Apple retires the Clips app: the end of a consumer video editing tool launched in 2017
This marks the end of a small creative journey for Apple. The Clips app, launched in 2017 to allow easy creation of short videos with music, filters, and animated text, has been removed from the App Store.
Apple confirms on its support page that Clips will no longer receive updates and will be unavailable for download starting October 10, 2025.
Existing users can continue to use the app, but the company recommends backing up their videos directly in the Photos app to avoid any loss in case of future incompatibility with iOS.
A quiet ending for an app that, in its own way, represented Apple’s attempt to engage with the era of short and social content.
Apple Clips: A Project Born at the Dawn of the TikTok Era
Clips had everything to be appealing: a simple tool designed for editing short videos combining photos, music, voice, and visual effects, in a fun and social spirit. At that time, Apple was aiming to compete with the rise of Snapchat and TikTok, by providing a fluid editing experience integrated into iOS.
However, despite some innovations like voice-generated subtitles, animated filters, and augmented reality integration, the app never managed to find its audience.
Updates have become less frequent in recent years, indicating that Clips had ceased to be a priority for Cupertino.
A Strategic Decision: Streamlining the Apple Ecosystem
According to several sources cited by TechCrunch, this removal primarily marks a strategic reorientation. Apple aims to focus its efforts on its flagship tools — iMovie, Photos, and Final Cut Pro – while integrating more AI-based editing features into iOS and macOS.
“The discontinuation of Clips aligns with a strategy of simplifying and consolidating creative tools,” summarizes an analyst cited by TechCrunch. In other words, Apple is trimming the less profitable branches to concentrate on applications that provide more long-term value.
This strategy reflects a broader trend: Apple prefers integration over the proliferation of apps. Although experimental and popular among a niche audience, Clips no longer aligned with this philosophy.
A Market Lesson: Creativity Alone Is Not Enough
The withdrawal of Clips highlights the challenge, even for Apple, of establishing a presence in a market dominated by social content giants:
- TikTok, with its powerful recommendation engine,
- Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, which capture a significant share of global audiences.
- Clips, on the other hand, existed in a vacuum, lacking a distribution algorithm or direct connection to major social networks.
The result: an app appreciated for its simplicity but isolated in a saturated ecosystem.
Sentiments of nostalgia were expressed by users on X, who fondly recalled an app “great for quick edits” but recognized that it “never could compete with viral platforms.”
A Repositioning in Digital Creation
Apple is not leaving the video arena entirely. Advanced editing tools on iPhone and iPad have never been more powerful, and anticipated Apple Intelligence features for 2026 should offer automated editing capabilities (video summaries, smart cutting, subject detection, etc.).
Furthermore, the increasing success of Final Cut Pro on iPad indicates that the company is now focusing on providing more professional experiences, while Clips primarily targeted casual creators.
A Predictable But Telling Conclusion
The abandonment of Clips reflects a broader trend in tech: companies are streamlining their products, prioritizing quality over quantity. As AppleInsider reminds us, “apps that do not fit naturally into the Apple ecosystem tend to disappear.”
This decision is reminiscent of other discreet app closures by Apple over the years — such as Music Memos or iBooks Author — all replaced by features better integrated into iOS.
What’s Next?
While Clips is set to disappear, its legacy will likely live on in another form. Some of its features — including animated titles, dynamic filters, and smooth transitions — could reappear in the Photos app or in iMovie, enhanced by Apple Intelligence algorithms.
For creators, this shutdown leaves a void, but also an opportunity: for third-party developers to offer new lightweight editing apps that are better integrated into the Apple ecosystem.
