INSHOT

INSHOT
Is a mobile photo and video editing app for iOS and
Android that’s feature-rich and lets you drill down
into all sorts of editing and enhancement options.
Getting Started with
the InShot App
The InShot app interface is
minimalist when starting out, and
the options are obvious.
Adding a Photo
Clicking the Photo option on the
main screen lets you upload an
image from your device. After
uploading a photo, you can leave it
in the default 1:1 orientation –
which may have blurring on either
side – or you can click the arrows
directly underneath the image on
the left to expand it to fill in the
space.
Adding a Video
You can only import a video to the InShot app; you can’t
actually film the video using the app. Once you select the
video from your device, you can trim it before fully
importing it by clicking the scissors icon, which brings you
to this page:
If you don’t want to trim it right now, click the green and white
check mark on the bottom-right. This is the page you’ll be
brought to: (IMAGE ON THE RIGHT)

If you scroll through the “Select one track to edit” section on the
bottom, you can choose the part of the video you want to edit. If
you skipped trimming as the first step, you can trim the video
here, too. Click the video slider on the bottom to bring up the
trim option (see screenshot below). Tapping again will give you
the option to zoom the timeline in and out, which means you can
include additional frames to edit.
The plus sign on the bottom-left lets you add a blank section, a
photo or another video. You may want to add a blank section to a
video to create a natural pause or add something like a sticker or
text to an otherwise blank canvas. Whatever you add will be
tacked on to your original upload, and you can move the edit
slider to those new sections. Long-press to swap the order of
your sections and rearrange your video.
InShot App Photo
and Video
Editing Features
The row of editing options along the
bottom opens up additional options
and menus. There are undo and redo
arrows, plus a play button so you can
run your video to see if you like the
changes you made.
Video Manipulation: Precut,
Duplicate, Speed and Delete
In the Precut menu, you can trim, cut or split your video. There’s
also a separate Split menu option that you can click on to create
a break in the video based on where you are in the video slider at
the bottom. When you create a split, you can then tap on a
transition icon in the slider to bring up a menu of different
transitions to apply.
The Duplicate option lets you duplicate sections of the video.
The Speed menu lets you slow down or speed up the video.
There’s also a Delete option that lets you remove sections of the
video based on where you are in the slider.
Canvas
The Canvas option gives you more
orientation options, including ones
specifically for Facebook and
Twitter. You can also zoom or
change the background. Background
options include different blur levels,
colors, gradients and patterns.
Filter
The Filter category has several
filters to choose from. You can also
click More at the end to buy
additional filter packs for $1.99.
There’s another way to get more
filters, too. Scroll all the way to the
end of the list of filters, then click
the wheel icon. By default, the
BASIC2 filter set will be turned off.
Click the eye icon to enable it.
When you go back to your list of
filters, you’ll notice several new
ones were added.
Adjust
From the Filter menu, you can click Adjust, or you can go back
to the main editing menu and choose Adjust from there. The
Adjust menu has the different types of photo editing you’re
probably familiar with, like contrast, warmth, saturation, grain,
etc. There’s also an option called Curves, which seems to put
white, red, green or blue tints in different areas of the photos
based on how you play with the points along each color in the
graph.
Retouch
This is the only option that requires you to use another app.
When you click Retouch, you’ll be directed to a page that
promotes the Peachy app, which lets you use retouch features in
the InShot app.
Effects
The next editing option is Effects. There are five effects
categories, and each category has a number of effects to choose
from. You’ll first apply an effect to one section of your video.
However, you can then use the slider at the bottom to pull the
effect to the left or right to automatically apply it to additional
sections. In the example below, I used a Glitch effect on the first
section and then expanded the slider to include more of the
video.
Glitch
In the Glitch category, you can do things like make the image or
video appear to have a glitch, add noise or give it an old school
snowy TV look.
Beats
The Beats category is for
adding motion, and it’s not
available for photos. You can
make your video do things like
flash and pulse.
Distort
Distort does things like flip or
mirror your content; give it a
fisheye, swirl or wave effect; or
make it look like a scan gone
wrong, like in the example.
Style
Style includes a few different
mosaic and blur effects, and it
also lets you turn your content
into one of three types of
sketches. The example on the
right has the Comic effect.
Celebrate
With Celebrate, you can put a
neon or flash overlay on your
media or add things like
bubbles, snow or fireworks. In
the example on the right, I have
the Interstellar effect on, which
added those thin lines of light.
Stickers
There are all sorts of stickers
and effects that you can add to
photos or that will sync with
your video. Some sticker packs
are free as long as you watch an
ad, while others cost between
99 cents and $2.99. Click the
shopping bag icon to visit the
store.
Text
In the Text section, you can add
text and change the color or
font. You can also import fonts
or purchase new ones. (Note
that these are the same options
as when you choose the Text
option in the Stickers menu.)
You can also manage which
fonts you do and don’t see.
When editing a video, there are a few extra text options. Once you
add text, additional options pop up. You’ll see color and font
options, the same as with a photo, but there’s a new three-dot effects
icon that opens more. There are all sorts of text animations here,
including:
Make the text fade.
Expand or retract the text.
Move it to the left, right, up or down.
Make the text bounce, tilt, bop around, rotate, spin, flip or pulse.
Music
There are a lot of options for adding music or sound
to your video:

