ⌘K.
5. Cut waits with I, O and Delete.
6. Apply your release preset and check that the speed shows 1x.
7. Add the opening and closing text overlays in your written style, with Fade In.
8. Export an MP4 for the changelog and a Standard GIF for email.
9. Apply the square or vertical preset and export the social cuts.
10. Rename the project and the files with the version number.

After a few releases, steps 3 to 10 turn into a short, predictable job.

Common mistakes

• Showing three features in one clip. People remember the first one. Split it into three videos.
• Recording the whole display. The UI ends up tiny in a 640 px GIF. Record an area instead, and see making text readable in screen recordings.
• Long raw takes. A take over 60 seconds can't become a GIF. On the free version, a take over 3 minutes can't be exported at all. Trimming doesn't help in either case.
• Styling with preview-only settings. Device frames, shadow and solid colors look right in the editor but not in the exported file.
• Pressing J or L while reviewing. This changes the project speed, and the whole export plays fast or slow.
• Publishing a free-version export. It carries a "Made with Screen Bolt" watermark and is capped at 720p.

The free version of Screen Bolt includes every editing step on this page. Pro removes the watermark, the 3-minute and 720p caps, and unlocks GIF export for $79 one-time as of November 2026 (compare free and Pro).

If the release is big enough for a launch, the Product Hunt launch video guide covers the longer version.