A new one iOS app called Reelful uses artificial intelligence to automatically turn photos and video clips from your camera roll into stylish TikTok videos and Instagram Reels for social media. Reelful is designed for people who want to create social content but find traditional video editing tools too complicated or time-consuming.
The launch of the app reflects a broader shift in video creation, as artificial intelligence allows users to move beyond traditional creative tools to AI agents capable of automating content creation. Reelful joins a growing wave of AI startups reshaping the way content is created, including Opus Clip and Captions.
Reelful, which currently participates in a16z’s Speedrun program, was founded by Kate Deyneka, a former machine learning engineer at Snapchat who helped develop video and image models.
Deyneka left the social media giant to create an agent-based video editor that helps people create short-form videos automatically, eliminating the need to spend time selecting clips, adding effects, recording voiceovers, and fine-tuning edits.
“I want to post more on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, but video editing takes a lot of time, so much time that I don’t even want to spend it because I have a lot going on in my life, especially now as an early stage founder,” Deyneka told TechCrunch. “I have a lot of events, I meet a lot of interesting people, and that’s what I see for all my founder friends: they have a very active life, especially right now when artificial intelligence is booming, but we don’t have time to edit. I see Reelful as a tool that can help people build their online presence and personal brand.”
Reelful works by having users enter a prompt that describes the story they want to tell, whether it’s a travel recap, product demo, or event highlight. Users then create a voice clone by recording a 30-second sample and choose photos and videos from their camera roll. Reelful will then design the video, write the script, add an AI voice and assemble the final edit, complete with captions, music and sound effects.
Reelful will turn still images into AI-generated video clips. For example, if a user includes a photo of someone cutting a mango, Reelful can animate the image into a short video that shows the person cutting the fruit. AI-generated videos have a watermark to let users know they are AI-generated.
After Reelful creates a complete video, users can continue to edit it further by chatting with the app to do things like change the soundtrack, revise the script, or adjust other aspects of the video.
Deyneka says Reelful’s target audience, at least for now, is founders and business owners who need to consistently create content to build their online presence, personal brand, or company brand. For example, a hair salon in the Bay Area may have a lot of content available about their services and client makeovers, but not have the time or resources to turn that content into sophisticated social media videos. That’s where Reelful comes in, says Deyneka.
“My target use case is you went to an event or met some great people and recorded a short interview with them, and when you get home you’ve just uploaded everything to the app and by the time you get home, the video is ready,” Deyneka said. “So I want to make it very easy for people to share their lives, their content, their expertise without actively editing or setting things up on their laptop.”
Reelful offers both one-time purchases and subscription plans. Users can purchase video credits in bundles of five videos for $15, 15 videos for $43, or 33 videos for $90. The “Creator” subscription costs $25 per month for 10 videos, while the “Pro” plan offers 25 videos per month for $50. The Studio plan includes 60 videos per month for $100.
While Reelful is currently only available on iOS, Deyneka plans to release Android and web versions in the future.
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