There is no doubt in this fact that videos have become a huge part of our life. Whether we need to learn a simple recipe or a complete coding tutorial, we prefer to watch a video of it. As per the research of Cisco, by the end of 2020, videos will have a share of 79% in the global internet traffic, while in 2015 it was 63%. Such huge popularity of videos laid the need for video editing apps for creating interactive and attracting videos.
In this article, we will discuss how to develop a video editing app, what would be the cost of developing it, and what the necessary features of it are. Let’s begin.
Video Apps Types
There is already a huge availability of video editing apps in the market for different solutions such as quick editing, adding animations, or other simple effects, or adding exemplary effects. You should know all the other categories of video apps. There are 5 different types of video apps. These are:
- Video recording application
- Video editing application
- Applications that can combine editing & recording
- Mobile or Desktop screen recording applications
- Both Screen recording & editing applications
Popular Video Editing Apps in the market
As we mentioned, there are already many video editing apps in the market and some are backed by giant tech companies such as Adobe. Hence, you have to compete with many established players in the market. So, you must know what are the features they are providing? How you can be better than them? What problems do they solve? Etc. Here we are considering four eminent video editing apps available in the market.
Adobe Premiere Rush
Adobe Premiere Rush is an all-in-one, cross-device video editing mobile application. You can highly powerful tools by which you can quickly create professional-looking videos. With this tool, you can also share the platform across the popular social media platforms, and across smartphones and tablets. It is available for Android smartphones, iOS iPhone, as well as for desktops. You can record the video as well as edit it. There are hundreds of animated graphics, titles, and overlays in the premium subscription features of the app.
Features:
- Add music and titles to videos
- Apply video effects to clips within a multitrack timeline
- Professional camera functionalities for capturing high-quality content
- Arrange video, audio, graphics, and photos by dragging and dropping.
- Upgrade to a premium subscription for advanced features
Present Rating: 4
No of Downloads: 1 million
App URLs: Android app, iOS app
Quik
Just a few taps on the Quik app, and you will get ready with an awesome video. This app was developed by GoPro team, and their primary goal was to promote their brand among the non-customers and bring more value to them. The users can choose photos and video clips, and in seconds it will automatically find animations, beautiful transitions, and syncs everything to the beat of the music. You can also add text & music to the story and share it with friends. The app is bundled with GoPro cameras for creating a powerful ecosystem to export videos to the app directly from GoPro cameras.
Features:
- Add up to 75 photos & video clips from Gallery, Albums, Google Photos, Dropbox etc.
- Availability of more than 23 themes with different graphics and transitions
- Speed up the video or play in Slow-motion
- Choose a cinema, square, or portrait formatting
Present Rating: 4
No of Downloads: 1 million
App URLs: Android app, iOS app
Splice
This is a highly professional application with exciting editing tools. The app is packed with all tools, you can add fonts, transitions, arranging video clips, adding different effects, and adding music. The users can sync this application with their iTunes account and can add music from iTunes.
Features:
- Added GPS stickers to show how fast you were doing things
- Automation activation of audio while detecting voice
- Choice of format such as cinema, square, or portrait
- Sequences acceleration and slowdown
Present Rating: 4
No of Downloads: 1 million
App URLs: Android app, iOS app
iMovie
iMovie is another video editing app similar to the other video editing apps. There are 14 available templates and 8 themes that you can add to videos and create Hollywood style trailers. You can also add fancy credit rolls, studio logos, customizable backgrounds, and many different effects for making videos unique. It also supports 4K resolution and can also fix shaky videos.
Research and Analysis
You need to make a lot of decisions for a video editing app development. For minimizing the risks, it is best to polish the idea properly. You also need to analyze your target audience, competitors and determine the strength & weaknesses of your competitors.
The idea to consider:
As there are so many apps already available in the market, you should have some uniqueness in your idea. No user is looking for another Quik or Splice, but something different whether it can be related to better user experience or an extra feature. Better to start with the research of your competitors and know what features they provide to the users, what they lack, etc.
Analyze your target audience
You should know for whom you are developing a mobile application and understand them. You should have complete knowledge of their interests and problems that they want to solve. Since we are developing a video editing app, the target audience can be of sports, travels, active hobbies, video blogging, etc. The video editing mobile application would be used by people who like to capture moments and share them on their social networks. You can also categorize your target audience as per these categories:
- Age
- Location
- Interests
- Income
This categorization will help for a precise analysis. You can also take the help of a question-answer portal like Quora to ask real users about the experience of using video editing apps and get opinions of what problems they are facing.
Jot down the features
For developing a video editing application, you must list down the features it should have. You can divide the features into MVP and Additional Features.
