X for iPhone gets built-in video editing: captions and green screen

X has rolled out an iOS update that overhauls its Video Editor and Recorder. The company says the new tools are live now for recording, editing, and publishing short-form video directly inside the app.

Users can now add multilingual captions, tweak how those captions look on screen, and swap in a background using either photos or saved X posts from the camera roll. It’s basically a green-screen effect, and it means you don’t have to export clips to something like CapCut just to pull that off.

The update lines up with X’s broader push into video. That effort also includes Live Studio, a video tab X is currently testing, original-video partnerships, a promoted $1 million creator payout tied to Live Studio, and monetization changes that give original content more weight.

If you post to X regularly from an iPhone, this update is probably worth grabbing. X still hasn’t said how wide the international rollout is or when Android users can expect the same tools, and X product adviser Nikita Bier says more editing features are on the way in the next few weeks.

X says the tools are available now in the iOS app. What’s less clear, at least for now, is whether the redesigned editor is polished enough to make serious creators leave dedicated editing apps behind, or skip rivals like Meta’s Edits.