How To Edit GoPro Videos On Your Phone: Quick & Splice Apps

Sometimes you just want to edit your GoPro videos on the go, quick and dirty.

Well, maybe not that dirty, but you want to have them done fast.

Editing videos on your phone come in handy when you are traveling with a GoPro and you want to keep your friends and followers up to date on your adventures.

If you are looking for tips and tricks on how to edit your GoPro videos on your iPhone or Android device, you are in good hands.

Before we kick this one off, let me tell you that I am not a big fan of editing GoPro videos, or any other type of videos on a mobile device.

That’s probably because I’m so used to using a desktop workstation.

Just in case you are considering editing your GoPro recordings on a computer, here is a list of video editing software you can use.

Nevertheless, if you don’t want to do anything fancy, just cut the video, make it shorter and add some titles or basic transitions, maybe some filters you should be good with a mobile video editing app.

Oh, and did I tell you that we are editing videos for clients such as yourself?

Transferring files from GoPro to a phone

First thing first, you want to have your files copied from your GoPro to your mobile.

Micro SD transfer

There are a number of different ways to do it. For me, the easiest and quickest way is to simply take out the SD card from the GoPro and put on your phone. If you are using one which has a microSD slot that is.

For mobiles that do not have a microSD slot, such as the iPhone for example, you will need to use a microSD adapter that will connect to your phone’s port.

GoPro App (iOS & Android)

Another way of doing it is by using the GoPro App. I need to have the app installed on your phone.

From there on you will need to connect your GoPro to the GoPro app. Here’s how to do it, depending on what GoPro model you are using.

Obviously, if you have access to a computer you can copy your GoPro files to it, and from there on you can put them on Google Photos or Dropbox or just copy them to your phone directly.

GoPro video editing apps for your phone

Now that we got that out of the way let’s look at the apps you can use to editor your GoPro footage into awesome-looking videos using your mobile.

Please note that I have included just 2 apps on this list, both being owned by GoPro. So this is definitely not an exhaustive list of options, but it does contain the top video editing apps you can use at this point to edit your GoPro videos on a mobile device.

So if you are using another app and it works out great for you, tell me about it in the comments section and I’ll check it out.

Without further due, let’s get to it.

Beginner: Quick (Free, works with Android & iOS)

On the top of my list sits Quick which is a free app available both for Android devices and iPhone.

This app was acquired by GoPro in February 2016. It was actually named Replay before that and later on re-branded and re-named by GoPro.

 

So with Quick, you can transform your GoPro photos and clips into nicely edited videos and add any soundtrack of your choice underneath it.

 

The cool thing about the app is that it does most of the job for you. So it is really easy to use, that’s why it is best suited for a beginner who doesn’t really know that much about editing and doesn’t want to spend that much time editing a video.

So all you need to do really is to select the clips and photos you want to use, pick an editing style, and then Quick does the job for you. It sort of matches the transitions with the beat of the music which gives it a pretty nice flow.

Speaking of music, the app comes with its own music library – which is royalty-free I think. So you can use it even if you plan on uploading your videos to YouTube for example. But it also allows you to add your own music.

All the clips and photos you are using must be stored on your phone. So make sure you are transferring all that locally.

You have the option to trim your clips or the music, you can choose to mute certain clips or change the volume. You can also add text overlays on top of your videos, or titles.

So you can edit out stuff you don’t need and use only the parts of the video that you like. Which is most of what most people want to be able to do.

Quick will also allow you to edit and save your videos in that square format which works with Instagram. So that’s definitely a big plus since many of us are on Instagram a lot.

Speaking of saving the video, Quick gives you 2 options.

The first one is to simply save the project, without actually saving the edited video as a stand-alone video file. So with this option, you will be able to go back to Quick and make changes to your video editing project. Maybe you want to add more clips, and photos and change the music. Or make the whole video shorter or longer.

But you will not actually have the video file in the library of your phone. So you will not be able to play it outside of the Quick app.

The second option is to save both the project file and the video file. So it’s just like when you hit render or export on a computer video editing software. This way you will have the edited video file available on your phone, you can share it on social media or email it, or transfer it to your computer.

Speaking of that, GoPro came out with a desktop version of the app too. So you can use it on your computer as well. If you’re interested, I have a separate article about GoPro video editing software for your computer, which you can check out as well.

Here’s Meredith doing a little presentation of the app.

 

To sum it up, as the name suggests, Quick is an app for those who want to have a video put together fast, without doing too much work. And the app does just that.

 

The downside is that will sacrifice a little bit of the quality of the final video edit.

Don’t get me wrong your video will look decent but don’t expect to get something like this out of it.

 

 

Advanced: Splice (Free, iOS)

Moving on to the next mobile video editing app from GoPro, we have Splice. The app is free and it will work only with iPhones. So if you are on an Android you will have to either stick with Quick or get your hands on a different video editing app.

Splice steps up the mobile video editing game quite a bit. It allows you to really dive into the editing process much more. There’s nothing automated as we saw in Quick so you need to do it all manually. Yes, it will be more work and it will take more time. But you will be able to get more creative with it and your videos will look better in the end.

Right after you install the app you will see a little tutorial with walks you through what everything does.

 

After that, you will be able to import your locally stored clips and photos to your Splice project. From there on, after you’ve selected the clips you will be asked to pick the music. And here you have the option to either use the royalty free music that comes with the app. Or you can go to your iTunes and select a song from your own music.

 

Next, you’ll see a menu which lets you kind of select the general settings of the project like the format (portrait or landscape), default transitions (crossfade, swipe, etc.). You can also set the duration of the transitions, the duration of the photos as well as the option to add motion to photos by using the Ken Burns effect – which looks really cool by the way.

Once you are done with all that you get to the actual timeline of the Splice app, which will probably look disappointing at first, because, as I said above, it does nothing for you. You will simply see the raw video files you’ve imported and that’s it.

Unlike its little sister app Quick, it doesn’t attempt to put together a video montage automatically.

So next you will need to take each clip and cut it, trim it, you can add a variety of different filters to it as well as change the speed. So if you are into that slow-motion scenes, with Splice you can do that.

Just make sure the original footage was shot at a higher frame rate. You can slow-mo to 0.2x or speed up to 2x.

You can also add titles, text overlays, and credits at the end of your video. The fonts are looking awesome and you will have plenty to pick from.

A really cool feature which you don’t get to see on many video editing apps is the zoom and pan. Splice actually lets you do that.

When it comes to audio, Splice will let you add 2 different audio tracks on top of your clips. So you can use one of the track for the audio background and the second one for adding audio effects.

Furthermore, there’s a third audio track which you can use to record a voiceover using the microphone of your iPhone. So I would say that the audio part is quite advanced.

Lastly but not least you have the option to export your video edit using many different resolutions from 320p all the way up to 1080p.

Here’s Meredith at it again.

 

 

Conclusion

To wrap it up, GoPro does offer decent video editing solutions for your phone.

I’d suggest you try both Quick and Splice and see which one you like best.

But if you want to create video edits fast without hustling too much, Quick is the way to go.

If you want a bit more control over everything and you don’t mind spending more time editing, Splice would be a better choice.