Creating movies with iMovie for iOS

By Esha Mehta, 29 January, 2019

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hello all.

I need some help with using iMovie on ios with VoiceOver. I’m specifically having major issues with cutting in the middle of a video and creating an intro.

Are there any guides out there to help with using VO with iMovie on ios? I refuse to think basic video editing is not accessible if your blind, but I’m also very stubborn.

Thanks!!

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Comments

By Unregistered User (not verified) on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 - 10:12

If you're trying to cut in the middle of a video, then that section of the app is not accessible with voiceover on the iPhone. What you might want to try to do is to trim your videos from the camera roll first, then import them into your project. And when it comes to creating your intro, best to do that part separately, and then put everything together with iMovie.
I recently started a series on getting started with iMovie on the iPhone. Check out the playlist here, and more will be coming soon.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRBjoeUgOAvNNP-dvz3uGn6kf3YYoHEkG

By Earth on Friday, May 28, 2021 - 20:44

I use iMovie to edit my video and put them on YouTube. I would advice you to make the intro and main video separately. to split the video, you can do that by the split option. it is possible with a bit of patient.

By Justin_B on Tuesday, July 8, 2025 - 22:46

Is there not one cohesive post or thread on this platform that tells us how to use iMovie with voiceover? I’m hearing some people saying the app is not fully accessible, others saying they are able to split and edit video in the app, someone sharing a YouTube link years ago that apparently doesn’t work anymore, and everything in between. Can somebody please just point me to a definitive resource on this?

By Winter Roses on Wednesday, July 9, 2025 - 01:08

Let's say you have several audio clips that you want to put together without any noticeable gaps. If you trim the original content of these clips precisely before combining them, iMovie can help you with that. However, if you have a song that's four minutes long and you want to stretch a single picture over the entire duration of that audio track, this specific task isn't accessible within iMovie. You can add a few sound effects from iMovie's library, but you need to be very precise with the timing. You would also have to manually adjust the audio level for that sound effect. Unfortunately, iMovie doesn't offer a wide variety of music or sound effects.
You can speed up and slow down clips, and you can also split the audio from a video. Supposedly, you can add some animated effects like the Ken Burns effect, but honestly, I’ve never gotten that part to work properly. My best advice, especially when it comes to even basic video editing, is to patiently work on each part separately and then import all the final pieces into iMovie. If you’re working with multiple clips, be careful to remove any default transitions from the project if you don’t want them—otherwise, it’s going to be pretty choppy. Apple is not known for updating their apps, and I’ve reached out to their accessibility team multiple times over the years, even sending screen recordings, but nothing has changed. If someone else wants to take on that challenge, I wish them the best of luck.
iMovie paired with the Clips app is kind of like having a fun effects playground — think Snapchat-style filters and animated title cards. Clips lets you add animated titles, do speech-to-text subtitles (though you’ll still need to tweak punctuation), stickers, and background music similar to iMovie’s. They also have a few virtual backgrounds, I guess, like a forest, or a jungle. Some people say it makes the video look weird, so you might want to be careful when playing around with that aspect. If you’re working with multiple parts for a project, my favorite tip is to favorite those clips before you start. That way, they’re easier to find on your screen instead of scrolling endlessly through your camera roll, because iMovie doesn’t show file names—it sorts by date and time. So keeping track of your clips can get tricky otherwise.
I don't understand why Apple keeps the "Clips" and "iMovie" apps separate. Honestly, it's ridiculous to have them as different applications when neither of them can fully do what you need. If you're trying to trim a video directly within the iMovie app, it won't work effectively. My recommendation is to try and trim your videos in your camera roll first, and then export them into iMovie separately. You can combine video clips into one project in iMovie. You can also place two projects of the same length over each other, or side-by-side. If you're trying to achieve a picture-in-picture effect (one video on top of another) or a split-screen comparison (one video on the left and one on the right), you might be able to do that. However, if you are totally blind and cannot see the screen, accomplishing these tasks will be quite challenging.
So, if I want to extend a picture over an audio track, I generally import the photo into the "Clips" app, stretch the picture over the duration of the audio there, and then bring it into iMovie. The problem with this method is that the picture (which becomes a video after importing into Clips) and the audio more or less have to be the same length in Clips, otherwise, it won't work smoothly. It's very difficult to do precise, fine-tuned edits. For example, if I'm talking about my dog, Toby, and I want a picture of Toby to appear exactly when I say, "Hey guys, this is my dog, Toby," it's hard to insert that picture directly into the iMovie project at that precise moment. The only way this might work is if I paused my speech for a couple of seconds, perhaps added a little background music, and then insert the picture during that pause. It's hard to avoid leaving extra spacing where you don't want it. Trimming videos or audio content is also hard because many apps allow you to trim only on a broad basis, or they allow much smaller increments, like a couple seconds.
Depending on what you want to do, this is the best answer I can give you personally: iMovie on the iPhone is not 100% accessible. You are definitely right about that. Some aspects you can manage, others you really can't. If you can be more specific about what exactly you're trying to do, or what you think you might like to do, then I might be able to give you more specific information.