How to edit videos saved on your iPhone

Dave Johnson

Mar 11, 2019, 20:59 IST

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Edit videos in your iPhone's Photos app, or download the iMovie app for more extensive editing.

You can easily edit videos saved to your iPhone, trimming the start and end of a video, without installing any additional apps.
By clicking "Edit" while viewing a video in the Photos app, you can drag the anchors that mark the start and end point of a video.
Install the iMovie app on your iPhone to get a suite of additional video editing tools including video rotation, background music, and transitions between clips.

Since your iPhone can shoot high-resolution, high-quality video, it stands to reason that you might want to occasionally edit that video - on the phone, without having to download it to a PC or laptop.

And while your options are a bit limited, you can certainly make some simple edits right from your iPhone.

Specifically, without installing any additional apps, you can trim the start and end of your video. And if you install the free iMovie app on your iPhone, you can make other changes to your video as well.

Edit a video by trimming the start or end of it

1. Open the Photos app.

2. Find the video that you want to edit. If it's not at the end of your camera roll or otherwise easy to locate, you can tap Albums and then tap Videos to see a list of just the videos on the phone.

3. After selecting your desired video, tap Edit.

4. Play the video to move the video cursor away from the start of the timeline that's at the bottom of the screen. This cursor is called a "scrubber bar" in video lingo, and you can also drag it back and forth to speed through the video manually.

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You need to move the scrubber bar away from the edge of the video timeline so you can move the anchors.

5. In the timeline, tap and drag the left-facing arrow (called an anchor) on the left-side of the video clip. As you drag it, the entire outline will turn yellow and you're trimming the start of the video.

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As you drag the anchor on the left, you're trimming the start of the video.

6. Tap and drag the anchor on the right side of the clip to trim the end of the video.

7. For more careful editing, you can tap and hold an anchor. After a moment, it will zoom in on the clip so you can set the start or end point with more precision.

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Tap and hold an anchor to zoom in and edit the video with greater precision.

8. When you're done editing, tap Done and then tap Save as New Clip.

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When you're ready to save your video, tap "Done." The edited video will appear as a new clip, so the original version is preserved.

9. Your new clip will appear at the start of the All Photos folder in your Photos app.

Advanced editing with the iMovie app

Want to do more than just adjust the start and end point of your video? You have a lot more video editing options if you install a free Apple video editor called iMovie. With iMovie installed, for example, you can rotate video (a handy tool for times when you recorded video while holding the camera vertically).

In addition, you can use iMovie to select multiple video clips and still photos and combine them into a single movie. You can choose from among a half-dozen transitions (like dissolves, slides, and wipes) and insert them between these clips, as well.

iMovie also lets you add music, fade to and from black, and apply filters to your completed movies. Of course, it's not Adobe Premiere by a wide margin, but it's great for adding a professional polish to a video right from your iPhone.