iMovie (iOS)
iMovie for iOS is the go-to app if you’re shooting video on an iPhone and can’t get back to your desk to edit with the original desktop version of the program. With just a few quick taps, you can pull together a professional-looking presentation. Get started by collecting video clips on your phone to create original projects. Projects come in two flavors: Movie and Trailer.
The Trailer templates offer a defined structure for sequencing your clips, adding transitions and effects, and they feature built-in professional soundtracks of music and effects. You can also add your own music or voice narration. The Gear button lets you access sounds, transitions, Instagram-style filters, and themes. At any point, the app lets you trim, split, duplicate, adjust playback speed, and add text and special effects. The iMovie Theater feature shares your movies with all of your devices.
Videohance (iOS)
Videohance is a simple app with elaborate enhancements, making it an outstanding choice for on-the-fly special-effects action. The app lets you shoot either a 1 x 1-inch square or 16 x 9 HD video and construct still-photo slideshows by shooting or importing any video or still image stored in your phone. A huge array of stylized presets gives your output a defined look, while tuning features fix and enhance saturation, brightness and exposure.
Snazzy special effects — like Light Leaks, Grit+Grain, Gradients, Blurs and others — combine to make your video unique. You can also add stylish frames; adjust motion and speed; trim, split, and duplicate clips; and add your own iTunes audio selections and transitions. The app’s interface is vertical, making it easy to use one-handed, but the output is conveniently horizontal. The app features a variety of options for letting you export videos to social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and Tumblr.
Vizmato (iOS/Android beta)
Vizmato is a thoroughly delightful app for shooting and editing video from both front and rear cameras. The app’s themes — like Hip Hop, Haunted, Chaplin, Lovestruck and 8MM — join special effects like Noir, Nostalgia, ‘70s, and Blockbuster to make your videos shine.
By joining up to five separate clips, you can affix built-in moods, looks and tunes to your movie, and film through special-effects modes. Or, you can just shoot straight with your iPhone camera and layer in effects afterward. Then, share your movie with the Vizmato community or on your favorite social networks. An in-app purchase of $3.99 removes the watermark, and subscriptions with online storage are available.
VidLab (iOS)
Launch VidLab if you want to execute a variety of creative options on your video project, collage or slideshow. The video interface lets you easily link, rotate and trim multiple clips, but that’s just the beginning. With your video assembled, you can add text, still images, voice recordings and music from your iTunes library, or record your own narrative. Slider controls for contrast, vibrance and saturation give your videos a professional look, alongside a library of sound effects and transitions.
Some basic effects and filters are free, but many are available only via in-app purchases. Collage templates let you load and play several videos in one screen, but you must render the collage before you can add effects. All output can be shared to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Messenger. The app is available for free, but removing the watermark costs $1.99.
Quik (iOS/Android)
Quik swiftly and automatically chooses and edits your photos and short videos to form a fun daily or weekly narrative of your life. The app can combine up to 200 photos and video clips from your camera roll, gallery or linked Facebook, Instagram or GoPro Plus accounts to leverage the app’s built-in automated special effects and musical features. Choose a theme — like Action, Boxed, Flick, Raw or Epic — which determines many of your video’s special effects.
While the app doesn’t offer a tremendous amount of control, you can edit each frame yourself by tapping into an editing module to add text, trim, rotate, adjust volume and speed, and fit or duplicate each clip or shot. A choice of themes and their built-in animations scroll along the bottom of the iPhone display. The format control lets you save in cinema or square format, and then share to the usual batch of social networks or to your camera roll.
Magisto (iOS/Android)
There’s plenty of buzz around artificial intelligence these days, and Magisto uses it to automatically build stories from the stills and movies you have stored on your phone. Operating like a programmed learning module where each move automatically leads to the next, Magisto lets you punch in the kind of movie you want — business or personal — and then gives you a choice of editing styles, like No Filter, Testimonial, Storyteller, Extreme Sports, Travel, and Food.
