Finding the Perfect Video Mashup Editing App: My Journey to Creating Seamless Social Media Content
Creating seamless video mashups for social media can be a daunting task, especially if you don't have the right tools. In my quest to find the perfect video mashup editing app, I tried a number of different options and discovered some valuable insights along the way. In this blog post, I'll share my journey and the tips I learned that can help you create eye-catching, engaging content that will stand out on any social media platform. Whether you're a social media manager, content creator, or just someone who wants to elevate their video editing skills, read on for my recommendations on the best video mashup editing apps out there.
Videos are the hottest content on social media and often, creative makers feel bogged down by the effort and time that go into creating video content. As a creative maker, I often have video clips of varying length that I need to mash up into one video. What I would like to do is choose my video clips, choose a song, then an app can mash them together into a video of appropriate length for social media platforms. And for tweaks, I can drag the video clip within each trim to select the portion I want, add some text with varied durations, and maybe some simple effects and stickers. Sounds like a simple ask, right? Apparently, not.
TikTok seems to have this type of content creation currently down to a close to perfect science. TikTok is owned by Bytedance Pte. Ltd, which also owns a video content editing app called, CapCut. I am searching for these types of features in an app outside of TikTok and CapCut. In this quest, I also look at the cost of the apps, how user friendly they are, and if there are any missing features that would make content creation easier for as a creative maker. My content usually includes work in progress / results content myself working on creative projects like sewing, crafts and art. I also sometimes have recaps from industry events, educational posts, and motivational posts.
Abstract
Instagram’s in-app editor is best for quick mash up reels utilizing multiple video clips given to the app. Filmora and Picsart work well at a good price for both app and desktop video editing and have templates for mashups. Picsart is higher in price, but includes some great AI integrations for overall media content editing. The free templates in Kinemaster are a bonus. For longer videos, I currently use Adobe Premier Rush and Adobe Premiere Pro.
Research
I began my research by searching the app store for video editing apps. Here I was able to see a list of the top rated and downloaded apps in this category. I was overwhelmed with how many apps of equal ratings and downloads were available. I started perusing the descriptions of the apps, and sometimes the reviews, to see if they could do the things I wanted an app to do. I downloaded three different apps to find that, while they were great apps, not even one could do what I was asking. Logically, I shifted my search to an internet search engine. The results included various review articles, many by outlets or authors I never heard of, claiming to list the top video editing apps. I started reading some of these articles and blogs to find that they all listed different apps and the information provided didn’t explain if the apps were capable of what I was looking for. I started searching the names of some of the listed app in the app store and found my self exhausted again.
I took a break from my search, but video content creating was still a big need. There had to be a way to find what I was searching for! I woke one morning and had the a-ha moment to ask ChatGPT. It gave me a list of five potential apps. I then asked it if any of those apps could take video clips, I give to it and automatically edit them to fit to music. Cheerily, ChatGPT narrowed it down to three apps with a brief summary of what they can do in regard to what I was searching for. So began my journey of researching these apps.
What I was looking for:
Can automatically edit multiple video clips into one video of specified length (I refer to this as a mashup)
Can sync clips to music or can add music to auto edited video mashup.
Can add text and/or stickers with specified durations.
Can add filters to the videos.
Can add transitions to the videos.
Is affordable or worth the cost.
Is this a better experience than what can be done to create on the social media platform apps?
Apps I trialed:
Social media platform video editors I trialed:
Instagram
Facebook
Meta Business Suite
Creator Studio from Facebook
Pinterest
LinkedIn
YouTube
Apps
Viva Video
Cost: 3-day free trial then $35.99 annually
Main features: Auto Cut and New Project
The Auto Cut feature allows you to select your aspect ratio, video length and a theme. You select which video clips you want to use, and it automatically generates a mashup to a specified length. The theme you choose offers additional choices or variations of the theme after the video mashup is created, which is a little confusing. Uploading the video clips only took a few seconds.
The New Project feature allows you to select video clips you want to use, choose aspect ratio, and edit in an editor.
