To edit a video on iPhone, open it in the Photos app and tap Edit. Photos can trim, crop and rotate, change light and color, add filters and change the slow-motion part, all for free. For joining clips, speeding a video up and adding music, use Apple's free iMovie app. Edits in Photos can be undone at any time with Revert.
Which tool for which edit
| Edit | Photos app | iMovie |
|---|---|---|
| Trim the start and end | Yes | Yes |
| Crop, rotate, 9:16 for Reels and TikTok | Yes | Zoom in on the frame |
| Light, color, filters | Yes | Filters |
| Slow down a slo-mo or high-frame-rate video | Yes | Yes |
| Speed up a normal video | No | Yes |
| Join several clips into one video | No | Yes |
| Add music or a soundtrack | No | Yes |
| Picture in picture (face in a corner) | No | Yes |
Both apps are made by Apple and free. iMovie may need to be downloaded from the App Store.
Trim a video in Photos
- Open the video in Photos and tap Edit.
- Drag the yellow handles at either end of the frame viewer to the new start and end.
- Tap Done, then Save Video to replace it, or Save Video as New Clip to keep both.
To undo it later, open the video, tap Edit and then Revert. A video saved as a new clip can't be reverted (Apple Support).
Crop, rotate and change the shape
- In Photos, open the video, tap Edit, then the Crop button.
- Drag the corners, or tap the aspect-ratio button and pick 9:16 for Reels, Shorts and TikTok, Square, or another preset.
- Tap Rotate to turn it 90 degrees, or Flip to mirror it.
- Tap Done.
Apple's guide covers the same tools for photos and videos (Apple Support).
Fix the light and color, add a filter
In Edit, tap Adjust and swipe through Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights and the other sliders, or tap the Enhance button for an automatic fix. Filters applies a look such as Vivid or Dramatic; on iPhone 16 and later, Photographic Styles take the place of filters if you use them. To apply the same edits to other clips, use Copy Edits and Paste Edits from the More button (Apple Support).
On iPhone 16 and later, videos recorded with Spatial Audio get Audio Mix in Edit: In-Frame, Studio or Cinematic sound, with a slider for background noise.
Change the speed of a video
Slow down in Photos: open a video shot in Slo-mo, tap Edit and drag the bars under the frame viewer to choose which part plays slowly. For videos recorded at a high frame rate, Edit > Video > Playback Speed offers slower options; how many depends on the format you recorded in.
Speed up in iMovie:
- In iMovie, tap Start New Project > Movie, pick the video and tap Create Movie.
- Tap the clip in the timeline, then the Speed button.
- Drag the slider right to speed up (the speed shows as 2x, 1/2x and so on) or left to slow down. Add ranges to change speed only in part of the clip.
- Tap Done, then the Share button and Save Video.
iMovie keeps the voice pitch normal when you change speed, unless you turn on "Speed changes pitch" in the project settings (Apple Support).
Combine videos into one
- Open iMovie and tap Start New Project, then Movie.
- Tap every clip and photo you want, in order. Selected items get a checkmark.
- Tap Create Movie. The clips line up in the timeline; drag to reorder them.
- Tap Done and share or save the video.
To add more clips later, tap the + (Add Media) button in the project (Apple Support).
Add music to a video
- In an iMovie project, tap Add Media (+), then Audio.
- Tap Soundtracks for free music that adjusts to the length of your video, or My Music for songs on your iPhone.
- Tap a track, then the + next to it.
For anything you post, you need the rights to the music: Apple's iMovie license says so even for songs you bought (Apple Support). The safest choice for YouTube and TikTok is iMovie's own soundtracks or the platform's music library.
Videos with your face: reactions, tutorials, voice-over
A common edit is putting yourself into the video: a reaction in the corner, commentary over gameplay, a voice-over on a tutorial. In iMovie that means recording your reaction separately and placing it with Picture in Picture, then syncing it by hand; the steps are in how to make a reaction video on iPhone.
OnAir, our app, does this in one go for screen recordings: record the screen, then react while the recording plays, with the camera and microphone or with your voice only. Drag the face cam into place, trim and share. It doesn't add music, change speed or join clips; use Photos and iMovie for that.
Recording the screen in the first place is covered in how to screen record on iPhone.