Add or import sound effects.

Choose from their featured music.

Connect to iTunes.

Extract audio from a video.

Import your own music.

Record your own audio.

There’s also a shopping cart icon that lets you

search for a track in iTunes and then use it in your
video.
Volume
In the Volume menu, you can
change the volume for different
sections of the video. You can
extract audio, too.
Settings
At the end of the list is Settings, which only has two options.
You can set video resolution to 720p or 1080p. You can also
toggle on or off the option to make enhancements like
stickers or text sticky on your videos.
Photo Collage
The photo collage section is very easy to use. You’ll choose your photos from your device and select
the layout and border. If you click an individual picture, you can make basic changes, but you can’t
edit photos here. You’ll want to make sure the photos you add to the collage are already edited to your
liking. However, you can apply many of the same editing features to the full collage, if you want.
InShot App Pricing
The InShot app is free to download, and you can do quite a bit in the app without paying anything.
However, if you like the app and plan to use it a lot, you’ll probably want to upgrade at some point, or
at least spend a little money on the enhancement packs you’ll use over and over.

InShot Pro is the app’s premium version, and it doesn’t have any limits on the effects, filters, stickers
and transitions you can use. Plus, you won’t see the InShot watermark on your creations, and there
aren’t any ads to deal with, either. Pro has three price tiers: $3.99 per month; $14.99 per year, which
includes a three-day trial; or a one-time charge of $34.99 for lifetime access.

If you don’t want to spend that much or pay every month, you can spend just $2.99 to remove ads and
watermarks. However, you won’t get access to all of the tool’s features like you do with Pro.
InShot App Pros
Accessible Menus: A lot of menus include repeat sub-menus
and options, which is smart because there’s often more than
one scenario where you’d want access to a specific menu.
For example, you may want to access the font menu at
different stages of editing.

Affordable Cost: InShot is totally budget-friendly, even if

you go all-out for the one-time $34.99 purchase (which is
worth it if you’re going to use InShot as your go-to video
editor).
InShot App Cons
Limited Photo Editing: Compared to other, more professional photo editing apps (VSCO comes to
mind), InShot may not stack up. However, if you’re going to use your photos in your videos or
collages, it’s nice to have so many editing features in one app.

Confusing Video Manipulation: It can be a little difficult to figure out which frame or section of the
video you’re on in the slider, which is a pain when you want to do something like duplicate or delete
something.
No Stickers Search: There are a lot of stickers to choose from, and the theme categories aren’t
immediately obvious – plus, the icons are tiny. It would be much easier to find what you’re looking for
if there were a search function.

Lack of Support: There isn’t any guidance for how to use InShot, and it’s not an intuitive app – it
doesn’t have a walk-through guide when you use it for the first time or anything like that. That said, if
you’ve ever used photo or video editing apps, you can probably figure it out after spending some time
with it.