MVP
Minimum Viable Product or MVP simply means continuous development and constant improvement in the product. It plays a significant role in mobile application development. An MVP is a procedure in which initially the mobile app comes with essential features that are required to go live, and find out whether the user wants an updated and more sophisticated version of this app with additional features.
After getting the feedback from the users, you can decide what features you should add, what is not necessary, how to improve UI & UX, etc.
Get the complete consultation of developing an MVP of your idea.
Additional Features
Additional Features are not included in the MVP list. If you MVP got success then you can add these features for better user experience and an attractive user interface. There are some complex features in the app which are later on added when it gains popularity. If we take the example of a taxi booking application like Uber, then booking a cab, payment, GPS, etc. are essential or MVP features whereas features like scheduling ride, taxi pool, split fares, etc. are the additional features.
So before developing the video editing app you must distinguish between the MVP and additional features.
The must-have or MVP features of a video editing application are:
- Trimming & adding frames
- Merging of separate files into one (both photos & videos)
- Sound effects or music addition
- Social network sharing (main platforms like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram)
- Saving video
Initially launch the app with these features as an MVP. If it becomes a hit then you can add these additional features:
- Synchronization with different devices
- Storing files in the cloud
- Sequences acceleration and slowdown
- The option of Reverse video
- Picture-in-picture option
- AI editing assistance
Revenue Model of the App
After the development of the video editing app, the first thing will come in your mind to generate money. There are many different ways by which you would be able to make money through video editing apps such as in-app advertising, freemium model, subscription, and Paymium model. Let’s discuss these in detail.
In-app advertising
Whether it is a website, YouTube, TV commercials, newspapers, magazines, or the internet, advertising is everywhere. In fact, this is the most common way of making money. In your mobile apps too, you can incorporate apps to make money. E.g. VivaVideo, Magisto, and Cameo.
Freemium Model
As the name indicates, a Freemium model is the combination of two different models, these are “free” and “Premium”. In the freemium model, the app is free of cost. The users can download the app without paying any money but can access its premium features by paying an amount. E.g. InShot, PowerDirector, and FimoraGo
Subscription
The subscription model is slightly similar to the Freemium model. In both models, the app is free to download, however unlike in Freemium models where the features are paid, and users has to pay the complete amount in one time, in subscription they can subscribe for a time period to use premium features. E.g. KineMaster, Adobe Premiere Rush, and Videoshop.
Paymium
It is a very rare and different revenue model. Apps are paid to download and have in-app purchases at the same time. E.g. LumaFusion, FiLMiC Pro, and VideoGrade.
Technical requirements for developing a video editing app
It is not a cakewalk to develop a video editing application. Keep aside the differences in iOS & Android app development, there are many tech challenges that developers face. We will discuss both the Android app development challenges and iOS one.
Android App Development Challenges
Video rendering performance
It is the foremost issue in a video editing app development for Android smartphones. In Android, FFmpeg and Transcoder are the main video processing tools. FFmpeg comes with many options but slow speed while Transcode has exceptional speed but limited functionality. It is also quite complex to work with.
Undo/Redo Management
While developing such complex functionality, it is better to which actions can be canceled later. The main task is to collect all functions into a single mechanism that will combine all user actions and apply them to the video.
Filters
You can find many ready-made solutions to implement various kind of filters in the video editing app. But the problem arises when necessary filters aren’t present in the library.
iOS App Development Challenges
Images and video orientation
In iOS, managing the orientation of images and videos is quite difficult. They can turn over, especially if the development goes simultaneously with an Android version.
Merging of video with pictures
For merging videos with pictures or text, for correct ratios, developers have to work with pixels with preciseness.
Audio track correction
Adding audio to the video can be tricky. Managing scalable audio volume levels is the main headache in iOS video editing app development.
Time & Cost for Developing a Video Editing Mobile Application
There is a difference between “How to make a video editing app?” and “How much does it cost?” It takes time to develop a video editing app. There are many things involved such as Login & Sign-Up, My videos section, Adding photos or videos from the gallery, Trimming, adding frames, merging separate files into one for both photos and videos, filters, color correction, social networking sharing, etc.
As per our experience, it will take nearly 700 hours to develop a video editing application. The cost will depend upon the developers’ experience that you hire and other metrics. It can cost nearly $17,500.
Consult our team for getting a proper estimation and business consultation.
Why Amplework?
At Amplework Software, the best mobile application development company, we are having expert developers who are proficient in developing on-demand apps and video editing apps. Whether it is an android app, iOS, or web-based application, we are having expertise in all. Let us know your requirements and we will help you with every prospect of it.
