How to crop a video on iPhone, with and without iMovie

Videos are such a great way to preserve memories, but some social media — looking at you, Instagram — require that videos be certain sizes and lengths before uploading. Fortunately, there are simple ways to crop your video before sharing it. Here are a few tips that will let you crop a video and change the screen size to whatever dimensions you need.

Can you crop a video on iPhone?

Yes, you can use your iPhone to crop videos, but depending on your end goal, you may need to use a few different apps to make it happen. You can edit your video in the Photos app in iOS 13, but if you're still running an earlier version, you'll need iMovie. This native iOS app allows you to zoom in on a certain aspect of your video without changing the screen size.

Here are some instructions and tips for cropping and changing the aspect ratio/screen size of your iPhone videos.

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How to crop a video on iPhone with iMovie

There are many reasons you might want to crop your videos. Perhaps you want to zoom in on a particular aspect of the video, or you want to get rid of your thumb in the corner of the screen.

To crop a video on your iPhone, you’ll need iMovie, which is preinstalled on most iPhones. If for some reason your phone does not have iMovie, you can download it for free from the App Store.

Using this method will not change the size or aspect ratio of your video. It will simply zoom in on your video and perhaps crop unnecessary objects out of the frame.

Follow these instructions to use the crop/zoom feature in iMovie:

Open the iMovie app on your iPhone.
Go to Projects.
Tap on the large plus sign.
Select Movie.
Navigate to and select the video that you want to crop, and then tap Create Movie at the bottom of the screen.
Your screen will be divided into three sections. Tap on the timeline section in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
Tap on the small magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
You will now be able to use your thumb and forefinger to zoom in or out on your video.
To preview the video, press the play button.
When you’re happy with the results, tap Done in the top left corner.
Tap the square with an arrow icon to save your video to your Camera Roll.

How to crop a video for Instagram using Video Crop

If you’re shooting videos to share on Instagram, you’ll have to follow the platform’s size and aspect ratio guidelines. Currently, Instagram has set the following aspect ratio guidelines for uploading videos.

Instagram Feed

Videos added to your Instagram feed should be no longer than 60 seconds and can be square, portrait, or landscape. If you do choose portrait or landscape layout for your Instagram Feed, remember that your video will look cropped on your profile grid, but will play normally. The best aspect ratios for your Instagram Feed are:

Square – 1:1
Landscape – 1.91:1
Vertical/Portrait – 4:5

Instagram Stories and IGTV

Instagram Story videos are limited to 15 seconds, but longer videos can be uploaded in segments. IGTV videos can be longer, up to 10 minutes (60 minutes for some accounts). The current aspect ratio suggestions for Instagram Story videos and IGTV is 9:16.

If you want to quickly change your video’s aspect ratio to fit Instagram’s recommendations, you can use the Video Crop app, which also provides a suite of editing tools. Video Crop is free to download, with in-app purchases.

Here’s how to crop a video for Instagram using Video Crop:

Open the app.
Tap on the video you want to edit.
Tap Crop on the bottom menu bar.
Scroll through the aspect ratios at the bottom and choose the size you want.
You will now be able to watch your video through the cropped frame, so that you can move the frame if you need to.
Once you’re happy with the results, tap Done.
Tap the square with an arrow icon in the top left and tap Save.
Your edited video will be saved to your Camera Roll.

Cropping your video will also come in handy if you've recorded your iPhone's screen and want to crop out irrelevant parts to zoom in on the important stuff.

Ready to kick your iPhone videos up a notch? With some basic know-how and a few free editing apps, you can create stunning videos of any size and length to share with your followers on social media.