Installing Zella & Granting Permissions
Quick answer (Mac): Move Zella.app to Applications and launch it - it appears as a menu-bar icon (no Dock window). The first time you use each feature, macOS prompts for Screen Recording, Camera, Microphone, and Speech Recognition; click Allow on each. If screen recording fails after you grant it, quit and relaunch once (the permission only applies to a fresh launch). All processing stays on your device.
On iPhone: Zella is a normal Home Screen app - no menu bar, no relaunch quirk. iOS asks for Camera, Microphone and Photos with its own prompts as you use each feature, and whole-device capture goes through the system broadcast picker instead of a permission toggle. See On iPhone.
On this page: install · the four permissions · fix permissions · symptoms · devices · low light · relaunch · on iPhone · FAQ
How to install and launch Zella
- Move Zella.app to your Applications folder.
- Double-click to launch it. Zella runs as a menu-bar app, so look for the Zella icon in the top-right menu bar. There’s no window in the Dock.
- Click the icon to open the Setup panel.
“Quitting” means choosing Quit from its menu, not closing a window. Closing the Setup panel just hides it - the app keeps running.
What permissions does Zella need?
The first time you use each feature, macOS shows a pop-up asking for permission. Just click Allow / OK:
| Permission | When it’s asked | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Recording | First screen recording | To capture your display |
| Camera | First camera preview/recording | For the webcam bubble / camera mode |
| Microphone | First recording with mic on | Narration + system-audio mixing |
| Speech Recognition | First transcribe (Captions / Remove Fillers) | On-device captions and filler removal |
All of this work happens on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
Important macOS quirk: Screen Recording permission only kicks in the next time you launch the app. So if you turn it on while Zella is already open and recording still fails, quit Zella and reopen it once.
How to check or fix permissions
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
- Visit each of: Screen Recording, Camera, Microphone, Speech Recognition.
- Make sure Zella is present and its toggle is on.
- If you just turned one on, quit and reopen Zella.
Symptom-to-cause cheat sheet
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| Black video, audio fine | Screen Recording off (or granted mid-session → relaunch) |
| Video fine, no sound | Microphone off, or wrong input device |
| Camera bubble black | Camera off, or the room is dark |
| Captions produce nothing | Speech Recognition off, or no spoken audio |
How to choose your mic and camera
- Microphone / system audio: turn on Mic in the Setup panel. Your computer’s audio (system audio) is added in automatically.
- Camera device: Studio → Camera shows which camera is active (built-in, Continuity, or USB).
- Speakers/headphones: Zella records your mic and your computer’s audio. It doesn’t change which speakers or headphones you’re listening through. Wear headphones when you test whether audio and video line up, so your mic doesn’t pick up sound from your speakers.
Why is my camera choppy in low light?
In dim rooms, webcams automatically slow down their frame rate (frames per second - how many still images make up each second of video). They do this to spend more time gathering light for each frame. So if a camera preview looks choppy, or a camera-only recording feels like it’s playing at only about 1 frame per second, the cause is almost always a dark room, not a bug. Add more light and the frame rate goes right back up. The audio and the timing stay correct the whole time.
How to relaunch cleanly
If Zella ever feels stuck:
- Choose Quit from the Zella menu (or right-click the menu-bar icon).
- Reopen it from Applications.
Zella saves your work automatically and can recover recordings that were in progress, so reopening is safe. You’ll be offered any unfinished recording to recover (chapter 22).
On iPhone
Everything above is macOS-specific. Installing and permitting Zella on the phone is simpler.
Installing
Zella for iPhone is coming to the App Store - it isn’t downloadable yet. When the listing goes live you’ll get it the normal way:
- Open the App Store on your iPhone.
- Search for Zella.
- Tap Get to install. The app itself is free.
It is an iPhone app and needs iOS 18 or later. It runs on iPad in iPhone compatibility mode, without an iPad-specific layout. There’s no menu-bar icon and no Setup panel - you just open Zella from the Home Screen. In the meantime, the Mac app is coming to the Mac App Store, and because Pro is a Universal Purchase, an unlock you buy on the Mac carries over to the phone automatically.
Permissions on iOS
iOS asks with its own prompts the first time you use each feature. Tap Allow on each:
| Permission | When it’s asked | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Camera | First camera recording | Front or back camera capture |
| Microphone | First recording with sound | Narration alongside the video |
| Photos | First import from Photos, or first save back | Pulling in a clip you already shot |
There’s no “quit and relaunch” quirk on iOS - the macOS Screen Recording rule above simply doesn’t apply. Whole-device broadcast capture (recording other apps) isn’t a permission toggle at all: it runs through Apple’s system broadcast picker, which you confirm each time you start.
To change any of these later, go to Settings › Zella on the device.
Two one-time downloads to know about
Neither is a permission, but both surprise people on a first run:
- The captions model. The first time you transcribe, Zella downloads a verbatim on-device Whisper model, about 145 MB, with a progress note. After that, captions work fully offline. If it hasn’t downloaded yet, Zella falls back to Apple’s on-device recognizer so captions still appear.
- Translation language packs. Caption translation needs iOS 18 or later, and the first use of a language may need iOS to fetch its offline model from Settings › Translate. Zella tells you exactly what to do rather than failing quietly.
Both run on-device once fetched, and nothing you record is ever uploaded.
Full guide: Zella for iPhone → · Recording on iPhone →
Permissions FAQ
Why is my Zella screen recording black? Screen Recording permission is either off, or you turned it on while Zella was already open. Turn it on in Privacy & Security, then quit and reopen Zella.
Why is there no audio in my recording? Microphone permission is off, or the wrong input device is selected. Check Privacy & Security → Microphone.
Where is the Zella window? I only see a menu-bar icon. Zella is a menu-bar app. Click the icon to open the Setup panel. The editor opens after you record.
Is my data private? Yes. Recording, turning speech into text, and editing all happen on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
Captions aren’t generating - why? Turn on Speech Recognition and make sure the clip actually has someone speaking in it. On iPhone, check instead that the one-time captions model has finished downloading.
How do I install Zella on my iPhone? Through the App Store - but the listing is on its way, so it isn’t downloadable yet. The Mac app is coming to the Mac App Store, and Pro is a Universal Purchase, so buying on the Mac also unlocks the phone later.
Do I have to grant Screen Recording on iOS like I do on the Mac? No. iOS asks for Camera, Microphone and Photos as you go, and whole-device capture runs through the system broadcast picker each time instead of a standing permission.
Pro tips & gotchas
- All three permissions live in System Settings → Privacy & Security on the Mac - Screen Recording, Microphone, and Camera. On iPhone they’re in Settings › Zella.
- After turning on Screen Recording, fully quit and reopen Zella - macOS only applies that permission the next time the app launches.
- If a new version of Zella asks for Screen Recording again even though you already allowed it, that’s just macOS noticing the app was updated. Simply allow it one more time.
- Before a long recording, check the Setup panel preview to confirm your camera and mic are working, so you don’t record the wrong device.
- On the phone, get the one-time downloads out of the way on Wi-Fi before you need them - transcribe a short test clip once, and captions are offline from then on.
Related: Getting started → · Recording basics → · Troubleshooting → · Zella for iPhone →