12 Best Video Editing Apps for Your Smartphone in 2023 (2024)

Verdict: Adobe Premiere Rush begins my list of the best free video editing apps. You may shoot videos via the app on your mobile gadget, import footage from the camera or activate automatic synchronization.

Premiere Rush partially works on the basis of the Adobe Sensei artificial intelligence and is compatible with the last version of Premiere Pro. It allows you to capture, crop, change the sequence of clips, correct colors, record voice-over comments, add color filters and overlay text. You may add audio from the built-in library using iTunes and regulate or switch off the sound, balance it, decrease echo and background noise as well as highlight voices.

Importing files, you can adjust the video quality (up to 4K) and the frame rate (30, 60 fps). Nevertheless, Rush doesn’t allow setting target attributes like bit rate or codec. Learn how to get Adobe Premiere Pro free, a desktop version of the video editor.

Verdict: KineMaster is a universal tool and a top-notch Android video editor. The peculiarity of this app is that you can perform editing in several layers. You may add an unlimited number of text overlays, audio tracks, effects, mix several fragments and use double exposure to adjust the background.

Moreover, KineMaster offers instant editing previews, accurate management of the volume curve, color LUT-filters, speed regulators, compositing of the chromatic keys and 3D transitions.

The huge advantage is the support of 4K editing and export of video up to 60 frames per second.

However, removal of the watermark and full access to premium assets are possible only if you buy a premium version of the app (nearly 80% of the functions are available in a free version).

Verdict: Quik is a free mobile app by GoPro Company. The video editor allows importing the recorded material from the phone or directly from the camera as well as creating videos from scratch.

The app features automatic cropping and editing that greatly boosts the video editing process; for advanced users, the app offers manual settings to correct color, more than 20 presets as well as the possibility to manage up to 75 photos and video clips within one project and even combine this content and it is also suitable as a time-lapse editing app. Like Premiere Rush, Quik offers to choose a theme and your own soundtrack or to sync with your library in several clicks.

Before you save an edited video on your mobile or upload it to social networks, you may convert it into a 16:9 format, a square or a portrait, adjust the number of frames (30 or 60 fps) as well as indicate the quality ‒ 360, HD or Full HD.

Verdict: iMovie deserves the place on the list of the best video editing software featuring great tools for color gradation, speed settings, adding text and sound to your digital clips. It supports 4K video and is connected with iTunes and GarageBand. You may save videos on the iCloud Drive, transmit them to Apple TV via AirPlay, and work Apple Photos, Mail and Messages.

The tools comprise the customary cropping, combination, leveling, several great filters including X-Ray, Duo-Tone as well as some black and white and retro designs. There are not as many transitions as Premiere Rush offers but there are some funny ones, including page pilling, cube rotation and mosaic.

iMovie features tools to manage the equalizer, remove noise, increase voice volume as well as to reduce low and high frequencies. However, these changes can’t be performed in one mouse click.

Verdict: Clips is free video editing app with some advanced editing functions designed to create funny videos. For example, you may create a short story and improve it with artistic filters, music, Emoji, Star Wars stickers, animated text, etc. It can be also treated as a good free Instagram video maker if you need to paste clips together and edit your timeline.

This application is great if you want to give your video a bookish touch and edit the background. Besides, it features Live Titles. All you have to do is to record a video and Apple Clips will add captions that will be synchronized with your voice.

Verdict: Crystaliq. is a free program with prism and kaleidoscope lens effects. Filters available in the program are popular among photographers, video bloggers, and other creative users, who want to add unique touches to their visuals. If you are one of them, don’t miss a chance to embellish your images and videos with such effects and amaze followers on social networks.

The app comes with a range of predefined high-quality grids for duplicating, distorting, and rotating a model’s face or figure in both images and videos. However, the highlight of the application is the possibility to apply a "Kaleido effect", instead of using common filters.

Verdict: A free version of Videorama mobile editor is another camera app for iOS. When you launch the application for the first time, it asks you to choose one of three video orientations: album, portrait or square (in the future, you may change this parameter in the settings).

One of the advantages of this free video editing app is the unique possibility to download videos and photos from Pixabay platform for free. It also allows downloading video effects, sound effects and music in a copyright-free way.

Speaking about the editing toolset, you get such customary options as cropping, leveling, adding text, photos, music and filters. There are also four tools that allow choosing variants of clip editing, deleting, copying and adding various transition effects.

As for the disadvantages, the free version of the video editor adds a semi-transparent watermark in the corner of the frame.

Verdict: Cyberlink’s PowerDirector may be called an Android alternative to iMovie and Instasize. This video editor allows creating videos in 4K format, editing clips using temporary timelines and sharing them on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

The interface is user-friendly and you may easily edit scenes on a timeline, add transitions and titles. This free video app allows creating a video with a fast-forward or slow motion, regulate the speed, eliminate video shake and edit the background with the help of a green screen using the chromatic button. Cyberlink’s PowerDirector also boasts great effects, a photo collage maker; you can also add background music and voice-overs. The video editor contains more than 30 video effects, 40 transitions, 290 stickers, 15 title templates and 65 color filters.

The disadvantage and the reason why this video editor occupies only the 7th position on the list of the best video editing apps is the watermark that is placed over your finished work if you use a free version. Moreover, the limited import of Full HD (4K is for a paid version) is another minus.

Verdict: After opening a clip in Type Studio, you need to wait until the service automatically transcribes an audio track into text. There is no need to make any edits on the timeline.

In the web version, it’s possible to edit any clip by clicking on the transcribed text and editing it in the way you edit documents in Google Docs. Besides, some people use this free video editing app for subtitling their clips. Since this service transcribes text automatically, you can quickly add subtitles to your file in a few clicks.

Verdict: Magisto is the best free video editing app for beginners since it simplifies the footage editing process by using AI. The program includes all the necessary tools, namely, combining videos and photos; music and text overlay; adding effects and filters.

Thanks to the built-in artificial intelligence, Magisto analyses videos and chooses the most interesting fragments in three simple steps: firstly, you choose the video editing style (type of the story told), then, you select photos and clips and, finally, you choose your music from the Magisto built-in music library.

The disadvantage of the free version is the limited time (150 seconds) to create or edit any video. To remove this limitation, Magisto offers two types of subscriptions ‒ “Professional” and “Premium”. A professional version also includes additional styles and effects.

Verdict: The above-mentioned video editors are advanced and super functional (required some special skills), InShot supports video editing without modern collages and transitions. It is perfectly suitable for cutting, cropping or splitting long videos into short clips. The Blur tool also helps blur the background in your videos and pics.

As for the other functions of this video editor, you may speed up clips, add background, text, funny Emoji, film filters, such effects as Glitch, Stop Motion, Old TV, RGB, etc., adjust sound effects and the off-screen voice. It is basic settings but the advantage of this video editor is its simplicity. Therefore, we may call this app the best video app for basic tasks.

After editing you may export videos without quality loss as well as share them on Instagram, IGTV, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter and Tik Tok.

Verdict: Funimate is an app for video editing and live streaming. It is very popular among TikTok users. It is the best Android video editor to instantly create funny videos using more than 100 effects. You may combine them or create your own ones. You may even create short video-circles to interest your followers.

As for the functionality, Funimate offers tools to combine, level, crop, add text, smiles, figures, effects and transitions. Although its audio library is limited to songs of unknown singers, you may always use an audio file from your playlist.

Export possibilities are not so good (but I didn’t expect much, actually) and allow saving videos in 720, 30 fps on your mobile gadget or directly on YouTube or Instagram.