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Microsoft’s Clipchamp acquisition will help improve video editing on Windows

Microsoft’s Clipchamp acquisition will help improve video editing on Windows

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Microsoft has acquired a web-based video editing app

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Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Microsoft is acquiring Clipchamp, a browser-based video editing tool, and is hinting that it will be a great fit for Windows. Founded in 2013, Clipchamp lets people create and edit videos in a browser and utilize the full power of a GPU to render the final result. Clipchamp is used by companies like Google, Dell, and Deloitte.

Microsoft is now looking to integrate Clipchamp into its Microsoft 365 offerings, and perhaps even Windows itself. “As a web app that uses the full power of your PC, Clipchamp is a natural fit to extend the cloud-powered productivity experiences in Microsoft 365 for individuals, families, schools, and businesses,” explains Chris Pratley, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office media group.

Microsoft says Clipchamp is a great fit for Windows

Interestingly, Pratley also says “it’s a great fit for Microsoft Windows,” which suggests that Microsoft could integrate Clipchamp into Windows in the future. Clipchamp already exists as an app in the Microsoft Store, and Microsoft’s existing video editing tools for Windows are lackluster to say the least.

Windows 11 may improve that situation, alongside the potential Clipchamp integration in the future. Windows and devices chief Panos Panay teased a new photos app for Windows 11 just minutes before the acquisition announcement, with what looks like better tools for editing photos and videos. The existing photos app in Windows 10 can edit videos, but the tools are very basic, and aren’t even close to the level of editing options available in Clipchamp.

Clipchamp uses a combination of templates and a library of filters, transitions, stock media, and styles to let people created videos with multi-track audio support and user-friendly editing. Microsoft’s acquisition appears to be part of the company’s renewed focus on creation, and even consumer-friendly apps.

Microsoft recently hired a former Uber exec to lead a consumer apps effort inside the company, months after CEO Satya Nadella said “the next 10 years is going to be as much about creation as it is about consumption and about the community around it.”