How to Edit Videos in Android Phone?

Earlier people used to carry costly camera for shooting photography. Nowadays, smartphones make every one of us a photographer and video man. After taking a video in Android phone, many of us frequently want to share it with the friends. However, casual videos contain unnecessary portions which may affect the viewing experience. Do not worry, you can easily edit the video in Android with the free Google Photos app. In this article, we will explain how to edit videos in Android phone and make your video looks professional.

Why You Need to Edit Videos Before Sharing

Here are some of the reasons you should edit videos before sharing with someone:

• Most videos need minor editing like trimming before send only the exciting part of the video.
• There is also an unnecessary area around the video, and you may want to crop it before sending it.
• You like to enhance the visual display of the video before sending it.
• Is it the soundtrack you want to send and not the video?

You can do any of these tasks in Android 11 without professional skills.

Using Google Photos App

Google Photos is a wonderful app comes by default with most Android phone models. If you do not find on your phone, simply go to Google Play store and download the app for free. After that tap the “Photos” icon and open your video that you want to edit. First, play the video and you can view different options available at bottom of the screen when your video is running. Touch the “Edit” button to start editing your video.

We have explained this article using Android 11 and the steps shown below uses Google Pixel 3a. Since there are hundreds of Android phones available in the market, menus and features may differ depending on the manufacturer of your phone.  

1. Trimming Your Video

After clicking the “Edit” button on the touch screen, the editor screen will show all the available options at the bottom. The presently selected option is “Video.” The video timeline is given immediately below the video. There are two bars at the beginning and end of the timeline.

• Put your finger on each bar and move it right and left as per your requirements to encompass the desired part of the video.
• Play the video to confirm the duration.
• Move the sliders if required.
• There is a mute symbol on the left side below the timeline. Click it to remove the audio from the video.
• The icon next to the mute symbol is to stabilize the shaky video.
• “Export frame” will take a screenshot of the present scene of the video and save it.
• Touch on the “Save copy” button save the video if no further editing is required.

2. Crop and Resize Video

As we can see in this video that everything is happening within the small vertical square. The area outside the rectangle is a waste. We can cut out the outside space to improve the visibility. For that,

• Tap on the “Crop” button. The next screen will show all the controls to crop the video. You will see a rectangle around the footage along with anchors.
• Put your finger on any side of this rectangle and move it to the desired location.
• Now do it for all four sides.
• The result will be something like the image on the right. There are further controls at the bottom.
• The slider immediately below the seek bar is to rotate the video to your desired angle. Put your finger on it and move it right and left.
• The rectangular button below the rotating slider is to adjust the aspect ratio of the video.
• The icon in the middle (counterclockwise circular arrow) rotates the video at 90 degrees counterclockwise every time you tap on it.
• The button on the right with corner curves is the perspective crop tool. Tap it and then move the anchors at the four corners to the actual video area. Once you are satisfied, hit the “Done” button. This feature is also available in the picture editor. It is helpful to correct the pictures of the documents.
• Touch on the “Save copy” button to save the video if no further editing is required.

3. Adjust Brightness and Contrast

Slide the main menu of the editor to see the further options.  The next feature is “Adjust.” Tapping it will display its controls. You can slide the feature list to see all the features.

• The first control is “Brightness.” Once you touch it, it will display another slider to adjust the brightness of the video.
• If you want to increase or decrease the “Contrast” of the video, tap it and adjust it by moving the slider left or right. You can always see the effects in real-time.
• A variety of categorized features is available like “White point,” “Highlights,” “Shadows,” etc. Check them out and adjust them as needed.
• Hit the “Done” button at the bottom to exit the “Adjust” menu.
• Touch on the “Save copy” button save the video if no further editing is required.

4. Applying Filters to Your Video

The “Filters” menu provides a handful of filters to apply to the video.

• Slide the list of the filters.
• Tap your desired filter.
• Check the result.
• You can apply only one filter.
• If you are happy with the filter, keep it on.
• If you are not happy with the filter, tap another filter.
• Tap “None” to remove the filter.
• Click “Save copy” to save the copy of the video with all the editing.

Related: How to embed videos in WordPress site?

5. Add Markup on Video

The following menu, “Markup,” gives the ability to annotate the video or highlight a particular video area.

• Select the “Pen” tool to write or draw something on the video. Choose the appropriate color before drawing or writing something on the video.

• Click on the “Highlighter” tool to highlight a part of the video. Choose the appropriate color. Now move your finger on the part of the video to highlight it.

• You can move the slider on the seek bar to your desired frame of the video before markup.
• All the markup work will apply to the whole video. It is not possible to markup for a specific duration of the video.
• Suppose you are not happy with the work you have done on the video; press the “Clear” button in the bottom left of the screen. It will clear everything.
• There is an “Undo” button in the middle of the bottom. Use it to go back in steps.
• Once you are finished, tap the “Done” to go to the main menu.
• Touch on the “Save copy” button save the video if no further editing is required.

6. Additional Options

The last option in the main menu is “More.” Suppose you have installed a third-party video player. You can play your video using the third-party video player here.

• Tap on “More” to display the third-party video player if installed on your phone.
• Then tap on the video player in which you want to play the video.
• The program will ask you to save the changes or not. Choose the right option.
• Now, your video will start playing with the new video player.

Final Words

There are hundreds of free and premium video editing apps available in Google Play store. However, you can make use of the default Google Photos app to edit videos in Android phone. You can do all basic stuffs like trimming, cropping, applying filters and adding markup on video using this app without any additional tools.