Insta360 app update aims to simplify 360 video editing

Insta360 has released a new update to its smartphone app to make editing 360 videos easier than ever.

The difficulty associated with editing 360 videos has always been a sticking point of the format. For professional users, the time needed to reframe footage and perform object tracking, or manual camera moves, is something that can be billed for. But, for casual users who struggle with editing basic action camera footage, editing 360 footage offers an added hurdle.

Today, Insta360 has released an update to its smartphone app that aims to change all that, with context capable AI edit generation. Yes, it's that AI acronym again! By now, it should be expected as par for the course. The USP here is that Insta360 claims that the app doesn't just identify people and objects within a scene, creating automatic object tracking, but it also understands the relationship between them to create a story. One example Insta360 gives is the interaction between a parent and child. The app can identify the fact that it is an interaction between a child and its parent, and understand from that how to create an edit based upon the shots it is given.

The app can also apparently choose what it thinks are the most interesting shots, moments and interactions, and create an edit from them. Additionally, if users want to add a stylised camera movement to proceedings, they can now do so simply by doing a simple reframing, selecting a start point, and then choosing a preset camera movement from a list of over 40 choices.

Now, we've been promised AI editing before from all different manufacturers of action cameras, so it's going to be interesting to see how this works in practice. I'm going to be taking a look at the software myself and will report back in due course. For now, users of all Insta360's current and previous 360 cameras, including the ONE RS with the 360 mod, can take advantage of the new software.

The Insta360 app update is free, and can be downloaded from your phone's app repository now.

tl;dr

•  Insta360 has released an update to its smartphone app to simplify 360 video editing.
• The update includes AI-powered features such as automatic object tracking and understanding relationships between objects to create a story.
• The app can select interesting shots, moments, and interactions to create an edit and offers over 40 preset camera movements.
• The update is available for all current and previous Insta360 360 cameras and is free to download.