Inside iMovie: Getting started with video editing in iOS 27 and iPadOS 27

Take your first steps to becoming the next Mr Beast, or make your vacation recap more bearable to watch, by using iMovie. Here's how to get started using it on iPhone and iPad.

Video is a type of media that most of the world enjoys every day. It's a fantastic tool for sharing ideas and experiences with others, and in a way that can be much easier to digest than text or photographs alone.

Social Media has a massive appetite for video, with almost all platforms focusing on the medium. It's also something you must master if you want to get seen online in 2026.

You can get by with simply recording something with your iPhone's camera and uploading it to YouTube straight away. Likewise, there's nothing stopping you from talking to camera and shoving it on TikTok and immediately be viewed by others.

That said, you will almost certainly want to upload something that is a lot more polished than raw footage.

For social media, that can be as simple as cutting out the silences and filler words in your speech. Maybe you want to add graphics and filters to inform the viewer or to keep things visually entertaining.

It could even be as simple as splicing together a few clips to give an overview of something that's happened. Not everyone wants to watch a two-hour, slow-paced vacation video, when a snappy ten-minute summary could be so much better.

This is where iMovie comes in.

This article covers the iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 versions of iMovie. The app is also available for macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Why iMovie?

One of Apple's video editing tools, iMovie can be used to simply put together video clips and make edits to them. It's an editor that has been along for many years, and exists on Apple's main three productivity platforms: iPhone, iPad, and macOS.

It's not Apple's only video-based tool, as it also has the professional-focused Final Cut Pro. Aimed more at prosumers and those who want more control over their edits, it's a paid-for tool, both as a stand-alone app and as part of the Apple Creator Studio subscription.

Likewise, there's also the behemoth that is Adobe's Creative Cloud which includes Premiere Pro, another professional-grade tool used throughout the TV and movie industry.

By contrast, iMovie is more consumer-focused in how it works. You can do fancy edits if you want, but really it's at home if you only need the essential elements of a video editor.

Thanks to the rise of social media video, there are also many apps out there that can handle editing. However, you usually have to pay for those, possibly as part of a subscription, whereas iMovie is free.

Most social media apps also have tools for editing videos and to immediately post them to the platform. These are undoubtedly handy for quick posts, but only really if you're posting to just one social network.

Usually, you're penalized in some way for using one social media app's editing tool, saving a copy of the edited file, then uploading it to another. This is commonly through watermarks for the app used to edit the video, which other platforms don't want to appear in videos it hosts.

Using an editing tool like iMovie means you can create the video independently and without watermarks. You can then post the same video to multiple platforms without any penalty.

iMovie: Projects

When you open iMovie, the first thing you'll look at is Projects. It's the page that lists all of your currently in-progress edits, as well as allowing you to make a new one.

The bottom of the page has a panel offering to Start New Project, with three options (and a Final Cut Pro ad):

• Magic Movie: An automated editing option where you select your media from Photos and then leave it to iMovie to make an edit for you.
• Storyboard: A middle-ground option where you pick from a selection of premade templates. Insert clips into the template to make a video or movie trailer, without thinking too much about the edit process.
• Movie: The fully-manual option, where you piece together the edit.

If you don't want to make a new movie right now, you can swipe the Start New Project panel away.

Projects are displayed with a thumbnail, a title, and a description of whether it is a Magic Movie, a Storyboard, or a Movie project. If there's no existing project, you'll simply see "No Projects."

In the top-right corner, you can tap the triple-dot icon to bring up the Import Project interface. If you have an existing iMovie project elsewhere, such as iCloud, you can use this interface to import it locally to your device.

Existing Projects

If you have an existing project, tap it to see a preview page. This shows a watchable preview video, as well as the title, the date and duration, and an Edit button. You can tap the Edit button to open up the project for editing.

You can tap the title here to change the name of the project too.

The bottom of the page has three icons:

• The left icon is a full-screen preview of the project.
• The middle icon brings up sharing options.
• The right icon is the trash can, which you can use to delete the project.

Sharing

The Export and Share interface lets you pick from two main ways to share the project with others.

Save or Share Video will bring up the usual sharing interface, enabling things like sharing over AirDrop or in Messages to another person, or to other apps. There are also elements to copy a project, save an export of the video locally, and to add tags.

This is specifically for a compiled version of the video project, as in a video file, not the project itself.

At the top of the sharing page, below the title, you can tap Options to change elements about the project that you're trying to share. For example, the resolution or the frame rate.

This is handy, as you may not necessarily want to hand a 4K copy of your project to someone if you're using cellular data. Instead, sharing a lower-resolution version will be quicker and consume less of a cellular data allowance.

Be aware that the selected resolution may not get used, and a lower version may be employed instead. This is to ensure compatibility with sharing destinations that may not support your selected resolution.

The Export Project option is intended for sharing the project itself with others. This is useful if you want to hand the project over to someone else for them to work on it.

