Apple has pulled the plug on Clips, its bite-sized video editor for iPhone and iPad.
The app has been removed from the App Store and won’t get further updates, though anyone who already has it installed can keep using it for now.
Apple’s support page nudges people to save their Clips projects to Photos, a hint that future iOS updates could strand older edits. And there’s a small twist for nostalgia; you can still redownload Clips from your purchase history for a final spin – if you so wish.
So what do you do next?
If Clips is on your device, it stays put and can even be re-downloaded from your account’s purchase history.
New users, however, can’t download it anymore, and there won’t be feature updates or bug fixes going forward.
That’s a quiet end for an app that started in 2017 as a quick way to stitch clips, add captions, music and AR bits, then share straight to social feeds.
Apple’s guidance now is essentially: export your videos to the camera roll or another safe spot so nothing gets stranded by a future OS change.
Where to edit now
The obvious first stop for those wishing to quickly edit footage on an iPhone Air or other device is iMovie. It’s still free, familiar and good for tidy cuts, titles and simple projects, which mirrors how recent reviewers have framed it: easy to start, not built for heavy, multi-track work.
Clips was originally pitched as a quick, social-first editing rather than a mini version of a desktop editor. Together, those two pieces give a neat sense of the gap Clips leaves behind: iMovie covers basics, while short-form, creator-style tools are now mostly third-party territory.
Clips bows out, but the editing party carries on. Keep the simple trims in iMovie, then reach for a creator app when you want stickers, auto captions, and fast cuts.
