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A cassette collects your clips like a Mini DV cassette in a camcorder used to: you insert it, film clip by clip, and at the end everything plays in recording order as one film – with date and time in the picture.

New recordings always go onto the inserted cassette. There is no time limit; the only limit is the free storage on your iPhone.

The format (landscape or portrait) decides how every clip is recorded – and so how the whole film looks. If you switched it later, the existing clips would no longer fit the picture.

A landscape clip in a portrait film would be just a narrow strip with thick black bars above and below; the other way round, most of the picture would stay black on the left and right. Almost half of the picture would be wasted, and the film would keep jumping between full screen and a small strip.

That is exactly what makes the look: one cassette has one format, every clip fills the whole picture, the timestamp always sits in the same place. That is why you choose the format once when you create the cassette – like back when the camera decided the format.

A film has exactly one picture format. Portrait clips in a landscape film (or the other way round) would fill only part of the picture, with black bars beside them, and the timestamp would sit in a different place each time.

That is why clips can only be moved to a cassette in the same format, and a shared cassette can only be added to a cassette in the same format. The app blocks the other format so your film stays consistent.

If several of you are filming, agree beforehand on landscape or portrait, and everyone creates a cassette in that format.

With portrait cassettes, yes: when you create one, or later in the cassette under “Settings”, you choose the lower or upper third. With landscape cassettes they are always at the bottom right.

When exporting you also decide whether the film is made with or without the timestamp.

Under Settings → “Create backup”. Plug in a USB stick or an SSD, choose it in the assistant; the app checks space and format and then copies every cassette with all its clips.

Every backup is a new folder. Older backups stay untouched. Finished films can be included if you like.

The files are ordinary MP4 videos named by date – you can open them on a Mac or PC even without the app.

Your cassettes live only on this iPhone. They are deliberately excluded from iCloud and device backups so nothing is uploaded without you asking.

That also means: if the iPhone is lost or you delete the app, every cassette is gone. So back up regularly – especially before switching iPhones or resetting.

iPhone with USB-C (iPhone 15 and later): plug the stick in directly or through a USB-C adapter. iPhone with Lightning: through Apple's “Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter”; with large sticks and SSDs, plug the charging cable into the adapter.

Ideally the stick is formatted as “ExFAT”. With FAT32 a file can be at most 4 GB, so long clips do not fit. On a Mac you reformat it in Disk Utility (careful: this erases it).

A normal stick manages about 20–30 MB/s, so 50 GB in roughly 30–40 minutes. An SSD on a USB-C iPhone is much faster.

Under Settings → “Load backup” (on first launch also right in the tutorial). Choose the backup folder on the stick.

Loading only merges: missing cassettes and clips are added, existing ones are skipped. Nothing on the iPhone is deleted or overwritten, and every clip is checked while copying.

On the old iPhone “Create backup”, install knipper. on the new iPhone and “Load backup” there. An iCloud backup of the old iPhone does not contain your cassettes.

Everyone films on their own iPhone onto their own cassette in the same format. Then one of you opens their cassette → “Create shared cassette” → “Share this cassette” and sends it by AirDrop or USB stick.

On the other iPhone: open the cassette → “Create shared cassette” → “Add other videos to this cassette”. The clips are sorted in by recording time – one film from several perspectives.

For that, every iPhone would have to be connected to the others all the time. That only works through a server on the internet: everyone would need an account, every clip would be uploaded, stored on someone else's computers and downloaded again to every other iPhone.

That costs mobile data and battery, needs good reception on the go, causes running server costs – and your private videos would no longer be only with you. knipper. deliberately does without: no server, no account, no uploads.

Everyone films freely on their own iPhone – even without signal, in airplane mode or abroad. Nobody has to wait, nothing depends on a connection.

At the end the cassette goes by AirDrop or USB stick straight from iPhone to iPhone: in full original quality, without mobile data, without waiting for uploads and without any third party ever seeing the videos.

The app sorts everything by recording time, as if you had filmed with one camera. Clips that are already there are recognized and skipped – so you can send back and forth as often as you like. Like back then: swapping cassettes instead of a cloud.

No. Before adding, the app shows how many clips are new and how many are already there. Every new clip gets its own unique ID. Nothing is deleted or overwritten.

Added clips carry the name of the person who sent them. You enter your own name under Settings → “Your name”. Under “Settings” in the cassette you can show the names in playback and the film as well.

Stay close together and keep both iPhones unlocked. If you are not a contact on the other one, it sets AirDrop to “Everyone for 10 Minutes” for a moment. Very large cassettes are often easier by USB stick.

