GoPro is a brand so closely associated with action cams that it's become synonymous with the product category. But hardware is just part of the GoPro story. The company also provides desktop and mobile editing software for its cameras, and a separate companion app to connect your action cam with a smartphone or tablet.
Today it's combining its two mobile apps—GoPro and Quik—into one, under the existing Quik banner. If you're currently using either, you're in for a new experience. GoPro app owners will enjoy edits and transfers from a single program, while Quik editors will benefit from added features, including cloud storage and wireless transfers.
GoPro as a Service
There's a caveat, of course. Previous editions of Quik were free, but the new edition will require payment to unlock all features. If you own a GoPro camera, the app's premium features are included with the company's subscription service.
If you don't have a GoPro, you can subscribe to Quik separately. It's priced at $1.99 per month, and enjoys a slight discount if you pay annually—$9.99. The GoPro subscription costs more, $49.99 per year, but also includes hardware discounts and expanded warranty coverage.
If you want to try things out before paying, that's an option too. You'll still be able to use the app fully—we get into its features below. How much media you can load is limited, and you'll run into a roadblock if you try and output footage that includes premium themes or music.
Build Your Mural
By offering Quik's features separately, GoPro offers support for video from pretty much any modern camera—at least any one that you can get to your phone or tablet. This isn't revolutionary, but properly reflects how creatives work today. A full kit may include an action cam, mirrorless ILC, drone, and a smartphone.
Quik can pull in any media you've got stored on your phone or tablet, and also sees everything you've got stored in your GoPro cloud storage. It stores your media on a main screen, the Mural. It's easy enough to add content if it's already on your device—you can even filter by media type, so you can search just for photos or just for videos, and everything is grouped by date.
As for how it's organized? That's up to you. Each entry on the Mural is an Event, and you can create as many as you'd like. Make an event for a memorable trip, another one for your pets or kids, and another for all of your snowboarding videos. The same clip or photo can live in multiple Events too.
The app creates a highlight video for each Event automatically, complete with royalty-free music and filters. If you want to take a bit more control, you can punch in and select a theme, pick a music track, and set a target for the finished video.
It's a decidedly more hands-off approach than what you'll get with desktop apps like Premiere Pro and Final Cut, but that's the point. If you want to craft the perfect YouTube video or highlight reel, you'll need to put the time in. Quik is for, well, a quicker workflow.
You can still take some level of control. Each video clip supports Highlight tags. I was disappointed by a rather boring edit of an admittedly humdrum dune buggy ride with a pure automatic edit. Adding tags made sure that a couple of shots I wanted got in the final edit. I also cut the length by about half—Quik defaults to a cut around two minutes.
You can dive in and rearrange, trim, or remove clips, browse themes and music choices, and set a target length. Edits can be as short as a minute (for Instagram). The app suggests good points to end on to match the music track. The app will apply filters and transitions on its own, but you can dive and play with those too, if you want to get that granular.
Getting footage out of the app is pretty easy too. You can export to your device's camera roll, or share to Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube right from the app. If you're in the Apple ecosystem AirDrop works too—the app sends 4K edits from my iPad straight to my MacBook.
Not everything is finished. I've been using a beta version of the app. It works well for the most part, but there's some waiting here and there when using it with the A12X processor iPad Pro. The app runs a lot faster on my older, slower iPhone 8 Plus, so there's likely some room for optimization.
You don't get support for GoPro Fusion footage yet either—you'll still need to convert it from 360-degrees to 16:9 with its companion app first. GoPro also plans to another feature down the road—cloud backup. Right now the photos and videos on your Mural live on your device only.
I Want My Two Dollars!
Quik is an easy sell if you're already signed on for the GoPro service—it's included, and its release adds it your toolkit.
For the rest of us, what does two bucks a month get you? If you're anything like me, you've got loads of video clips hanging out on your phone and other devices, shot with every intention of a basic edit and share. Cloud backup, with unlimited storage, adds some value. It's promised later this year, and will make sure you won't lose your memories if you lose your phone.
You can try it for yourself without paying. The app itself is a free download, and many of its features are available without the monthly fee. You won't get cloud backup when it comes, and the app won't let you save videos that include premium themes or music.