It's not an editing problem
Everybody means it when they say they'll send their videos over. Then the trip ends, or the wedding's a week gone, and the group chat has three "will do!" replies and zero attachments. This isn't flakiness. Asking someone to dig back through their camera roll, pick out the good parts and actually attach them is real work with no deadline, so it sinks to the bottom of the list and stays there.
"Send me your videos" is the request nobody gets around to.
The fix isn't a better reminder. It's asking at a different time, asking fewer people, and asking for something more specific than "send me your videos."
Ask before the event, not after
This is the single biggest lever, and it costs nothing to use. Ask after the event and you're asking for a favor: go back, find the footage, hand it over, with no reason to do it today rather than next month. Ask before the event and you're not asking for anything extra at all. Most people are already going to have their phone out. You're only asking them to point it at something a little more often, and to know where it's supposed to end up.
Send the invite a day or two ahead, while people are still packing or still texting about what time to show up. That's when it's easiest to say yes and easiest to actually mean it.
Recruit three or four, not everyone
A tape holds up to 8 people, including you, on every plan, but the number to aim for is usually lower than that. Invite the whole group and you get a lot of "sounds fun!" and very little footage, because filming was never going to be spread evenly no matter how many people say yes.
Pick three or four people you already know will actually hold the phone up: the one who's always filming anyway, the one who's excited about the tape idea, the one who's around for the parts you won't be. That's usually enough to cover a whole trip or a whole day, and it's a much shorter list to have to remind.
Actual wording, not advice about wording
Copy any of these. Swap in a name, a place, a date, and send it as it is.
A group trip
Before you leave: "Making a tape for the trip so we're not all texting clips around for a month after. Link's below, you don't even need an account to just film, have ARM on and shoot with your regular camera like you already do."
Day two: "If you got anything good yesterday it's probably already on the tape. If ARM wasn't on, Add Clips still pulls it in later, no rush."
A wedding
The week of, to the wedding party or the table: "Set up a tape for the wedding so we're not begging everyone for their phone videos in a month. Link below, no account needed to just film, if you're getting ready with us or you're at the reception, just have ARM on."
During, at the reception: "If you caught the first dance or anything at dinner, it's probably already on there. Phone dies before the toasts, no problem, add it tomorrow."
A bachelor or bachelorette weekend
Before the weekend: "Made a tape for the weekend instead of it living on six different phones. Link below, no account needed to join, ARM on, shoot normal, done."
Day two: "Whatever you got last night is probably already on there. Phone died before you hit ARM, doesn't matter, add it whenever, it still slots into the right spot."
A family weekend
Before everyone arrives: "Starting a tape for the weekend so nobody has to ask everyone to text their videos over again after. Link below, works on iPhone, no account needed to just film."
Saturday night: "If you filmed anything today it's probably already on the tape. Forgot to turn ARM on, no big deal, just add it before everyone heads out."
A kids' sports season
Start of season, to the team group chat: "Making one tape for the whole season instead of forty phones full of clips nobody ever looks at again. Link below. Whoever's at the game that week just has ARM on and films like normal."
Midseason: "We're at game six and it's mostly still me. If you're at practice or a game this week, ARM's free, takes nothing extra."
Say something more specific than "send me your videos"
An open request to a group chat sits there until everyone assumes somebody else will handle it. A concrete assignment gets done, because it has a name on it. Instead of "can everyone send me their videos," try: "You've got the drive down, I've got check in." Or for a wedding: "You're on getting ready, I've got the reception." Small, specific, and clearly somebody's job.
Hand out rough roles so one person doesn't shoot everything
Without it, filming defaults to whoever's already the one who films everything, and everyone else quietly stops bothering. Say it out loud instead: "Sam's got mornings, Priya's got the last night, nobody needs to film the whole thing." It doesn't need to be strict. It just needs to exist, so more than one phone actually comes out.
One reminder, not a campaign
A single nudge, sent at the right moment, works better than three spread across the week. Tie it to something that just happened rather than sending it cold: right after the toast, the morning after the first night, the day the season's half over. "If you got anything last night it's probably already on the tape" reads as a helpful note. The same line sent daily reads as nagging, and people tune it out.
What to do about the people who never will
Some people will not film anything, no matter how you ask, and it's rarely personal. Stop spending effort chasing them and let it go; three or four people who actually film is plenty for one tape. If one of them hands you a clip afterward some other way, AirDropped or texted over, it isn't lost: Add Clips pulls in any horizontal video already sitting on your phone, any date, and it lands on the tape at the moment it was actually recorded, not tacked onto the end.
Why "we're making a tape of this" works better than "send me your videos"
It changes what you're asking for. "Send me your videos" asks someone to do something later, on their own, with no deadline. "We're making a tape of this" asks them to point their phone at something they were already about to see, right now, while it's happening.
Joining a tape just takes an invite link. Nobody you invite has to make an account to film: they accept the link, shoot with their own iPhone's Camera app while ARM is on, and every horizontal clip lands on the shared tape by itself, in the order it was actually recorded. VideoBro doesn't have its own camera; it's watching the camera roll for what people were already going to shoot.
Two honest limits, worth knowing before you set one up. Starting a tape needs a free account, even though joining one doesn't. And filming needs an iPhone; friends on Android can still watch the finished film afterward, in any browser, once you send them the link.
- No account to join. Just the invite link, then film with the camera app already on the phone.
- Nothing to gather afterward. Clips are added automatically and upload in the background, already in recorded order, not sent in and stitched together by hand.
- Up to 8 people, including you. Rarely the real limit; a few reliable people usually is.
- The invite works for 7 days. Send it early enough that it's still live once the event starts.
If VideoBro isn't the right tool for this
Be honest about what your group actually wants. If everyone genuinely just wants a pile of raw files, not a finished film, a shared album is a better fit and there's less to explain: see how a shared album actually works.
And if the event has already happened and the problem now is gathering what people shot, that's a different question with a different answer than this page: see how to collect everyone's videos after a trip.
Questions people actually ask
How do I get my friends to actually send me their videos?
Stop asking them to send anything. Invite them to a shared tape before the event, and instead of collecting footage afterward, their clips go onto the tape on their own: the app uploads them in the background, waiting for a connection when there isn't one. Nobody has to remember to hand anything over, because there's nothing left to hand over.
Everyone says they will send their clips and nobody does. What do I do?
Ask before the event instead of after. Before, you're asking someone to point their phone at something they were already going to see. After, you're asking them to go back through their camera roll and pick clips out, which is real work, and it gets put off. Send the invite a day or two ahead, not the morning after.
What do I say to get people to film during a trip?
Something specific, not an open request. "Can everyone send me their videos" sits in a group chat until everyone assumes somebody else will handle it. "You've got the drive down, I've got check in" gets done, because it's a task with a name on it, not a favor for later.
How many people should I actually invite to film?
Three or four people you already know will really do it, not the whole group. A tape holds up to 8 people including you, on every plan, but filming was never going to be even across a bigger group anyway, so a few reliable people beats a long list of people who mean well.
What if someone never contributes anything, even after I ask?
Let it go. It happens on every trip. If they hand you a clip later some other way, AirDropped or texted, you can still add it yourself: Add Clips pulls in any horizontal video already sitting on your phone, any date, and it lands on the tape at the moment it was actually recorded.