YouTube's 'Capture' for iOS challenges Apple's built-in Camera app

Source: YouTube

Currently available through the App Store, Capture offers an Instagram-like service for short video content, allowing users to shoot, edit and post links to clips hosted on YouTube's website.

YouTube says the software is specifically designed with fast recording in mind. After an initial setup, which includes signing in to a mandatory YouTube account, users are taken straight to the camera. This action occurs whenever the app is opened, much like Apple's own solution. After a scene is shot in Capture, minor post-production options like color correction, stabilization and trimming are available before a user titles the clip and uploads it to YouTube's servers. Background music can be added via YouTube Soundtracks, which offers tunes from generic categories like "Ambient" and "Classical."

It should be noted that Capture only records in landscape mode, doing away with smaller portrait videos that usually translate poorly when viewing content on a PC.

Unlike Apple's built-in Camera app, Capture has the ability to simultaneously post YouTube links to Google+, Facebook and Twitter. Users also have the option to share their clips with a select group of people by keeping the clip unlisted, or limit access to themselves by uploading to their own private feed. Sharing options for any video can be changed through the app or YouTube's web client.

The new app follows the launch of Google's much-awaited Maps app last week, which recorded over ten million downloads in its first two days of availability.

YouTube Capture is a free 26 MB download from the App Store.