- Short-form video dominates 2025, with AI-powered editing and streaming tools leading creator growth.
- Instagram and TikTok remain the most popular live streaming apps for engagement and reach.
- CapCut and InShot have replaced older apps like Likee and Beat.ly, offering smarter, AI-driven editing.
- KineMaster and VivaVideo continue to deliver strong features for quick, high-quality short video production.
- OneStream Live enables creators to broadcast short videos and live streams seamlessly across multiple platforms.
With a star rating of 4.7, 130 million reviews, and more than 3.8 billion downloads, Instagram tops our list of best short video apps. With Instagram, you can create video reels for up to 90 seconds. The feature allowed 60 seconds of video initially, but now it’s extended to 3 minutes. You can also post 60-minute-long videos in the same reel format (16:9), but these videos won’t appear in the reel feed; instead, they’ll appear in the Instagram feed.
TikTok
Having a star rating of 4.4, with 45 million reviews and 5.5 billion downloads, the sole purpose of TikTok is to allow users to create trending videos. Using TikTok shorts, you can make dancing, lip-syncing, acting out sketches, or trending videos without any hassle, and tactfully ace the TikTok algorithm.
Here you can find filters, captions, interactive backgrounds, music, stickers, multiple video clips, music, and much more. The platform itself has an editor to add emojis, special effects, and face filters. If you want, you can schedule your recorded video streams, or go live in real-time using your computer to live stream on Instagram using OneStream Live and reach out to your audience easily and efficiently.
The app features an editing tool to trim your videos, merge multiple videos, add music, filters, emojis, and special effects. Moreover, you can create DUET videos in response to any video uploaded to the application.
VivaVideo
With over 100 million downloads, 4.3-star ratings, and 13 million reviews, VivaVideo comes with great features to make and edit short video streams. Following are some of the best features of the app:
- Video Editing: Cut, copy, paste, merge, crop and transition.
- Subtitles: Enjoy adding text to your videos with several font styles and various sizes.
- Video Effects: Now, you can add numerous filters to your videos including, blur, glitch, etc.
- Music: Add trendy songs and lyrics to your videos.
CapCut
CapCut has over 1 billion downloads and a positive rating of 4.6. In 2025, CapCut is everyone’s favorite tool for all formats of video editing. Upon its release, it mostly had a mobile user base, but in 2025, its desktop version became equally popular. Whether you’re editing an hour-long podcast or a short reel for your Instagram, CapCut is pretty straightforward. Furthermore, with AI features now being integrated into the studio, it provides more convenience to the creators. Adding captions, effects, transitions, and everything is done within a few clicks.
Key features:
- Smart captioning and facial enhancement using AI.
- Trending templates, transitions, and sound syncing with TikTok music.
- Built-in social media optimization for Reels, Shorts, and TikTok.
It comes with both free and paid versions. If your editing needs are basic, the free version will cover your needs.
Kine Master
KineMaster has a star rating of 4.3, with more than 100 million downloads and 4 million reviews. It is a leading short video editing app with the following intuitive features:
- Combine videos and images with an easy-to-use video editor.
- Add special effects, music, text, voiceovers, stickers, sound effects.
- You can also use voice-changers to customize your voice.
- Unique color filters and adjustments to enhance your videos.
It has a free version and a paid version as well. You can download and add videos without watermark and ads in the paid version. It is one of the best short video apps.
InShot
InShot has over 500 million downloads and 15 million reviews. The video editor continues to be popular for content creators even in 2025. It comes with a minimalist layout, wide expert options, and reel-ready export options to help you streamline your content creation efforts.
Key features include:
- Trim, merge, and speed-control options for short video creation.
- Music, text, emoji, and transition overlays.
- “AI Auto Cut” for rapid clip selection and background blur.
Why Short-Form Video Content Rules in 2025
People today are leading fast-paced lives, and therefore, they enjoy short-form video comparatively more than long videos. The reasons behind this shift are many, like attention spans shrinking and mobile usage skyrocketing. But these aren’t the only ones. Here’s why we think short-form video content is ruling in 2025.
Platforms Shifting Towards It
The most commonly used social apps acknowledged the change in preference, and they’ve adapted accordingly. Let’s look at some examples:
YouTube was mainly known for long-form content, but with the rise of TikTok, it introduced YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts are now averaging over 200 billion daily views, according to the CEO Neal Mohan.
Instagram is a social app that people liked because of its simplicity, but now? Instagram reels made everything else take a back seat. Instagram reels now account for 38.5% of all Instagram posts, which makes them the fastest-growing content format on the platform.
