One card per tape
Each film's card shows its name, the date it was developed, and its running time, the same three things a VHS label used to carry. Tap it to watch.
VideoBro / Tape Cabinet
Where every finished film lives, and stays yours.
Finished films land here automatically, ready to watch, sort onto shelves you make, or share by link, no editing required.
What actually lands in the Cabinet
Every time a tape is developed, this is where it goes.
Cabinet or Active
The toggle at the top of Tapes switches between the ones you're still filming (Active) and the films that are finished (Cabinet). A tape lives in one or the other, never both.
Everyone gets their own copy
Whoever was on the tape when it was developed gets the film in their own Cabinet, not just whoever tapped Develop. Nobody has to forward it around.
A library, not a feed
A film watched once goes back to sitting in a camera roll. A film that's shelved somewhere gets watched again, next to the ones before it, labeled the way you'd label a spine.
Start a shelf for a person, a year, a team. Move each new film onto it as it's developed. Nothing here refreshes and nothing here is ranked. It's just yours, in order, for as long as you keep it.
A shelf doesn't scroll. It just gets fuller.
Shelves: yours to organize
A shelf is a named group inside the Cabinet. A film doesn't need to sit on one to exist there.
- New Shelf
- Give it a name from inside the Cabinet: a person, a place, a year. Making a shelf never changes a film itself.
- Move to Shelf
- Put a film on a shelf, or move it to a different one later. A film sits on one shelf at a time.
- Rename Shelf
- Change the name whenever it stops fitting. The films on it don't move.
- Delete Shelf
- Removes the shelf, not what's on it. Every film that was on it comes off and stays in the Cabinet, unshelved. Deleting a shelf never deletes a film.
Hide a shelf behind Face ID
Some shelves are for the whole family. Some aren't. Hide Shelf puts a lock on one: it shows a lock icon, ignores a tap, and only opens if you long-press it and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode.
Collapse it and it re-seals itself, so nobody browsing your Cabinet over your shoulder sees what's behind a locked shelf without unlocking it fresh. The lock syncs to your account, so it stays hidden on the web too, where you unlock it with a Cabinet passcode you choose there instead.
It's a privacy screen, not encryption: it stops someone picking up your phone from browsing in, it isn't a technical claim about the file itself.
What you can do with one film
Choose Thumbnail
Pick a frame straight from the film, or swap in a photo from your library. Better than whatever frame the app happened to land on.
Download to Camera Roll
Account holders can save a copy straight to their phone. A guest who was on the tape can still watch the film in their Cabinet, just not download it.
Delete
Removes your copy only. Other collaborators will still have access to theirs; the file itself is only gone once nobody holds a copy of it any more.
Continue Editing
Owner only, and only within 30 days of the film's develop time. It takes the film back out of the Cabinet, for every current member, so the tape can go back to Active and gather more clips. There's no undo, and it kills any share links to that film. A member who already left the tape before this keeps their own copy regardless. You'll Develop Changes when you're ready to make a film again.
Watching a film
Full screen, normal playback controls, plus the same hold-left-to-rewind and hold-right-to-fast-forward you'd use on an Active Tape, with a running timecode counter. No swiping between clips: a film is one thing now.
Share a film without anyone needing an account
Sending a family video shouldn't mean handing someone a login, or the whole internet.
Tap Share on any finished film and VideoBro makes one unlisted link for it. Nobody can find that film by searching or browsing; the link is the only way in. Send it however you'd send anything else.
- Whoever opens the link watches in any browser on any device, no app, no account.
- Pasted into Messages, the link shows a preview card with the film's cover and its name, so people know what they're tapping before they tap it.
- Stop Sharing kills the link immediately; anyone who still has it gets nothing.
- Share Again mints a new link if you want to send the film out fresh.
- Share Shelf gives you one link for a whole shelf's worth of films at once, not just one at a time.
- No feed, no discovery, no public profile. A film nobody has shared isn't findable by anyone.
