Apple Launches Final Cut Pro 11 With AI Features to Speed Up Your Editing Workflow, Updates iPad Version With More Desktop Features

What's new in Final Cut Pro 11

It's been more than a decade since Apple released Final Cut Pro X in 2011, a release that will live in infamy for many longtime users of the app. With that release, Apple rebuilt the app from scratch, removing many features that professional editors relied upon, alienating core users and sending them looking for alternatives.

This release of Final Cut Pro 11 is not that drastic. Though Apple has given the app the version number "11" this is mainly the addition of several new AI-powered features that benefit greatly from Apple's M-series chips.

The new AI features include:

• Magnetic Mask: Effortlessly isolate people and objects in a video clip without the need for a green screen or more time-consuming rotoscoping. You can also combine Magnetic Mask with color correction and video effects, allowing you to precisely control and stylize each project.
• Transcribe to Captions: Built-in, AI-powered captioning comes to Final Cut Pro! As the name suggests, closed captions can be automatically generated in the timeline using an Apple-trained large language model that transcribes spoken audio.

Exiting AI features include:

• Smart Conform: Easily make social media-friendly versions of projects in square or vertical formats.
• Enhance Light and Color: Automatically improve the color, color balance, contrast, and brightness of video or still images.
• Smooth Slo-Mo: Generate and blend together frames of video—including footage captured on iPhone 16 Pro in 4K120fps—for the highest quality movement.
• Voice Isolation: Enhance speech and optimize sound levels while reducing background noises from audio captured in the field.

Support for Spatial Video editing

In Final Cut Pro 11, Apple has also added support for editing Spatial Video for consumption on Apple's Vision Pro headset. Editors can import spatial video and add effects, make color corrections, and enhance their projects with titles.

What's new in Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1

If you've never used Final Cut Pro for iPad, it's important to know that, unlike DaVinci Resolve for iPad, Final Cut Pro for iPad is not a desktop app crammed into a tablet. Instead, Final Cut Pro for iPad was completely reimagined and built specifically for use on iPads.

While that's good in that it ensures the app makes sense for iPad users and feels at home on that device, it also meant that there would be growing pains for a few versions while Apple builds out and translates the full Final Cut feature set to the iPad app. And that's what this 2.1 update is all about.

With Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1, you now get the Enhance Light and Color feature that desktop users have been enjoying. This feature gives you dials to adjust color, exposure, contrast, brightness, etc. in one simple step while optimizing these controls for SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media.

Another nice addition to the app is support for haptic feedback on Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, giving users a light pulse as they trim clips, move media, navigate the timeline, and resize clips to snapping points.

Apple has also added a new vertical pinch gesture that can expand or minimize clip height in the timeline. Plus, you can now dynamically adjust the size and position of the viewer in Picture in Picture mode. Final Cut Pro for iPad also now has timeline support for recordings at 90 fps, 100 fps, and 120 fps on iPhone 16 Pro.

Finally, Apple has also added new inks for the Live Drawing feature on iPad, allowing users add even more animations to videos with new watercolor, crayon, fountain pen, and monoline pen options. And the content library expands with new modular transitions, color-grading presets, and dynamic soundtracks, along with the ability to easily highlight and overlay visuals with Picture in Picture and Callout effects.

Pricing and availability

Final Cut Pro 11 and Final Cut Pro for iPad 2.1 are available now and are free updates for existing users. Apple sells Final Cut Pro on Mac for a one-time charge of $299 while Final Cut Pro for iPad is sold as a $4.99 per month or $49 per year subscription.