It Outperforms Long-Form Videos
What used to take 2 – 3 minutes is now available in 30 seconds. But what’s surprising is that this is actually getting better results. Here’s why people actually like it:
- Can be watched in one go
- Easily shareable
- Gets better engagement, like more comments, clicks and saves.
Algorithms Favoring It
Shorts aren’t just pushed by your ranking effort; they’re also prioritized by the platforms. Here’s why it gets to the top easily:
It trends effortlessly when it’s combined with a trending song or sound. It’s a loop; the video doesn’t stop when it’s finished, it replays. This boosts watch time.
It keeps the users on the platform for longer periods, and that’s exactly what platforms want.
Comparing the Best Short Video Apps
Almost every social platform now has an exclusive section for short videos. However, results from different platforms may vary. Some are used to gain followers, while others allow you to convert your viewers into lifelong customers. Let’s compare some of the top platforms and explore reasons for posting short videos on each:
TikTok: The Leader
TikTok has dominated the charts since its release. With over 1.57 billion users in 2025, it’s everyone’s favorite way to watch short-form content.
Post on TikTok if you want:
- If you want to introduce a trend
- Promote your brand in a creative way
- Attract a young audience like Gen Z
YouTube Shorts: Everyone’s Favorite
We love YouTube, whether it’s for long-form podcasts, vlogs, gaming videos or content for our young ones. But with YouTube favoring the Shorts, here’s what you can achieve by posting short-form content on YouTube:
- Attract the audience towards your main long-form content
- Grow your YouTube channel
- Earn through the generous monetization system
Instagram Reels: Top Choice for On-The-Go
Instagram reels house everyone, from the Gen Z audience to professionals and influencers. The platform provides everyone with an equal opportunity to grow their fan base, get attention for their creative work or promote a product in an engaging way. However, you can’t go live on Instagram directly from your desktop. Thanks to the OneStream Live RTMP feature, you can stream to Instagram without relying on your phone. This gives you an advantage over phone-streamers because you have better audio, cameras and a fully professional setup. Post on Instagram if your goals are;
- Promote your product in a trend.
- Post short-form how-tos that grow your followers
- Influencer collaboration
Facebook Reels: An Old Friend
We all grew up using Facebook, and now Facebook Reels is our reason to continue using the app. With the young audience now shifting towards TikTok and Instagram, Facebook is still a top choice for millennials. Here’s why you should post Facebook reels:
- If your brand has a slightly mature audience
- You want direct sales from your content
- You want to reach audiences who don’t follow you
How to Multistream Your Short Videos Across Platforms
Every platform has its own advantages for posting short-form content, so how do you post to all the platforms at once? Thanks to modern streaming tools like OneStream Live, you have the ability to go live on more than 45 platforms simultaneously.
Here’s how to multistream your short videos across different platforms at once using OneStream Live:
Step 1: Sign up on onestream.live
Step 2: Connect the platforms you want to stream on, like Twitch, Kick, YouTube, Facebook, etc.
Step 3: Choose your preferred way of going live. You can start streaming directly to OneStream Live Studio without installing any extra software. Or, you can use an RTMP tool like Streamlabs, OBS, Zoom, etc.
Hurray! It’s that simple, so what are you waiting for? Create your free account today and engage your audience on every popular platform.
Conclusion
Each of the short video streaming apps discussed above has its unique features, depending on the app’s purpose and the target audience. From messaging to live video streaming, duet videos, reels, and short streams, you can also avail yourself of fantastic editing features. Similarly, be it iOS or Android, there is a wide range of apps to make short video streams to meet the varied videography needs of users. Create engaging short videos using these apps and multicast them as live streams via OneStream Live to more than 40 social media and the web simultaneously.
FAQs
TikTok and Instagram Reels are the most popular apps for making engaging short videos.
You can live stream using apps like OneStream Live, YouTube Live, Twitch, and Facebook Live.
If you’re just starting out, we recommend choosing one or two popular platforms like TikTok and Instagram. If you’re experienced and have a good understanding of your audience, then you can post on multiple platforms for a broader reach.
To stream on multiple platforms at once, you need to choose streaming tools like OneStream Live. It lets you multistream your content on 45+ platforms.
For short videos, the recommended aspect ratio is 9:16 with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 px. This remains the same for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels, LinkedIn and various others where short videos can be watched.
OneStream Live is a cloud-based live streaming solution to create, schedule, and multistream professional-looking live streams across 45+ social media platforms and the web simultaneously. For content-related queries and feedback, write to us at [email protected]. You’re also welcome to Write for Us!
