Microsoft announced today that it has started early public testing of a new version of the Windows 11 Snipping Tool that adds screen recording functionality.

As Microsoft notes, Snipping Tool lets you capture screenshots of various kinds today. And it’s now testing a version that will add screen recording functionality. So in the future, instead of a “Snipping mode” button with various capture choices, the Snipping Tool’s toolbar will have a “Snip” button and a “Record” button, for screenshots and screen recordings, respectively. As with the existing Snip (screenshot) functionality, you’ll be able to choose which parts of the screen to record. It’s not clear what the choices are, but full-screen, one window, and full-screen should be among them.

And because Microsoft always does this, this first pre-release version of the new Snipping Tool will only go out to some people in the Windows Insider Program’s Dev channel. It will presumably open it up to others in the future.

Why a minor app update that won’t even ship to the public for several months required its own announcement, while the release of Windows 10 version 22H2 came and went without a peep, is unclear.