Again, selecting the option brings up the share sheet with a selection of app options and other actions.

iMovie: Magic Movie

Magic Movie is the simplest and quickest way to get a fully-formed video. That is, if you completely trust iMovie's automated approach.

It may not necessarily be a perfect video, but it's pretty good if you don't want to do any editing at all. If you want something with a bit of editing polish without doing any heavy lifting yourself, the end result is fine.

Selecting Magic Movie from Start new Project, you'll be brought to the Choose Your Media browser. This shows various sections of your Photos library for you to search through for content you want to include in the video.

Simply tap a section or album to enter it, and tap a video or image within that to select it. Be aware that the clips will be added to your Magic Movie in the order you tap them in, so start with your initial clip before moving on to later videos.

To make this process easier, you may want to create an album in Photos specifically for the Magic Movie, and add your preferred clips to that album. Then, in Magic Movie, you can select that album and have all of your selected clips in one place.

If you do this, you can also take advantage of the option to "Create Magic Movie From This Album" at the top of the album view. This will create the movie, using the chronological order of that album.

Once your clips are selected, tap Create Magic Movie. The app will then create the edited movie based on the clips on hand.

After the movie is made, you can then reorder the clips by dragging them up and down the list. If you want more clips, tap Add at the bottom right to record a new video or photo, select from the library again, or to add a clip with a title, if you want a title card.

Use Select to select multiple clips in the Magic Movie, which can then be duplicated or deleted.

At the top is a film reel icon, which opens a Styles menu. You can use it to add graphics or stylistic changes to a video quickly, simply by tapping a Style thumbnail.

At the bottom of the screen, there are more options for customizing the style. This can include adjusting the music, the font, and filters to the footage.

If you are finished making changes to the Magic Movie, tap Done to close the project. Alternatively, the Export and Share button in the top right can be used to share the project or the final edit with others.

iMovie: Storyboard

If you want something a bit more polished and are prepared to make more of an effort, but don't want the full editing experience, Storyboard is the option for you.

This option gives you premade templates on a variety of different subject areas or video types to start from. Topics range from specific subjects like "Gaming" and "Cooking" to broader concepts like "Top 5" or "Trip."

Select a Storyboard, followed by a style. Like with Magic Movie, you can customize the style at the bottom of the page.

You're then put into the editing screen, which gives you a list of placeholder clip suggestions that would usually work for that type of video. Each of the elements explain what the ideal type of clip you should use at that point should be like, though you don't necessarily need to adhere strictly to them.

Tap a thumbnail of a section to see options to Rename Clip or to replace it with a file from your Library, or to record a video there and then. The selected video or image will then replace the placeholder image.

As with Magic Movie, you can quickly move sections around by holding and dragging the element up and down the list. You can also move clips to other sections, or if you put it between two sections, you can create an entirely new section.

On a selected clip, tap the right arrow to go to the main iMovie editing interface, which gives you finer control over the footage.

This is a step towards the full editing process, but here it's handy simply to trim an imported clip to your liking, before tapping Back to return to the Storyboard.

More details on editing will be in the Movie and Editing section of this article, below.

If you find there are too many elements in your Storyboard, you can use Select at the bottom of the screen to select parts, then Delete. This is also where Duplicate lives, if you want to copy an element.

Once you have a Storyboard filled out to your liking, tap Done to save the project. You can also use the Sharing option again in the top-right corner.

iMovie: Movie and Editing

Movie is the main meat and potatoes of iMovie, if you want to create a project entirely from scratch. While the other project types do a lot of hand-holding for you, there's no such assistance here.

After selecting Movie, you can then add content you want to initially use from Photos. Select your clips and images, then tap Create Movie to be taken to the main edit screen.

The cog in the corner brings up Project Settings, which apply to the entire project, not just one clip. This includes a selection of themes, similar to Storyboards, as well as filters, and other toggles.

These include enabling a soundtrack for a selected theme, options to fade in from black or to fade out to black, and "Speed changes pitch." This last one means that iMovie will adjust the audio to match any adjusted frame rates, so slowed-down clips will have a lower pitch.

The upper section of the screen shows the preview for your currently-selected part of the project. Specifically where the playhead, the vertical white line bisecting a clip in the lower section, is located.

The lower section houses your currently-added clips, placed in a row. This is referred to as the Timeline.

The screen also includes buttons to add media, to navigate to the start of of the current or previous clip, and to play the current project. In iPadOS, you'll also see a button to show or hide the audio waveform for clips, and to record new video footage or a voiceover.

There's also a button to undo the last change you made. On iPhone, you can also shake the device to bring up Undo and Redo options.

Adding clips

The Plus icon in the corner is used to add more content to your project. Tap it to be given options for media to add, including videos and photos in the Photos app.

Select the video you want to add, then tap the Plus icon to add it to the Timeline. If you want to add just a clip, drag the yellow handles around the clip to select a smaller portion.

