Photography
iMovie
Apple's free video editor for iPhone and iPad, with trailer templates, Storyboards and Magic Movies.
Get the app
Opens the official store page
- Developer
- Apple Inc.
- Score
- 4.4
- Downloads
- 100K+ ratings
- Age
- Rated 4+
- Version
- 3.0.6
- Price
- Free
Screenshots
About this app
Three routes to a finished video are on offer in iMovie, Apple's free editor for iPhone and iPad, depending on how much work you want to do. Magic Movie takes an album or a handful of clips and builds a video with titles, transitions and music with no editing at all; Storyboards offer 20 templates for common video types with placeholder shots to fill; and the full editor handles everything else. The trailer mode has 14 templates with original scores by film composers and editable studio logos and credits. In the editor there are 8 themes, 13 video filters, 11 animated title styles, over 130 soundtracks that stretch to fit the movie, green screen, split screen and picture-in-picture effects, plus depth editing for Cinematic mode video from iPhone 13 or later. Keyboard shortcuts and iPad trackpad support speed things along. Projects move between iPhone, iPad and Mac over AirDrop or iCloud Drive, where Final Cut Pro can take over.
iMovie: the full guide
What the app is
Three ways in, depending on your patience. iMovie, Apple's no-cost editor for iPhone and iPad, will build a video with no editing at all through Magic Movie, give you one of 20 Storyboard templates with placeholder shots to fill, or hand you the full timeline editor for everything else.
Trailers use 14 templates with original scores and editable studio logos. The editor holds 8 themes, 13 filters, 11 animated title styles, 130-plus soundtracks that stretch to fit, picture-in-picture, split screen and green screen, and depth editing for Cinematic mode footage. Projects pass to a Mac by AirDrop or iCloud Drive, and Final Cut Pro can pick them up there.
How it works day to day
After a holiday, you point Magic Movie at the album and get a cut with titles, transitions and music in a minute, then decide whether it needs more. For a birthday message or a product demo, a Storyboard tells you which shots to film and in what order, which is useful for people who freeze at a blank timeline.
The full editor is where afternoons go: trimming clips, laying a soundtrack that stretches to length, dropping in a title, keying out a green screen. On an iPad with a keyboard and trackpad it feels close to desktop editing. The trailer templates remain the fastest route to something that looks expensive.
Why people look for it
It's free, it's Apple's, and it is good enough that most people never need anything else. Searches come from new iPhone owners checking what they already have, students with a school project, and people who want a quick holiday video without learning a pro tool. The 4.4 rating across 100K+ reviews is slightly lower than Apple's other apps here, which fits an editor that occasionally frustrates.