Open the cassette → “Export cassette” → choose with or without timestamp → “Export”. All clips are put together on the iPhone in recording order into one 1080p MP4 film. Then “Save film”, for example to Photos or Files.

You can keep filming on the same cassette and simply export again later.

A film is about 6.4 GB per hour of footage. To make sure the export finishes, the app first checks that about 8.2 GB per hour are free. You can delete finished films again under Settings → “Manage storage” – the clips stay on the cassette.

From iOS 26 on, yes, with a progress display from iOS. On older iOS the system only gives a little time; it is best to keep the app open and the iPhone charging.

Never. Muting, rotating, descriptions, the title clip and the timestamp and the music only apply in playback and export. The original files stay as they were recorded.

A knip. is the short trailer of your cassette for sharing. You pick as many clips as you like – yourself or at random – and random 2 seconds of each go in. The clips run in chronological order or shuffled.

Open the cassette → “Create your knip.” below “Export cassette”. Once you have watched it, you can share or save it.

No music: the knip. always has the original sound of the clips – even if the cassette has music. Muted clips stay muted. If you like, it starts with a title intro: a fast rewind through your clips with a rewind sound, with a title of its own on top (set in step 3, the cassette name stays unchanged) and, if you like, the date from the first to the last chosen clip.

Date and time use the format and font of the cassette. On portrait cassettes you can show them at the top or bottom, on landscape ones at the bottom – or leave them out completely.

Each cassette keeps one knip. on the iPhone. If you create a new one, it replaces the old one. You can delete it under Settings → “Manage storage”; the cassette keeps all its clips. If you delete the cassette, its knip. goes with it.

Open a cassette → “Music” → switch on → add an audio file from “Files” or the sound of a video from “Photos” or “Files”. As many tracks as you like.

The app copies the file into its own storage. The original stays where it is. knipper. does not include any music itself and downloads nothing from the internet.

Yes. “Watch cassette” plays the music the way it sounds in the exported film – with the same transitions, pauses and the same volume under the clips.

Your clips themselves stay unchanged. The music only goes into the film when you export it.

Under clips with their own sound it plays quietly so you can hear the voices. How quietly is set with the slider “Music under clips with sound” at the bottom of the music page: from 1 % to 25 %, default 10 %. Under muted clips – and a muted title clip – it plays at full volume.

All transitions are soft: between full volume, quiet music and “Music off here” the volume glides smoothly over about 2 seconds. The music fades in and out, crossfades over 6 seconds to the next track and fades out gently at the end of the film. Nothing stops abruptly.

“One after another”: the tracks play in the order of the list, from the film start or a clip of your choice. “Each track with its own start clip”: every track begins at its clip and softly fades out the previous one.

With “Repeat” the music starts again until the end (or the next track). Without it every track plays once. Change the order and the names right in the list.

Yes. Tap “…” on the clip → “Music off here”. The music fades out shortly before the clip, is silent during it and afterwards continues exactly where it stopped. The list then shows “NO MUSIC”.

Yes – from “Photos” or from “Files”. The app only takes the sound track of the video, the picture is left out.

For the sound from “Photos” the app needs no access to your library: iOS shows its own picker and only hands over the one video.

For private films that only you, your family and friends watch, this is usually fine. If you want to publish a film – for example on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or a website – you normally need the rights to the music.

Bought or streamed songs are usually only licensed for private listening. Safe choices are your own recordings, royalty-free music (with a suitable license) or music you have permission for. You are responsible for this yourself; details are in the terms of use. This is not legal advice.

In the USB backup, yes: the music files are in the cassette's folder under “Music” and come back with “Load backup”. A shared cassette, on the other hand, only contains the clips – the music stays on your iPhone.

How much space the music takes and how to delete it is shown under Settings → “Manage storage”.

Yes, for each cassette on its own: in the cassette under “Settings” at “Time format and font”. There you also choose the font – Modern or Retro in the camcorder look. Time and date always switch together – in the camera, clip list, playback and in newly exported films and knips. Films you already saved stay as they are.

In the 24-hour format the month names are in your iPhone's language, for example “03. mars 2027” in French. The 12-hour format is always American (“March 3, 2027”).

Every clip keeps the local time of the place where it was recorded. A holiday clip shows the local time on holiday – even when you watch it at home later.

If your iPhone is set to German, knipper. speaks German, otherwise English. The language follows the iPhone setting.

No. Recording, storage, playback and export happen entirely on your iPhone, even in airplane mode. There is no server, no account, no ads, no tracking and no analytics.

Your videos only leave the iPhone when you save, share or send them yourself by AirDrop or stick.

You need camera and microphone for your recordings. The app only adds to Photos when you save a film or clip there. knipper. does not read your library.