Apple is launching a video-editing app to let users create and share selfies with animations, filters and other effects — a la Snapchat and Instagram — as the tech giant looks to grab mindshare from social-media networks.
The free Clips app, set to debut in April in the iTunes App Store, lets users combine video clips, photos and music into videos that can be shared through Apple’s Messages app, or on networks like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
The app also includes a feature called Live Titles, which lets users create animated captions and titles using their voice with effects that include comic-book filters, speech bubbles, shapes and full-screen animated posters. The text appears on screen synced with the user’s voice. The Live Titles feature supports 36 different languages, according to Apple.
Also Tuesday, Apple introduced a lower-priced model of its 9.7-inch-screen iPad, starting at $329 with 32 gigabytes of storage and $459 with 128 GB (versus the $399 starting price for the previous iPad Air 2). The company also announced iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition smartphones with red aluminum finish, marking its 10-year partnership with the Global Fund, an organization that fights AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria worldwide.
Reports that Apple was developing a video-sharing app similar to Snapchat and Instagram surfaced last summer.
To create Clips videos, users simply touch and hold the “record” button to shoot video or photos or add them from the photo library. You can then add filters, speech bubbles, shapes or emoji, as well as full-screen posters with animated backgrounds and customizable text. Apple is providing dozens of music soundtracks to add to the Clips videos, which automatically adjust to match the length of a video.
When users share Clips videos with friends in Messages, the app can suggest who to share with based on the people who appear in the video, and the people a user shares with most often. When a suggested name is selected, Clips inserts the video right into Messages so it’s ready to send with one tap.
Clips will be with iPhone 5s and later, the new 9.7-inch iPad, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad mini 2 and later, and iPod touch 6th generation. Devices must be running iOS 10.3.