The clip will be inserted into your Timeline where the playhead is located. If your playhead is in the middle of another clip in the project, the inserted clip will be placed before or after the existing clip, depending on whether the playhead is closer to the start or end of the footage.

As well as media, there's a tab to be able to insert audio into the project. This includes a selection of pre-approved soundtracks, My Music to add your stored music, and Sound Effects.

On the iPhone, you'll find options in this section for adding a voiceover with the microphone or to record new footage with your device's camera. On iPad, this is available from the main project screen.

Navigating the Timeline

If you have a lot of clips that go beyond the width of the screen, or even one really long clip, you need to change the scale. A pinch-to-zoom gesture will let you zoom in and out, changing the scale of the Timeline.

You can simply scroll the timeline by swiping, scrubbing through the video quickly. But, if you want to move to the start or the end of the timeline, you can touch and hold the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Handling clips

If a clip is out of order on the Timeline, you can move it by touching and holding the clip until it pops off. You can then drag it to a new position on the Timeline before releasing it.

In cases where a clip is too short or too long, tap the clip to show yellow handles. If there is available footage before or after your currently collected clip in the source, you can drag those yellow handles to increase or shorten the clip length.

Be aware that you can only extend the length of a clip to match the source. That is, if you have a five second clip from a ten-second source video, you cannot extend past ten seconds because no more footage exists.

In cases where the clip is imported and it's upside down, tap it to see it in the preview pane. Using pinched fingers, touch the center of the preview pane, and rotate your wrist to rotate the clip in 90-degree intervals.

You can remove a clip from the Timeline by tapping it then Delete. You can also touch and hold the clip, pop it off the Timeline, then drag it away until you see smoke in the corner of the clip, then release it.

Editing options

Tap a clip to see edit options appear at the bottom of the screen. Selecting them will bring up more choices, which can affect the clip as a whole or applies just where the playhead is located.

The edit options are: Actions, Speed, Volume, Titles, and Filters.

Actions

Split, one of the three options under Actions, can cut a clip into two separate pieces. The cut occurs at the point of the playhead, and the two new clips act just like any other clip you import or change.

Detach Audio separates the video and audio elements of a clip. This can be used in a few ways, such as removing the audio from a clip to be replaced by something else, or for that audio to be used elsewhere in the project.

Duplicate, as the name implies, makes a copy of the current clip.

Speed

Speed is all about changing the playback of the current clip in different ways. It brings up a speed controller for the current clip, so you can speed it up or down with the slider.

The adjustment affects the entire yellow section of the clip.

Add allows you to make a second speed change to the same clip. For example, you may want the earlier parts of a clip to go fast, while a key moment runs in slow motion.

Freeze introduces a freeze frame at the position of the playhead, lasting for the selected portion of the clip.

Reset, understandably, reverts any speed changes made to the current clip.

Volume

Volume brings up a volume slider, letting you change how loud each clip is compared to others. This is handy if one clip is much louder or too quiet and really needs to match everything else in terms of loudness.

If you are working with detached audio, you can make other changes to the audio element. You can trim using handles on the ends, or if you tap Fade, you can introduce a fade to the audio.

Titles

Use Titles to add a stylized title to your selected clip. For example, the first clip could have a title saying what the entire project is about.

Tap the new text then Edit to change the words. Use the Aa font icon to change the font to another that's installed to the iPhone or iPad.

Use the colored dot to bring up a color picker for the text.

Lastly, use the three-dot icon to access more options, including style, text shadows, forcing uppercase text, adding a sound effect, and how long the graphic appears for.

Filters

While we have discussed filters before, they applied to the entire project. Filters here only applies to the currently selected clip.

As well as applying a filter by selecting it, a slider lets you change the intensity of it affecting the selected clip.

Transitions

While your project could easily survive with straight cuts between your clips, you could add more visual interest with transitions.

Tap the box between clips to show transition options. You get six options:

• None: A simple cut between clips.
• Theme: A transition based on the project theme. For example the Travel theme will wipe using a collection of travel documents.
• Dissolve: The two clips overlap, with one disappearing to show the second fading into view.
• Slide: The new clip slides in from the left of the screen.
• Wipe: A gradual reveal from left to right of the new clip on top of the old clip. While Slide moves the entire clip sideways, this transitions without any further movement.
• Fade: A simple fade to black, then from black to the next clip.

You also have options for how long each transition takes, between 0.5 seconds and 2 seconds. You can also turn sound effects for the transition off.

This guide covers a lot of the essential functionality of iMovie for basic edits, but it doesn't cover everything. You can do more with it, in various creative ways.

For example, you can layer multiple audio tracks, which can lead to a more interesting scene playing out. If you import photographs, you can gradually zoom in and out using a "Ken Burns effect."

You can get a surprising amount of editing done in iMovie, but advanced users may want to try using Final Cut Pro.