Video-editing app maker Fly Labs joins Google Photos team
Expect Google Photos to be a lot better over the coming months at least when it comes to video editing.
The basis for this expectation? Well, Google has just acquired a startup specializing in video-editing apps.
The acquisition has recently been announced by the startup in question, Fly Labs.
What Fly Labs has made
There are four video-editing apps in Fly Labs’ portfolio:
- Fly Video Editor – released in June 2014; offers easy controls for editing videos with various effects and enhancements.
- Crop on the Fly – released in November 2014; crops vertical videos into square or landscape aspect ratios.
- Clips Video Editor – released in December 2014; stitches clips together.
- Tempo Video Editor – released in March 2015; alters the speed of videos to create slow-motion and time-lapse movies.
Fly Labs joins Google
What Fly Labs can do for Google Photos
The Fly Labs team, which is originally based in New York, is moving to California to join the Google Photos team. “Google Photos is a home for your life’s memories, powered by Google’s machine learning and computer vision technology,” the startup says. “It’s a perfect match for what we built at Fly Labs, and we’re looking forward to folding our technology into Google Photos. We’ll be pouring the same passion into Google Photos that we poured into Clips, Fly, Tempo and Crop on the Fly.”
What’s next for Fly Labs’ apps
As a result of the acquisition (whose price is undisclosed), all of Fly Labs’ apps, which are said to have reached more than 3 million downloads on iOS in the last year and a half, have been made available for free with no in-app purchases. Note, though, that they’ll no longer be updated as they’re set to be removed from the App Store three months from now. So, better get Fly, Crop on the Fly, Clips, and Tempo while you can, so that you’ll still be able to use them even after they’re pulled from the App Store.
We here at AppAdvice are big fans of Fly Labs’ apps, as evidenced by our positive reviews. And while we’re a bit sad to see them go, we are nonetheless glad that the technology that made them such excellent video-editing apps would be built into Google Photos.
The acquisition indeed augurs well for Google Photos, which has already proved to be one of the eponymous Internet giant’s best products to date. Since its launch as a free app last May, Google Photos has been providing photo and video management with impressive features including automatic organization, visual search, and free unlimited storage.
