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Apple’s latest Clips update inches it closer to being a real video app

Apple’s latest Clips update inches it closer to being a real video app

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Add custom soundtracks straight from GarageBand

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The latest update for Apple’s Clips app adds a few new features that brings it closer to becoming a full-fledged mobile video-editing app. The most notable addition is the ability to add custom soundtracks directly to videos with songs created in GarageBand and other music apps. Previously, users were limited to built-in soundtracks and iTunes music tracks.

Clips, which is only available on iOS, launched in 2017 as a kind of iMovie for a new generation of creators, with built-in filters, stickers, and transitions. Today’s update adds lots of small improvements, like the ability to share projects through AirDrop or email and save them to Files, as well as introducing more share extensions to upload to other cloud services.

There’s a new camcorder filter to make your videos look like they were shot in the ‘90s, and three new Live Titles, which is Clips’ built-in caption feature. Users can choose to have their words appear all at once as static text, or as animated text, with each word highlighted as they’re spoken. There are also eight new “posters,” which is what Apple calls its transitions with customizable text, and the ability to duplicate and rename projects.

Although Clips’ features are decidedly more pared down than other mobile editing apps like Adobe’s Premiere Rush CC, which has a more professional bent, the focus does make it easier and more intuitive to use. Apple’s also adding ClassKit support to let students upload their video assignments to teachers via the Schoolwork app — and based on some of the tweets we’ve seen about grade schoolers using Clips to create videos, it seems like that could come in handy.