Questions people actually ask about VideoBro

Filming does. Watching a finished film doesn't: it opens in any browser on any device, no app and no account. If you're only ever going to watch, an iPhone doesn't matter at all.

Those are two different things, so take them separately. Anyone who's going to film needs VideoBro on an iPhone: that part isn't optional, because the app is what puts their clips on the tape. What they don't need is an account, since an invite link lets them join as a guest and film, add clips and watch the finished film without ever signing up. And anyone who only wants to watch the finished film needs neither: a shared film opens in any browser, on any device. Starting a tape, inviting other people, Developing it and sharing the film all need an account, so a guest films and watches but doesn't run the tape.

Eight, total, including the owner, on every plan, and it's never something you can pay to raise. If your group is bigger than that, either split into two tapes or put the eight people actually filming on the tape and send the finished film's link to everyone else, since watching it needs no account or invite at all.

Up to two hours of footage, on every plan. That's the whole tape, not a per-clip limit, and most groups never get close to it.

They can't film into a tape; that needs an iPhone. They can watch the finished film afterward from the share link on any device, Android included, with no app and no account. If most of your group is on Android, a shared cloud folder is honestly the better fit than a tape.

Yes. Everyone films on their own phone and it uploads on its own, so nobody has to be in the same room or even the same week. Everyone's clips go onto the same tape in the order they were recorded, not the order they were uploaded, and Develop turns that tape into one film everyone on it gets. That's really the point: a tape gathers footage without anyone physically handing a phone to anyone else.

Nothing. Every account gets 2 GB of free storage, about an hour of footage, and you can keep several tapes running at once.

No. It's closer to a shared camera than an editor: it gathers everyone's clips onto one tape in the order they were actually recorded, then Develop turns that into one film automatically. The only edits on offer are deleting a clip you don't want and trimming one. There's no editing timeline, filters, titles or music. If you want real editing control, reach for iMovie or CapCut instead.

No. There are five buttons along the bottom (Tapes, Active, New Tape, Collab, Develop), ARM at the top of the screen, and a + on the clip list for footage you already have. The first time you open a fresh tape, a short seven-card tour points at each one, and you can press it to try it. There are no settings to get wrong.

That's the point: nobody has to. Anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop and the film assembles itself, in the order everything was actually recorded. There's no editor role for someone to volunteer for, and no timeline for anyone to sit down with.

Yes. Tap + on the clip list to open Add Clips: it pulls in any horizontal video already sitting on your phone, from any date, and you can select several at once. It lands on the tape at the moment it was actually recorded, not tacked onto the end.

Because the finished film is one widescreen film, and a vertical clip doesn't cut cleanly into that without cropping or bars. ARM only picks up horizontal video while it's on, and Add Clips hides the vertical clips on your camera roll for the same reason.

If a developed tape sits idle for 30 days, with no clip added, removed, or trimmed and no re-develop, the raw clips behind it are cleared, after two warning emails first. The finished film is never touched by that cleanup: it stays exactly as it was made.

It depends on what you're actually trying to do: gather footage as a group, or turn footage you already have into something watchable. The comparison across shared albums, group chats, editing apps and shared tapes is on the collaborative video apps page.

For plenty of groups, yes, especially if nobody minds pulling the clips back out and editing them afterward. Where it falls short, and where a shared tape does more, is on the shared album page.

One person works fine. You don't need anyone else on the tape: film with ARM, add existing clips with +, and tap Develop whenever you want a film out of it. Groups just mean more phones adding to the same tape; the mechanics are identical either way.

Yes, automatically. Every clip is sorted by the time it was actually recorded, not by who uploaded first, so clips from different phones fall into one timeline on their own. There's no drag-to-reorder because there's nothing left to arrange by hand.

Start a shared tape before the trip and invite the friends who are actually coming, up to eight people total including you. Each person taps ARM and films with the iPhone Camera app they already have, and every horizontal clip they shoot goes onto the tape on its own, uploading in the background. See the full walkthrough on the trips page.

Collecting is the hard part, not putting them together afterward. If your group is a mix of iPhone and Android, a shared cloud folder is the honest answer: everyone drops their clips in and nobody needs an account for it. A VideoBro tape still works even after the trip's over: invite everyone to add their own clips with +, or AirDrop the group's footage to yourself first and add it all from your phone, since each clip lands where it belongs by recording time. See five ways to collect a trip's footage for the full comparison.

Put everyone on one shared tape, have each person turn ARM on and film separately on their own phone, then have anyone on the tape with an account tap Develop when you're done. It comes back as a single widescreen film with everyone's clips in the order they were actually recorded, not a folder somebody still has to edit by hand. Eight people fit on a tape, including the owner.

A shared tape is that one place: everyone films into it with their own phone, and the clips sit together in the order they were recorded rather than spread across separate camera rolls. Nothing gets deleted because storage runs low, new uploads are simply paused until there's room. See what actually counts against the free 2 GB on the storage page.

Send them the tape's invite link, which stays live for seven days. They'll need VideoBro on an iPhone to film, but not an account: joining from the link makes them a guest, so they can film, add clips already on their phone, and watch the finished film without ever signing up. Starting a tape, inviting other people, developing it and sharing the film all need an account. More on how the crew works is on the shared tapes page.

Start the tape before you leave, film into it all weekend, then have anyone on the tape with an account tap Develop. It runs in the cloud and takes real minutes to produce one widescreen film, which lands in the Tape Cabinet of everyone who was on the tape at that point.

