Camera manufacturer GoPro on Thursday officially launched QuikStories, a video creation solution that automatically pulls content off Hero 5 and Hero 5 Session cameras and generates custom movies complete with special effects, music syncing and more.
QuikStories comes incorporated as an integral feature in the newly updated GoPro app, which was today rebranded back from "Capture."
When Hero 5 owners connect their camera to an iPhone and launch the GoPro app, the new software copies over footage like video clips, photos, bursts and time-lapse footage, then sends it to Quik for automated editing. Once in Quik, users simply select a theme, add in title text and let the app do its work. Both content offloading and editing operations support background processing, making the feature almost completely hands-off.
Users not afraid to get their hands dirty can customize their QuikStory with speed effects, text overlays, filters, preloaded music and more. Manual editing can be completed directly in Quik after importing Hero 5 footage, or at a later time from the saved QuikStories catalog that shows up in the GoPro app.
Quik presents a number of editing variables to play with, including movie duration, music choice, media format and more. Digging deeper into the controls lets users manipulate individual clip length, start and stop time and positioning within a simple graphical user interface.
Alongside Hero 5 support, users can tap into Photos to add content to existing stories or create new clips.
Once a QuikStory is finished it can be shared with friends via social media, email or Messages. QuikStories can also be uploaded to GoPro's Quik server for internet sharing or saved to Photos.
"QuikStories is our biggest leap forward since the invention of the GoPro itself," said Nicholas Woodman, GoPro founder and CEO. "QuikStories is the simple storytelling solution our customers have been dreaming about for years. It's an absolute game changer."
AppleInsider was able to test out an early version of QuikStories at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colo., last month and came away impressed. The machine learning algorithms used to parse out action were surprisingly effective, as was the connectivity firmware responsible for copying over and parsing blocks of content, or "clusters."
More importantly, QuikStories takes the burden of offloading, editing and sharing footage off users, meaning more content gets used and viewed instead of staying siloed on a camera or phone.
GoPro further refined the software in the intervening weeks, adding in handy indicators for the number of files being copied over from a connected Hero 5 and QuikStory generation progress. Download speeds have also been enhanced, a major concern that in some cases impacted Hero 5 and iPhone battery efficiency in the beta version.
On the editing side, users can now manually select which files get added to a QuikStory, pick from new title slide names and combine clusters for longer edits. Finally, the GoPro app will throw up a home screen notification when it detects new media available for QuikStory creation.
The GoPro and Quik apps are available now as free downloads from the iOS App Store.