GoPro QuikStories automatically creates a sweet edit for you
If you've spent more than five minutes on social media recently, you'll know that "stories" are the hot new currency. Sharing your day with your followers keeps you and your friends coming back for more. While stories have largely been the realm of apps like Instagram and Snapchat, GoPro recently decided it would toss its hat into the narrative-telling ring with "QuikStories."
The clue really is all in the name. GoPro's Quik app has been around for a while and has always been about making short, shareable videos from your camera for uploading to social media. The difference with QuikStories is that it generates your clips automatically. GoPro's long been trying to punch through the barrier between videos languishing on your memory card and your social network, and this latest update seems to be the strongest blow yet.
Starting today, the latest version of the GoPro app comes with QuikStories baked right in. You just need to spend the day shooting clips with your GoPro, then connect to your phone at the end of the day, and pull down on the home screen. The app will then search your camera for new clips, and slice them up into something you might want to share, complete with edits and music.
If you want to get more hands on, you can. You'll still be able to tinker with the clips, move them around, change music and edits etc, but if all has gone well, you'll not have much, if any work to do.
Think of something between what Google Photos does when it sends you an automatically-generated video after a day out, and the intentional uploading of clips and photos to Instagram stories. It's a little bit of both, just with a GoPro in the mix. For what it's worth, you can also add media from your phone if you use both throughout the day.
In practical terms, it works well. The experience is definitely the most seamless way I have ever used to get media off of my GoPro and turn it into something I might want to share. Of course, it's not so good for longer, more "pro" looking videos. Also, longer clips in general (like a 20-minute bike ride) open up the margin for error. GoPro's app will pick a slice from that clip, but it might not be the part you want.
If anything, the biggest change might be how you think about using your GoPro. A lot of people like to slap it on a helmet, record and go. But with QuikStories, you can start using it to grab short videos, knowing that the app will sandwich them together in order. It also means "stories" on Instagram and Snapchat can break out of the dry, warm confines of where your phone likes to live, and include moments in the ocean, snow and other more hostile conditions.
Perhaps the smartest move on GoPro's side is that QuikStories integrates with most of the social networks you already have on your phone, or you can just export the video and do what you want with it. That's to say, GoPro is trying to get out of the way as much as possible, and not steer you in any direction, or lock you into a new app. Needless to say, your stories-game is going to need to ratchet up a few notches, that day at the mall won't cut it anymore.