Ask before the trip, not during it, and make it a two-second habit rather than a favor: turn ARM on before you leave and let it run. What actually gets people filming, with message wording you can copy, is on the getting people to contribute page.

The same shared tape works for an ordinary stretch of family life as it does for a single event: everyone turns ARM on and films with their own phone, and the clips assemble themselves in the order they happened. A family tape can run for weeks with no rush to develop it. See how families actually use it on the family page.

Start the tape before the wedding day and invite the people you actually want filming, the wedding party, a parent, the friend who's always got a phone out. Whoever films needs VideoBro on an iPhone, but not an account of their own: the invite link is enough. Eight people fit on a tape total including you, and everyone else can watch the finished film from a link. The full setup is on the weddings page.

Start a tape and send the invite link to the people you want filming; each of them taps ARM and shoots on their own phone, and their clips go onto the tape on their own, uploading in the background. Each of them needs VideoBro on an iPhone, but not an account: the invite link is enough. Starting the tape, inviting people, Developing it and sharing the film all need an account; a guest films and watches. More on running a party tape is on the parties page.

One ongoing tape works better than a separate project for every event: film ordinary days into it whenever something's worth catching, and Develop it whenever you want a film out of what's there. You can keep several tapes running at once, so a fresh one for a new season is one tap away. There's a longer piece on filming a year of a kid without turning it into a project.

The same shared tape works well here: invite the wedding party before the weekend, let everyone film on their own phone, and nobody has to volunteer as the designated videographer. What that actually looks like is on the bachelor and bachelorette page.

Yes. A tape stays Active with no deadline until you Develop it, so you can start one at the first game and keep adding clips every time something happens, for a season, a school year, or any stretch longer than one day. Whoever's there films with ARM, and anyone who missed a day adds clips afterward with +. When it's done, anyone on the tape with an account taps Develop and gets back one film with everything in the order it happened. A tape holds up to 2 hours of footage, so a long stretch may take two or three tapes; start the next one when the first is full.

It depends what you want at the end. There's a longer breakdown to help you decide what you want at the end, but the short version: if you just want it off your phone, back it up to iCloud or a cloud folder and stop there; if you want to actually watch it as something, start a tape, use + to pull in the horizontal clips you already have, film anything new with ARM, and tap Develop. It comes back as one film with everything in the order it was recorded, not a folder you still have to sort through.

Put them on one VideoBro tape: Add Clips pulls in the horizontal videos already on your phone from any date, several at once, and each one lands at the moment it was actually recorded, so the week rebuilds itself in order without you sorting anything. Tap Develop and it comes back as one film. If friends filmed too, invite them to the same tape and their clips slot into the same order; if you want music, titles and cuts, use an editor like iMovie or CapCut instead.

Get the clips onto one shared tape and tap Develop; anyone on the tape with an account can do it. It produces one widescreen film with every clip in the order it was actually recorded, with no manual sorting required. What Develop does exactly is on the develop page.

The editing on offer is deliberately small: swipe to delete a clip you don't want, press and hold to trim one, and that's the whole toolset, no filters, titles, music or transitions to fuss over. Develop does the assembly for you and hands back one finished film. See it laid out on the no-editing page.

Ordinary footage reads as ordinary in isolation, but a developed tape puts it back next to the rest of the day, in order. It isn't a highlight reel, it's closer to the whole stretch of time as it happened, trims aside. See what's worth pointing the camera at in the first place on the what-to-film page.

Yes, when you watch it. VHS mode, under Playback in your Profile, plays any tape or finished film through a 4:3 analog picture: soft, a little colour bleed, grain, a VCR counter in the corner. It is off by default, it never changes the film file, and the same switch is on the browser player. The full description is on the VHS mode page.

A finished film shares as one unlisted link, not a public post: nobody finds it by searching or browsing. Anyone who has the link can watch, so send it only where you mean to, and tap Stop Sharing on the film to kill the link the moment you want it gone. More on how sharing stays private is on the privacy page.

Tapes are invite-only from the start: there's no feed and no public profile, so the only people who ever see a tape are the ones you send the invite link to. The finished film stays just as private, shared only by the link you choose to send out.

Yes. A VideoBro film shares as a private link that opens in any browser on any device, with no app and no account needed to watch it, and nothing about it gets posted anywhere public. You choose exactly who gets the link, and Stop Sharing turns it off whenever you want.

Send the finished film's link directly to them; it opens in any browser on any device, including Android or a laptop, with no app to install and no account to make. A shelf in the Tape Cabinet can also be hidden behind Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode, which is a privacy screen, not encryption. More on filming with grandparents is on the grandparents page.

Film more than the planned moments: the drive there, someone cooking, the slow middle of the afternoon, not only the toast or the group photo. A tape holds all of it in the order it happened, so what comes back reads closer to the actual weekend than a highlight reel would.

Keep ARM on and film the ordinary stretches too, not only the moments you already know you'll want later, since the in-between parts tend to fade fastest from memory. A shared tape holds all of it, filmed by everyone on the trip, without anyone deciding in the moment what counts as worth keeping. Ideas for what to actually point the camera at are on the what-to-film page.

Film continuously rather than only for the planned events: the walk to the car, someone mid task, the quiet ten minutes nobody plans to record. Those are usually the clips that matter most once the tape actually gets watched back.

Skip performing for the camera: film what's actually happening instead of staging a shot for an audience. There's no feed and nothing is public by default, so there's no audience to shoot for in the first place. A short history of why we think about it this way is on the camcorder page.