You choose which shots and clips you want to include from your camera roll, and then select from a list of recommended themes and music, including genres, moods and instrumental or vocal types. The result is a dynamic movie with spiffy special effects set to the music. After your movie is processed and ready, you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. The app’s free version limits movie lengths to about 35 seconds, but annual subscriptions are available for $2.50 per month for videos of up to 2 minutes and 30 seconds each, in addition to more expensive business and marketing subscriptions.
Animoto (iOS/Android)
Animoto takes a somewhat different approach than other video editors in that it produces a slideshow-style video designed to show off your images and videos quickly, without a lot of hands-on input. You start by adding clips and stills into stylized, pre-programmed templates; then the app handles the production mechanics. Choose your theme and musical score from the app’s array of built-in assets; then plug in your images and videos, add text and captions, and preview the result.
You can view a short sample of around 80 style choices first, to get an idea of what the final video will look like. Some Instagram-style clips feature an endlessly looping song, but other styles let you choose from a selection of tunes from genres such as acoustic, children’s, classical, hip-hop and Halloween, or you can use your own music. After a free trial period, personal and professional annual subscriptions range from $8 to $34 per month
Adobe Premiere Clip (iOS/Android)
Premiere Clip lets you connect your mobile videos with Adobe’s flagship professional and consumer desktop editing packages: Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements. With Adobe Premiere Clip, you’re automatically inducted into the Creative Cloud ecosystem. You need an Adobe ID to use it, but the app is free for everyone, so you don’t have to pay for an account.
With Premiere Clip, it’s supereasy to create simple social media-bound movies. When you start a new project, Clip lets you access video from a number of places, including your phone, Lightroom, Creative Cloud or Dropbox. After import, all you need to do is tap the Automatic button to create a new video. For a greater hand in the editing process, use the app’s Freeform editor to trim, edit exposure and highlights, add audio, adjust speed, and split clips. Choose from a large assortment of filters to make your movies look unique.
FilmoraGo (iOS/Android)
With its one-button interface, FilmoraGo propels you directly into the groove of cinematic composition. First, choose the clips and images you want to include in your movie, and then use the simple sidebar interface to choose themes — like ’80s, Concert and Love — to superimpose clips and images with special effects and transitions. You can also choose from nearly 50 built-in musical selections or access songs from your iTunes library.
The app is pleasant to use and offers feedback with stylish but low-key animations. Despite its ease of use, it offers pro-level features, like reverse play, trim by duration, and slow/fast motion, as well as voice-over, audio mixer, PIP and color adjustments. You can download additional elements for free or as in-app purchases to add to the app’s themes, filters, badges, overlays, openers and transitions.
Splice (iOS)
Splice lets you select photos and videos from not only your camera roll but also other accounts — such as Dropbox, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and GoPro Plus — and pull them directly into your timeline. There are more than 20 video styles with neat-looking transitions and graphics. Despite its array of traditional features, Splice does not feel overly complex, because each action is accomplished in sequence with a tap: add photos and videos from various accounts, line them up on the timeline, add and delete fade-ins and -outs, personalize text and choose audio.
There are many audio genres to choose from, and there’s even a timeline specifically for editing audio. Detailed instructions on how to use the app ensure that you don’t get stuck, but most users should be able to simply dive in and experiment. When you’re done with your video, you can share to YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, Mail and Messages.
PowerDirector Video Editor (Android)
CyberLink PowerDirector is a mobile companion to the company’s powerful desktop PowerDirector program. It’s a full-featured video editor in a tiny package, but you’ll want a phone with generous screen real estate to take advantage of all of its attributes. It’s impressive how much PowerDirector can cram into a small workspace while offering exceptional workflow flexibility. I was able to download videos directly from Google Drive and start editing them on the phone.
PowerDirector offers a familiar timeline interface where you can combine videos and add multiple special effects, still images, audio, voiceovers, speed adjustments, music and more. It takes a bit of tapping around to figure out the interface because of the multitude of features. After saving your video, you can output at up to 4K resolution (both 1080p and 4K require an in-app purchase) and share on social media networks. Be sure to check the specs to make sure that the app will work optimally with your device.
