Is Fly The Best iPhone App For Quick Video Editing?

Fly (Free) by Fly Labs is a fast and light video editor that will help you whip up a quick video that actually looks decent. For those occasions where you’ve been out for the day and have shot a few clips here and there, this app does a nice job at bringing all of those memories together into a short movie of up to five minutes. Although the conventional go-to video editor on the iPhone has been iMovie since its release with the iPhone 4, the first addition to iLife on iOS is very feature-full, to the point where it can be a little much in some cases. Is Fly the ideal alternative to Apple’s solution?

When you download the free Fly app, you can get started by importing videos, or by using the built-in capture mode. If you choose to use the in-house solution, you’ll notice that you are prompted to turn your device into landscape mode if you haven’t already. As my colleague Aldrin Calimlim mentioned, those suffering with vertical video syndrome will have to change their ways. Furthermore, any vertical videos imported from your Camera Roll will automatically be cropped after you’ve been warned.

After importing up to four videos, along with a song from your Music library if you’d like, you can get to editing. Tapping on the viewfinder will begin playing your video, and the neat thing about Fly is that the editing is actually done “on the fly.” In other words, you actually edit most of your overall video as each of them all play simultaneously. This includes swiping between videos to manually apply fading transitions, tapping with two fingers to enable a picture-in-picture setup, or trimming and rearranging clips.

The neatest feature in Fly is the multi-cam mode. If you’ve ever heard of Vyclone, you already know what this is about. Essentially, this feature allows users to pair up with friends around them who have the Fly app over Bluetooth in order to collaborate and shoot video from multiple angles at once. Pretty cool, right?

The only downside to Fly is that, although the app is free, there are in-app purchases required for unlocking most features. For $2.99 each, packs including ones that unlock gestures, audio and voice-over input, clip editing, and the multi-cam mode can rack up your bill in no time. However, there is also one $5.99 Fly Essentials pack that will unlock everything. I like the pricing, since it allows users to test basic functionality before actually paying for anything.

As a free download, and even with in-app purchases, Fly is worth however much you decide to pay for it. The unique “edit on the fly” concept, involving live editing, makes the overall process of finishing a quick video project fast and easy, and the intuitive user interface and gestures make the experience a pleasure. This makes Fly one of the best apps for quick video editing I’ve seen so far.

As a free download for iPhone, you can find Fly on the App Store here.