Key Takeaways

• The iPhone’s Photos app lacks a comprehensive video editor, but there are free apps you can download that offer more features.
• CapCut is one of the best free video editing apps for basic timeline editing, appealing to both experienced editors and beginners.
• Other apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Video Star offer additional features like sound design and effects for videos.

While convenient, the iPhone Photos app isn’t a comprehensive video editor. Advanced video editing software exists, but it can be less accessible to the average user. Here are four features I’d love to see in future iOS updates, and where to access those features right now (for free).

1 Timeline

With videos increasingly present on social media, the ability to stitch multiple videos together is in high demand and has been simplified by many platforms. While the Photos app lets you cut within one captured video, you’re not able to connect multiple clips. I’d love to see a basic timeline editor, where you can select more than one video to achieve simple compilations.

In the meantime, CapCut is a free app that allows you to edit your videos on a straightforward timeline. I like this app because it appeals to both experienced video editors and newbies. If it’s your first edit, CapCut offers templates to get you started. If you’re a little more comfortable, you can easily create a quick compilation:

1. On the Edit tab, tap New Project.
2. Select which videos you’d like to use. Upon first use, CapCut will ask you for permission to access your videos. You can grant it full or limited permission.
3. Tap Add, and you’ll be transported into a timeline, where you can trim your videos, add and edit audio, adjust speed, add transitions, and more.

CapCut seamlessly integrates with TikTok, so this is a good app to download if TikTok is the destination for your creations!

While there are some differences between the free and paid versions of CapCut, basic timeline editing is available at no cost.

2 Sound Design

Even if you’re not going for blockbuster-worthy sound design on your iPhone videos, it would be nice if there were a few basic audio functions on the Photos app. I’d love to be able to add music to a clip (hello, Apple Music integration?), or at least adjust the volume of the video’s diegetic audio.

In addition to the aforementioned CapCut, Instagram is another option for adding music to your videos on an iPhone. In the case you don’t already live on Instagram, the social media app is free to download.

Here’s how to use Instagram to add music to your videos:

1. In the Instagram app, go to the + icon located on the bottom bar.
2. Choose Reel from the options along the bottom, select the video(s) you would like to edit, and tap Next.
3. Tap the music noteicon on the left-hand side and choose a song.
4. Tap Next, and you’ll see a timeline of your synced video and audio. You can select the lower track labeled Tap to add audio if you’d like to add another song. You might do this if you want to cut from one song to a different song partway through the video.
5. At this stage, you can make any other necessary adjustments to your video and then Share.

Although Instagram offers an incredibly easy way to add music to your video, you have to publish it on Instagram to share it. Instagram does let you download an edited video without publishing, but only without sound.

3 Visual Effects

Although Apple touts its capability of removing backgrounds from images on the iPhone, that feature doesn’t exist for videos. I get it, because motion introduces a whole set of challenges. But I have to wonder if Apple could leverage the current technology it uses for photos and apply it at least to videos with solid backgrounds.

The good news is that, once again, CapCut has a feature to remove backgrounds that is accessible to anyone, even the non-visual effects pros.

If you’re looking for more advanced visual effects, you may have to pay for CapCut Pro. Or, you can explore another app called Video Star. When comparing CapCut with Video Star, Video Star comes out on top with its keyframe editor, with which you can create unique masks for each frame of a video clip. Essentially, you could remove a clip’s background with precision akin to expensive software like After Effects.

While you can download Video Star for free, you will need a paid package or subscription to access its advanced keyframing features.

4 Text Effects

Captions can be a great asset to your videos, and they are fairly ubiquitous on social media today. Again, I feel like the technology exists here for Apple to integrate into their Photos app, but at the time of writing this, the offering is not there.

Instead, I often use TikTok to add automated text captions to videos. Although CapCut and Instagram share this capability, I find TikTok to be the least amount of effort, but it all depends on what apps you are most comfortable with.

Here’s how to add automated captions on TikTok:

1. In the TikTok app, tap the + icon at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap Upload to locate the video(s) you’ve previously recorded on your iPhone.
3. Select Captions on the right-hand side of the video.
4. TikTok will process and present you with automated captions. You can change the language if necessary, edit the text by tapping the pen icon, or adjust the formatting by tapping the A icon.
5. Tap Save. From here, you may download the video to your phone by tapping the Save icon on the right-hand side, or publish it on TikTok.

If I had to choose one app to use while waiting for the Photos app to step up its game, it would be CapCut for its range. Ultimately, the best app for your mobile editing needs depends on you and your most familiar UI.