QUIK / SPLICE by GOPRO

Arguably one of the most popular options out there is GoPro‘s slick offering, Splice. In addition, its brother app Quik is also a powerful tool made by GoPro, so we’ve included it here.

Quik is available for both Android and iOS platforms whereas Splice is iPhone / iPad only. It’s completely free.

Edit: New GoPro QuikStories app automatically edits highlights together. Check it.

Quik does what it says on the tin – it gives you a quick way of making an edit. It does this with various preset edit templates, including titles, transitions and music.

These options might not be for everyone but it’s impressive how powerful the app is – the titles especially look fantastic and immediately give your footage an air of quality.

With or without choosing a template, you can then adjust all elements of the edit to make sure the best parts of each clip are timed correctly. You can rotate clips and add preset colour filters (like in Instagram), change the speed of clips, and if you’re including stills in the edit there are some nice movements built in to the app.

You can add your own music too and the app will search each song for beats, then time the cuts accordingly. Turn off ‘Smart Cuts’ to have more control over clip timings.

In Splice, you also get all the necessary tools you need to put together a good little edit, but it’s slightly more advanced. The app does less things for you by default – there aren’t full edit templates – which might be more to the point if you’re just putting a few BMX clips in a timeline and exporting for Instagram. You can also add voiceovers in Splice, which might suit some people or just be good for a laugh.

As is the case with all these apps, you can share easily on multiple platforms or just save the file to your phone when you’re done.

ADOBE PREMIERE CLIP

Adobe Premiere Pro is one of the leading editing suites for professional video work on a computer, with the smartphone version Adobe Premiere Clip playing a decent supporting role.

To use this app, you’ll need to set up an Adobe account.

Without the fancy title work or gimmicks of apps like Quik and Viva Video, this one focuses purely on the quality of the edit.

It’s intuitive yet powerful – one of the best features is its ability to adjust exposure, highlights and shadows on each clip individually. You can use this to make sure the edit is consistent, or just for creative effect.

I actually found the preset filters to be quite useful, not as corny and over the top as some other apps. However, the transition options are limited: you can only choose between regular cuts or crossfades.

The simple controls and layout are easy to get to grips with. One thing I really liked was the waveform display on screen, showing you the audio for each clip. By looking for the loudest sound, this could be handy to spot something like the point where the grind starts, without scrolling through a long clip.

There is also a form of audio normalisation, useful for making sure riding clips from different sessions are the same volume.

If you are someone who’s into video editing using the full Adobe Premiere Pro, this app also lets you export the project to the main application or save to the Adobe Creative Cloud.

POWER DIRECTOR

Another very popular option is Power Director. This app has a layout more like traditional video software for a computer, and includes some of the same tools.

Although I found this app a little bit fiddly, I really liked it. You’ve got a lot of control over each clip. You’re able to adjust pretty much everything you might need to, see above.

To unlock all the options you’ll have to pay for the app, but to be honest the free version gives you all you need for short BMX edits.

This app is perhaps aimed at those who have more of a clear idea in their heads about how their clips will go together. The possibilities are pretty much endless and this app will let you explore every option! Impressive.

VIVA VIDEO

Viva Video is probably the most ‘fun’ app in this list. Slightly leaning towards the gimmicky side of things, it gives you more wacky transition and filter options, a range of pretty crazy themes, plus the ability to add stickers.

If you want fun transitions between clips, the ability to add sketches and stickers over the top, and that look of blurred out sides that’s become quite a signature of this app, Viva Video is the one for you.

Of course, you don’t have to use all the bright and colourful features of this app, you can just edit a normal video. But if that’s all you want to do, perhaps look at another app on this list.

Which app do you use?
Let us know in the comments.