How to cut out parts of a video on iPhone, not just the start and end

To cut out a part in the middle of a video on iPhone, you need more than the Photos app. Photos can only trim the start and the end of a clip. For anything in between, you split the clip in an editor such as iMovie, delete the piece you do not want and save the result. If the part you want gone is something you said, there is a faster way: delete the words from a transcript and the footage goes with them.

This guide covers all three, in the order most people need them.

Trim the start and end in the Photos app

If the unwanted part sits at the beginning or the end, Photos is enough. Apple’s steps (Apple Support):

1. Open Photos and tap the video.
2. Tap the Edit button.
3. Drag the handles at either end of the timeline to set the new start and stop.
4. Tap Done, then Save Video or Save Video as New Clip.

Save Video replaces the clip with the trimmed version, and you can bring the full length back later with Edit, then Revert. Save Video as New Clip keeps the original and adds a trimmed copy. Apple notes that reverting a copy saved that way does not restore its original length, so if you are unsure, use Save Video and keep the option to undo.

Why Photos cannot cut out the middle

The Photos trimmer has two handles and nothing else: no split, no second range. You could duplicate the clip and trim one copy to the first half and the other to the second, but then you have two separate videos and Photos has no way to join them.

iOS 27 did not change this. Its Photos update concentrated on photo editing, organising the library and exporting slideshows; the video trimmer still has only its two handles (9to5Mac).

Apple’s own small editor, Clips, is no longer an option for new users either. Apple discontinued it on October 10, 2025; people who already had it can keep using it, and Apple points everyone else to iMovie or apps such as InShot, VN Video Editor and GoPro Quik (PetaPixel, Thurrott).

How to cut out a part in the middle with iMovie

iMovie is free from Apple and does this with two splits and a delete. In a movie project (Apple Support):

1. Open iMovie, start a new Movie project and add the video.
2. Scroll the timeline until the playhead sits where the unwanted part begins.
3. Tap the clip, tap the Actions button in the inspector and choose Split. Alternatively, swipe down over the playhead on the selected clip, as if slicing through it.
4. Scroll to where the unwanted part ends and split again.
5. Tap the piece in the middle and delete it. The two remaining pieces close up.
6. Tap Done, then the Share button, and save the video to your library.

iMovie puts a plain cut between the pieces it creates. You can change it to a cross-dissolve, but on a person talking to the camera a plain cut usually looks more honest. That edit has a name: it is a jump cut.

The original clip in your library is not changed. iMovie saves a new video.

Other editors work the same way

CapCut, InShot, VN and most other phone editors follow the same pattern: move the playhead, split, select the piece, delete. The differences are in the details, such as how far you can zoom into the timeline, whether the waveform is visible and whether the app adds a watermark on its free tier. If you are choosing between them, our pages on iMovie alternatives and CapCut vs iMovie compare them.

The hard part is the same in all of them. You have to find the exact spot by ear, scrubbing back and forth, and land the cut between two words. One frame late and you clip the next word. One frame early and the last syllable is gone.

Cutting out parts of a talking-head video by deleting text

When the part you want out is something you said, such as a false start, a repeated sentence or a tangent, the timeline is the slow way to find it. You already know what you said. You only need to see it.

That is how slicecut works. You import the clip from your library and the app transcribes it. The footage then reads like a document:

1. Tap a word to strike it, or drag across a sentence to strike the whole line.
2. The cut lands right before the next word, so there is no frame to hunt for.
3. Strike as many parts as you like. Nothing is rendered until you export, and tapping a struck word brings it back.
4. Export. The video is rendered on the phone at source quality, up to 4K, and saved to your library.

The pauses are in the transcript too. If the video should get shorter overall, the pause dial tightens every silence at once; how to shorten a video on iPhone covers that and the other ways to cut length.

slicecut is built for speech. To cut a silent moment out of holiday footage, iMovie is the simpler tool.

Which way to use

What you want to remove	Best tool
Something at the start or end	Photos: Edit, drag the handles
A silent moment in the middle	iMovie or another timeline editor: split twice, delete
A sentence, false start or repeat in a talking-head take	A transcript editor such as slicecut: strike the words
Several clips that should become one video	See how to combine videos on iPhone

Tips for a clean cut

• Cut in a pause, not inside a word. Even a short gap of a tenth of a second hides the edit better than a cut mid-syllable.
• Keep some breathing room. If you cut out a stumble, do not also cut the breath before the next sentence. Our measurements put the typical pause between sentences in talking-head videos at around 0.35 seconds (How long should a pause be?).
• Watch it once without sound. A jump in the picture you did not notice while listening shows up immediately.
• Keep the original. Use Save Video in Photos, which can be reverted, or let iMovie save a new file. Do not delete the source until the cut version is posted.

On Android the steps differ by manufacturer; see how to cut a video on Android.