Sharing and downloading are for people who are signed in. If you were on the tape only as a guest, invited without ever making an account, you can still watch your film in your own Cabinet, you just can't send it onward or save a copy yourself; ask whoever owns the tape to do that part.
Open somebody else's shared link inside the app instead of a browser and it doesn't just play, it bookmarks itself in a section called Shared with me, credited to whoever sent it. It's separate from your own tapes: nothing about their crew or their Cabinet becomes visible to you, only the film they shared. If they hit Stop Sharing, it disappears from your Shared with me too.
Your Cabinet on the web
Everything about the Cabinet also works from a computer, at watchvideobro.com, once you're signed in.
Sign in with a username and password, or with Sign in with Apple. From there, your web Cabinet works like the one on your phone: watch films, make and rename shelves, drag films between them, hide a shelf, share a film or a shelf by link, choose a thumbnail, download a film.
What it can't do is make one in the first place. Filming, adding clips and Develop all happen on the iPhone app; the web is where a finished film lives once it exists, not where a tape gets made.
A share link and a signed-in Cabinet are two different doors, worth telling apart. Someone with a share link is a visitor to one film. You, signed in at watchvideobro.com, are visiting your own Cabinet.
| Capability | Someone with your share link | You, signed in to your Cabinet |
|---|---|---|
| Watch the film | Yes | Yes |
| Browse your other tapes | No | Yes |
| Organize or hide shelves | No | Yes |
| Share or download the film | No | Yes |
| Film or add clips | No | No, iPhone only |
Your 2 GB, and your film
A film in your Cabinet counts against storage the same place it always did: the tape owner's 2 GB shelf, not a collaborator's. The one exception is a film the owner later clears out of their own Cabinet: if you still hold your copy, it moves onto your own 2 GB. Once a tape is developed, it usually stops charging for the raw footage that made it and starts charging for the finished film instead, normally a smaller number.
None of that changes what you keep. Your finished film is the thing VideoBro is built to keep.
- Owner's 2 GB, not yours. Joining someone's tape and watching the film in your own Cabinet costs you nothing, unless the owner later removes it and you kept your copy.
- Developing usually shrinks it. One finished film replaces a tape's worth of raw clips on the bill.
- 2 GB free. Paid plans with more room are coming; storage is the only thing they'll ever change.
- The full rules live at Storage. See what counts, what's protected, and what happens if your 2 GB fills up.
Questions people ask first
Do people need an account to watch a shared film?
No. Anyone with the link opens it in a browser on any device and watches it, no app, no account. Making a film shareable in the first place does take an account, though: sharing and downloading are for people who are signed in.
Can I share a whole shelf, not just one film?
Yes. Share Shelf gives you one link for every film on that shelf. There's still no way to share your entire Cabinet at once, only a shelf at a time.
Can I download a film?
If you're signed in, yes, from your phone or from the web Cabinet at watchvideobro.com. Someone watching your shared link can't download it; there's no download button on that page.
What does Hide Shelf actually protect?
It's a privacy screen, not encryption. A hidden shelf shows a lock icon and won't open on a tap; long-press it and confirm with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode. Collapse it again and it re-seals. On the web you set a Cabinet passcode instead.
Can I watch on my computer or TV?
On a computer, yes, in any browser, either from a shared link or signed in at watchvideobro.com. There's no VideoBro app for a TV.
What happens if I delete a film from my Cabinet?
It removes your copy only. Other collaborators who were on the tape still have access to theirs. The film itself is only gone once nobody holds a copy of it any more.
Keep exploring
FeatureDevelopWhat happens before a film ever reaches your Cabinet.
PlanStorage & the free plan2 GB free, what counts, who pays for a shared tape.
GuideHow VideoBro worksThe whole loop, from a new tape to a finished film.
Use it forFamilyEvery recital, every trip, sorted onto shelves you name yourself.
Use it forGrandparentsA film they can watch with no app and no login.
StoryThe screeningThe Cabinet holds the film; a screening is what finally gets it watched.