If you remember the far-off days of 2017, you may remember Apple launching its "Clips" app. This was essentially Apple's take on Snapchat stories, or Instagram reels. It gave users the ability to create short-form videos from video clips and images, while adding things like music and filters on top.
Well now, as far as Apple's concerned, the app is dead. Not only has the app been removed from Apple's App Store, new support documents have confirmed that it won't be getting any more updates. You can continue to use Clips if it's already installed on your devices for the time being. But any new users will be left out.
The app is only usable as a video creation tool, and doesn't have any kind of social feed to share your creations with. The idea is that you'd use Clips to make your videos and share them to a different app — perhaps one that doesn't already have a similar feature built in.
Considering most social apps built around these kinds of videos already have their own creation tools, it's no huge surprise that Clips hasn't been popular enough to sustain. Not that eight years is a particularly bad run. It outlived the likes of Google Stadia, after all.
It's not like Apple didn't put the effort in at first. Clips has had multiple updates over the years, adding support for different Apple features as they arrived. Clips gained support for Memoji, Animojis and even the LiDAR Scanner on the Pro models.
Sadly, in recent years, it seems like Apple was content with simply rolling out bug fixes when needed — and it feels like even Apple knew Clips' days were numbered. Let's just hope it doesn't make a comeback as a production line for AI slop. We have too many of those already.
How to save your Clips videos
Apple's support document has detailed instructions on Clips closure, and it sounds like it might not work on future versions of iOS (iOS 27 and beyond).
While that may not end up being the case, it's always a good idea to keep backups of the stuff you've made on your phone, just in case. Here's how to save your Clips videos, with the effects intact.
- Open the video you want to save in the Clips app
- Tape the Share button in the bottom right
- Tap options
- Tap video
- Select all your other options, including Aspect Ratio
- Tap Done
- Tap Save Video
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