New Snapverse Video-Sharing App Lets You Add Music to Your Clips

This week’s release of Snapverse for iOS proves that the social micro-video app craze is officially in overdrive. The next time you shoot a quick video, you’ll probably need to stop and think about which app to use.

Snapverse is a free download for iOS that lets you record video clips up to 20 seconds (or import them from your Camera Roll). That’s nothing unique but, Snapverse also lets you add soundtracks to your videos.

You can choose from various sound effects, including “Arcade Music,” “Barn Noises” and “Car Crash.” And you can add music clips to your videos. Unfortunately, you’re limited to music within the app; you can’t use your own music. Songs from Blue Oyster Cult, Spin Doctors, Chris Brown, Van Morrison and Willie Nelson are among the choices. Spanverse’s library is by no means extensive, but you can probably find something fun.

When you add a soundtrack, a slider bar lets you increase or decrease the volume and saturation of the music or sound effect. Drag it all the way to the right, for instance, and it obliterates your video’s original audio. Dragging it left lowers the soundtrack volume so you can still hear the video’s original audio.

Snapverse is designed for sharing videos socially. In addition to sharing with the Snapverse community, you can post videos to Facebook and Twitter or email them.

I checked out a few Snapverse videos posted by others. I wasn’t impressed. Given that the app is so new, I’m hoping the quality of videos improves as users learn how to use it.

Now, about those other social video apps I mentioned. Vine is great for six-second clips shot on your Android or iPhone, and you’ll find lots of creative Vine videos. If you want a little more recording time you can use Instagram’s new video recording feature (for up to 15 seconds) on your iPhone or Android. Need some editing control? There’s the recently-released MixBit, as well as Adobe’s VideoBite (both currently iOS only), among others.

It’s nice to have some options when it comes to free, short-form video recording apps. But Instagram is my favorite, followed closely by Vine.