Pros: Quick to generate from a theme with Auto Cut. New Project feature has “fit all” and “smart crop” features that can be applied to all video clips bringing them to the correct aspect ratio and finding the subject. Beats option to map out where videos can transition. After editing video clips to lengths, you like, you can add a theme that automatically adds music, video effects, and transitions. You can remove the music from that applied theme, but you cannot change any other effects (con). New Project export options include resolution, GIF, and frame rate.
Cons: It does not show which videos in your gallery are horizontal and vertical. It does not allow you to change aspects within a chosen theme like text, music, overlays, etc. Changing theme variations required additional seconds to render. The little preview doesn’t give me enough of an idea of what it will look like with my video. Auto Cut does not give you options on what the quality will be of your final render when saving the video to your phone. Doesn’t auto sync to beats.
Filmora
Cost: 3-day free trial then $24.99 annually. There is a desktop version available for $49.99 per year. It is unclear if this subscription crosses from mobile device to desktop.
Main features: New Project and Templates
The New Project feature allows you to select your video clips. At the time of selecting, you can enlarge each clip to trim, cult or split it before importing. You can choose music and auto generate, “marks,” which is the same as VivaVideo’s, “beats.” The Templates feature shows you a gallery of examples with different categories to skim through. Most seem to be focused on showcasing a person. There is a limit to how many clips you can add to a template, but there is no option to filter templates based on how many clips you want to add or the length of the video. You cannot edit the text or features after importing your video clips into the template unless you use a “demo” template.
Pros: Edit video clips in the app gallery prior to importing them. Marks videos you have already imported. Easy to drag sliders to trim each clip to marks (beats) indicators. Export options include resolution, frames per second, and smart HDR. Template demos are easy ways to create a tweaked video from a template.
Cons: It does not show which videos in your gallery are horizontal and vertical. You cannot import the same video clip twice (but you can split it prior to importing. Importing takes a while if you have long clips, so it’s better to edit them in the gallery as you import them. No auto scale or framing option for the video clips, you must edit each one individually. There is a limit to how many clips you can add to a template, but there is no option to filter templates based on how many clips you want to add or the length of the video. You cannot edit the features or crops applied to the clips after importing your video clips into the template.
KineMaster
Cost: no cost or 49.99 a year for premium (no watermark, unlimited premium assets)
Main features: Templates and Create
The Templates feature offers a search engine that results in user made video templates related to your search. It is like a social media platform that allows you to like user videos. You can tap a “mix” button that allows you to edit that user video as a template to replace with your own video clips. You can also change effects within the template. The Create feature allows you to choose an aspect ratio and advanced options like fit/fill of content and default duration of photos and transitions.
Pros: Quick and easy to replace videos/effects in Template mode. Easy to trim videos with sliders. This was the most difficult editor for me to use of all three apps. There are tons of templates to choose from. It is free!
Cons: It does not show which videos in your gallery are horizontal and vertical. The forced horizontal view mode of the editor isn’t very great. When selecting clips to import, it gives no indication of which clips have already been imported. There are no beats or marks options to add.
While these apps had a lot to offer, none had all the capabilities in a simple way that I was looking for. I do think that it is worth using the templates in KineMaster since the app is free and the Template feature seemed easy to use. If I had to choose between VivaVideo and Filmora, I’d say that Filmora had better template options and was less costly. Since none filled all my needs, I decided to take a closer look at what video editing capabilities and features are available in social media platform apps.
Social Media Built-in Editors
Cost: no cost
Main features: Reels and Grooves
The Reels feature allows you to select multiple video clips from a gallery. It offers suggested audio which will auto sync the video clips to the music. You can search and add different music. After selecting the music, you can edit the video clips individually using sliders. You can add transitions and reorder clips. You can add text, stickers and GIFs to the video and change their durations. You can download the video to your phone, but it will remove the music and audio if it is a creator account. Maybe it can keep the audio with a business account. The Grooves feature uses one video clip, breaks it into three clips, adds music, and adds a video effect of either bounce or smooth. If you have scaled your video clip to fit the frame, it will not appear to correct scale until after you have edited the music and effects. You can then add text, stickers, etc. like in Reels.
