To be perfectly honest, the prospect of a TikTok ban doesn’t bother me all that much. Sure, it’s a great app to spend some time scrolling around on, but it’s not as if the rest of the web is bereft of interesting content and ways to waste time. What is worrisome, though, is that a TikTok ban, should it ever happen, would also see the removal of CapCut, a top-of-the-line video editing app owned by TikTok’s parent company Bytedance.
There are scores of mobile video editors out on the market, but the power and ease of use of CapCut is unrivaled. And with the fate of TikTok – and by extension CapCut – currently hanging in the balance, Meta over the weekend swooped in and announced a new video editing app dubbed Edits. If Meta’s strategy sounds familiar, it’s pretty reminiscent of when they released Threads back when everyone thought Twitter was on the verge of shutting down or turning into a ghost town.
A look at Instagram’s new video editing app
Instagram’s new video editing app is slated to arrive in February or March, with Instagram head Adam Mosseri touting the app as follows:
Today we’re announcing a new app called “Edits,” for those of you who are passionate about making videos on your phone. There’s a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens it’s our job to provide the best possible tools for creators.
Edits is more than a video editing app; it’s a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools you’d expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and — if you decide to share your videos on Instagram — powerful insights into how those videos perform.
It certainly sounds intriguing. Of course, Meta has in the past proven itself to be more than willing to copy features from rivals and incorporate them into its own apps. Whether it’s Snapchat, TikTok, or Twitter, Meta is, in the famous words of Steve Jobs, somewhat shameless about stealing. And if the end result is a halfway decent product, I don’t think anyone will be complaining.
As part of an effort to ensure Edits is a legit video editing app, Meta is planning to seek feedback from prominent video editors on ways to make the app more powerful and efficient. Also encouraging is that the app will reportedly be geared more toward serious content creators than casual users.
Full feature set on the Edits app
As it stands now, Edits’ feature set is as follows:
– Export your videos with no watermark and share to any platform.
– Keep track of all your drafts and videos in one place.
– Capture high-quality clips up to 10 minutes long and start editing right away.
– Easily share to Instagram in 1080p.
– Edit videos with single-frame precision.
– Get the look you want with camera settings for resolution, framerate and dynamic range, plus upgraded flash and zoom controls.
– Bring images to life with AI animation.
– Change up your background with a green screen or add a video overlay.
– Choose from a variety of fonts, sound and voice effects, video filters, stickers, and more.
– Enhance audio to make voices clearer and remove background noise.
– Generate captions automatically and customize how they appear in your video.
– Track how your reels are performing with a live insights dashboard.
– Get a breakdown of engagement for followers and non-followers.
– Understand what affects if your reel gets recommended, like skip rate.
– Plan your next videos based on what’s working for your audience.
