How To Merge Videos on iPhone for Free

Trying to merge videos on an iPhone sounds straightforward until you realize the native Photos app doesn’t offer any built-in way to do it cleanly — at least not without messing with aspect ratios or cropping. That’s why most folks have to use Apple’s free iMovie or third-party tools. The cool thing? You can combine multiple clips into one seamless video, whether it’s for a social post or just saving a longer montage. Just keep in mind that on iOS, the process isn’t always foolproof, and sometimes you need to tweak things afterward, especially if the videos were shot in portrait or landscape modes. But with patience, it’s doable.

How to Combine Videos on Your iPhone

Use iMovie App to Combine Videos

This one’s pretty much the go-to because it’s free and built for iOS. When you’re trying to merge clips and see them in a single flow, iMovie’s the most reliable. The trick? You need to import your videos, arrange them, and then export the final piece. It’s not perfect — sometimes you get cropping issues or black bars if the aspect ratios don’t match exactly — but for most basic stuff, it’s fine. Or you can get fancy and tweak the timeline afterwards.

Download and install the iMovie app from the App Store.
Open iMovie — it’s pretty straightforward, though the interface can look a little cluttered if you’re new.
Tap on Start New Project and select Movie.
On the next screen, your videos will pop up.Tap on the clips you want to merge. You can also go through Media > Video if you prefer browsing your categories.
Once selected, hit Create Movie. The clips will load into the timeline, ready for editing.
Here, you can arrange, trim, add transitions, or make quick edits — think of this as your editing playground.
Preview the combined video by tapping the Play icon; when you’re happy, tap Done.
Finally, tap the Share icon and choose Save Video to store it back on your Photos app.

How to Combine Videos Without Cropping or Losing Aspect Ratio

If you’ve shot videos in portrait mode, merging them directly in iMovie often results in black borders or accidental cropping, which is super annoying. Here’s a couple of tricks to keep everything looking good, or at least close to what you shot.

Use Pinch to Zoom Gesture in iMovie

This sounds kind of weird, but it actually works — sort of. You import your clips into iMovie and then manually zoom out using pinch gestures, letting you keep the full frame without cropping. Fair warning: on some devices or iOS versions, the zoom might not be perfect, and it’s kinda fiddly. But hey, it beats losing content.

Open iMovie.
Combine your videos into the timeline as usual.
Select the first clip to work on.
Use your fingers and pinch-in to zoom out. This prioritizes showing more of the clip inside the frame.
Repeat for other clips that need the same treatment.
Tap Done when all clips are adjusted.
Share to Save Video to your Photos. You might see some black borders but shouldn’t lose content.

Note: This method kind of depends on how much you want to preserve the original framing. On some setups, it works better than others.

Change Video Orientation to Landscape to Block the Cropping

Another messy workaround — rotate your videos in the Photos app so everything matches up in landscape mode. Basically, it avoids black bars or crop issues once you merge everything. Because of course, iOS makes things more complicated than they need to be.

Open the Photos app and pick a video.
Tap Edit, then hit the Crop & Rotate icon.
Tap the Rotate button at the top till the video is in landscape orientation.
Tap Done to save the rotation.
Repeat for all videos you want to merge.
Launch iMovie, add the rotated clips, and merge as usual.
After merging, if the final video still shows in portrait, rotate it back in Photos by repeating the steps, but in reverse.

Third-Party Apps for Merging Videos

If iMovie isn’t cutting it or feels a little clunky, third-party options like InShot, Splice, or Videoleap will do the job easier. They usually have drag-and-drop interfaces, making it straightforward to add clips, reorder, and export.

Download a trusted video editor from the App Store — that’s step one.
Add your videos into the app’s timeline.
Trim, adjust, add filters if needed — whatever makes the video pop.
Export and save back to Photos.

Almost all of these apps handle merging pretty smoothly, and some offer free versions or trials, which is nice.

Wrapping Up

Basically, merging videos on an iPhone isn’t as simple as clicking a button — at least not natively. But with iMovie or a third-party app, it’s manageable. Patience might be needed to get everything aligned just right, especially with different aspect ratios or orientations. Just mess around with it, and you’ll get a decent result.

Summary

Download iMovie or trusted third-party apps.
Import your clips and arrange them in the timeline.
Use zoom tricks or rotate videos in Photos if aspect ratio is an issue.
Export the combined video and check the final result.

Wrap-up

Hopefully, this gets one more thing off your to-do list. Merging videos on iPhone might feel like a hassle, but it’s definitely doable — just depends on how perfect you want it. Worth trying both methods to see what works best for your clips. Fingers crossed this helps someone save a few hours.