One of the many exciting things you can do with your iPhone that doesn’t necessarily involve installing a separate app is cropping videos.
Cropping videos is an incredibly important ability and doing it on your smartphone is especially important. Whether you’re trying to send a video that’s too large to another person, or you’re trying to fit it into TikTok or Instagram’s short video algorithms, this article will show you how to crop a video right on your iPhone.
(A Quick Note: By ‘cropping’, we mean two possible activities. It’s either shortening the length of the video or literally trimming the edges of the screen, so to speak, so that it looks smaller than the original.)
Alright folks, here’s how it’s done!
Cropping the Video Using the Built-In Photo App – Length
If your video is just too long or you’d like to remove some parts you’d rather not share with anyone else, these instructions are for you!
1) Open up the ‘Photos’ App
As you may already be aware, you don’t need an Internet connection in order to use the Photo App since it’s built into the phone itself. To start your cropping venture, open up the ‘Photos’ application and choose the video you want to work on.
2) Select the video you’d like to work with
A helpful hint here is to scroll down the Photos app and select ‘Videos.’ Then, simply tap on the video.
3) Tap on ‘Edit’ in the upper right-hand corner
Once you’ve chosen your video, tap on the edit option. You’ll see it sitting on the bar below, so you can’t possibly miss it. This will open up a yellowish frame with which you can manipulate the length of the footage.
4) Set the New Length of the Video
Now that the stage for cropping is set, so to speak, use the two arrows on either end of the yellow frame to cut it. The left one marks the end of the video, while the left one highlights its beginning.
5) Tap ‘Done’ and Save the New Video
When you finish editing your video, click on ‘Done’ to close the editor. As it starts closing, a pop-up will ask you whether you want to save the new video as a completely new file or just override the existing one. Choose the option that suits you better by tapping on it.
That’s it – all done!
Cropping the Video – The Screen Size
Perhaps the video length is perfect, but you’d like to straighten or crop the frame, you can on the newer versions of iOS.
To crop the screen size of your video, all you need to do is follow these steps:
1) Tap on the ‘Edit’ option
Following the same steps as above open the Photos App and tap on the video you’d like to fix. Then, tap ‘Edit’ in the upper right-hand corner.
2) Tap on the ‘Crop’ icon
At the bottom of the edit screen, you’ll see a cropping icon among others. Tap it.
3) Drag to size
Use your finger to drag the sides in and out or up and down.
When you’ve finished click ‘Done.’ The changes will automatically save to your Photos App.
Don’t forget, if you’ve made a mistake, go back to the edit screen and click ‘Revert’ in the bottom right-hand corner. This will revert the video back to its original settings.
Crop the Frame – The Old Method
If your phone is still running an older version of iOS you will need a third-party application to crop the frame size of your video. There are a plethora of applications on the App Store, but we’re using this one.
1) Open the ‘Video Crop’ App
To start editing your videos using this app (Assuming you already downloaded it.), open it up and then give it permission to access your Photos. (Even though it just says ‘Photos’, it would go without saying that videos are included in here, as well.)
2) Select the Video You Want to Edit
Once you’ve given the app access to your photos and videos, you’ll see all of your footage lined up neatly. Go through the lot and find the one you want to crop. Once you’ve found it, press the ‘Nike mark’ in the upper right corner to start working on it.
3) Drag the Grid About to Set the New Edges
As you will see, once you’ve chosen your video, a grid will appear, allowing you to reset the edges of the video. To do this, simply drag them about until you’re satisfied with the new configuration! (You can also set a new aspect ratio if you want.)
4) Download the Edited Video
Once you’ve completed all the finishing touches, download the video by pressing the ‘Download’ button in the upper right corner. (Where the check mark used to be.) You’ll have the option to either save the video to your iCloud Drive or directly to the Photos App!
As you can see, nothing too complicated- the whole process can be completed in under a minute, really. We hope you found this article helpful and wish you plenty of luck concocting a new, enhanced version of your videos!
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