Pros: It does show which videos in your gallery are horizontal and vertical. It does auto sync video clips to chosen music.
Cons: When editing your video clips in reels, you cannot slide the video portion you want into the clip area, you must drag and drop sliders end to end like an accordion until you reach the part of your video clip you want to focus on. It takes a lot of time and is frustrating. The video effect only applies to the whole video and not to individual clips. Sometimes the save video function doesn’t work. Video download contains a watermark.
Cost: no cost
Main features: Reels
The Reels feature works mostly like Reels in Instagram.
Pros: It does show which videos in your gallery are horizontal and vertical. It does auto sync video clips to chosen music. You can download the video to your phone, and it keeps the music. So maybe you can download videos on reels with music if it is a business account instead of a creator account.
Cons: The gallery doesn’t show you which videos are horizontal or vertical. No duration options for text and stickers, they stay on the whole video.
Meta Business Suite
Cost: no cost
Main features: None for video creation
Creator Studio from Facebook
Cost: no cost
Main features: Reels
You can make reels with this app, but it ack many of the functions available through the Instagram and Facebook Reel makers.
Cost: no cost
Main features: Idea Pin
You can add multiple video clips into one video or as separate, “pages.” You can change aspect ratio, trim clips, add text, music, audio, stickers, draw on the video and add colors.
Pros: You can download your video with music and no watermarks.
Cons: No option to add transitions. No option to fade music track in and out. Downloading takes a while even for a short video.
Cost: no cost
Main features: Post
You can trim or record a video but there is no video editor to create mashups.
YouTube
Cost: no cost or cost optional
Main features: Shorts and Videos
The Shorts feature allows you to add video clips one by one while trimming them as you add them. You can add up to 60 seconds of video clips. Next you can add music, text, voiceovers, adjust volume, timeline (which lets you add text and the duration of it), and add a basic filter. Then you can upload the short. I do not see an option to download the short at all, even after it is posted. You can remix other shorts to use the sound, cut the video or to use as a green screen. The Videos feature doesn’t allow any editing options other than to edit it into a short.
Pros: Can use other shorts for some features for your short.
Cons: No option to download finished shorts. Features and effects are very basic. Cannot auto sync video clips to time duration or music.
Conclusion and Further Exploration
After trying these three apps and multiple social media platforms, it seems that using Instagram Reels is the best option to mashup a video from video clips. A bonus would be to use the free templates offered through KineMaster. The paid versions of VivaVideo and Filmora seem like a toss up to me, so I’d probably go with Filmora because of the lower price tag and better template options. I will add that when making a longer length video, my go to programs are Adobe Rush and Adobe Premiere Pro.
After writing this blog post, I made a series of reels with footage from an ATV ride out in the desert using Filmora on desktop. It was pretty quick and easy, but it did not autogenerate the reel from the various clips I used. I also downloaded a reel I made using Instagram’s built-in editor, and it removed the music- I used the Picsart app to add music to the downloaded reel so I could post it on other social platforms. I did not review the Picsart paid version in this blog post, but it has a video editor that lets you fill content, crop, split, delete, adjust speed, freeze, reverse, turn live on of photos, duplicate, cut, and adjust volumes. You can also add audio, adjust color, add effects, stickers, text, and automatic closed captions. To add a transition, you need to click on a box that is between video clips (this was a bit hard to find at first). This program is free, or you can get the gold version for about $60 annually. I like this app because of its AI integrations, templates, and ease of use. If Adobe could add the video editing to Express or make Rush more like these other video editing apps, I think they would be the winner, since I already have an Adobe subscription which includes the Adobe apps.
Let me know if you’ve had similar or different experiences with any of the apps mentioned in this blog. Also, if you have any additional options I should investigate. My needs were specific to the type of content I have been posting as a creative maker including how-tos, tutorials, educational and work in progress. You may have other needs to consider if you trial any of these apps. Subscribe to the blog, my newsletter, and follow me on social media for more content: @JessCraneDesign
