How Instagram's upcoming video editor aims to surpass TikTok's CapCut

Meta’s Instagram is prepping the launch of its own video editor. In a Monday post, Instagram head Adam Mosseri revealed the details about Edits, a free app that offers a host of tools and settings to help creators spruce up their videos. Now available for preorder, the app is expected to launch for the iPhone on March 13 with an Android release coming soon after that.

Based on Mosseri’s description and the App Store page for Edits, you’ll be able to capture and edit clips as long as 10 minutes. From there, you can tweak the resolution, the frame rate, and the dynamic range to control the light and dark tones. Edits will also let you choose from a range of fonts, filters, stickers, and sound effects. Plus, you can add and customize your own captions and beef up the audio to mute any background noise and make the voices clearer.

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With a toolkit of special effects, Edits will tap into AI animation to liven up your images. You’ll also be able to change your background with green screens and add video overlays. Further, you can share your videos to Instagram in 1080p, export your videos with no watermark, and share them with other platforms.

After creating and sharing your videos, you can keep track of draft and finished versions in one place. To learn how your videos are performing, a dashboard will reveal the levels of engagement and tell you which elements prompted viewers to recommend your video. Using those insights, you can plan your next videos based on what your audience likes to see.

And there’s more, according to Mosseri.

“Edits is more than a video editing app; it’s a full suite of creative tools,” Mosseri said in his post. “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.”

The announcement of Edits comes at a dicey time for a similar video editor from TikTok known as CapCut. Yes, TikTok has been granted a last-minute reprieve to stay alive in the US. However, several of the ancillary mobile apps from its owner, China-based ByteDance, are still unavailable in the App Store and Google Play, including CapCut. That puts the spotlight on Edits as an alternative video editor, even though the app won’t officially debut until March.

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In response to a question on Threads about the timing of Edits as reported by The Verge, Mosseri said that the app has been in the works for months. Plus, it will likely turn out differently than CapCut.

“Edits will have a much broader range of creative tools,” Mosseri said. “Think a place to track all your ideas instead of templates. Think AI video editing tools on a per clip or per video basis. Think new insights on why your videos are succeeding or struggling.”