App for journalists: Google Photos, for editing social videos on the go

What is it? An app designed to allow users to store, edit and share their camera footage on their smartphone.

Devices: Android & iOS

Cost: Free

How is it of use to journalists?

Google Photos is known as a hub for photos and videos, allowing users to upload, search, organise and share content taken on any device. But one of the features is particulary useful to mobile journalists on the go – its ability to edit footage.

Once mobile journalists have synced images and video from their camera roll to Google Photos, they can get started with it's movie editor, to produce social content before they’re even back in the newsroom.

To get started with the app, you will need to log in with your Google account. Once you're in, you'll sync it to your content and it will display your camera roll's photos and videos.

Tap the Assistant tab at the bottom of the screen. You will see the 'Create new' section of the app, where you can make new collages, albums and animations, but you'll want to tap the 'Movie' option to start editing your videos.

Screenshots of user workflow within the Google Photots app

Scroll to select the content you'd like in your movie and tap 'Create' in the top-left corner.

You'll see your clips on top of each other in the editor, ranked in the order they will be played from top to bottom. You can rearrange these by tapping and dragging the files up and down.

The white handle bars next to each thumbnail allows you to control the length of time that each clip with play for. Drag these left and right to increase or decrease this. Preview the clip or the whole video in the main viewfinder at the top of the screen.

Add more media to the video by scrolling down and tapping the blue plus icon at the bottom.

Music can also be added to your video by tapping the music note under the main picture. You can choose from the music on your device, or from a range of royalty-free tunes. Backing tracks on individual videos can be removed if needed by tapping the three dots next to it.

Once you are happy and have watched the video back, you can click on the save button in the top right corner, which will export it to your 'Movies' album within the app.

Upload from there to social media, or send it back to your newsroom for futher editing, such as adding subtitles or brand material.

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