Apple has released Final Cut Pro 11 and updated its lineup of creative apps

More than a decade after the launch of Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s video editing software is taking a step forward. The app is now being upgraded to Final Cut Pro 11, after dropping the number from its name a few years ago. The update includes new AI masking tools, the ability to generate captions directly from your timeline, local video editing features, and a set of workflow improvements. The new version is free for existing users and a one-time purchase of $299 for new users. Final Cut Pro for iPad and Final Cut Camera are also getting some updates today, too.

I spent the last week testing these new features, and many of them are great improvements. I was very impressed with the speed and accuracy of the new feature coming to the desktop: Magnetic Mask. With one click, you can easily separate the subject, such as a person, from the background and apply a different color correction to that part of the image.

I tested the Magnetic mask in a variety of situations, such as static talking head videos and fast-moving snowboarding footage. In each case, Final Cut Pro did an excellent job of separating the subjects. But don’t expect a perfect pixel mask every time. I had to jump in and make a few changes to help. You can manually adjust your mask with a brush or add or remove tracking points and let Final Cut Pro analyze the footage.

I was impressed by the speed of the whole process. Granted, these were pretty short clips (about 45 seconds each), but each mask took less than a minute on my four-year-old M1 Pro MacBook Pro – much less time than the tedious and laborious process of rotoscoping by hand. in After Effects.

I noticed that the analysis went down a lot when I started recording my screen process. This feature will work on Intel-based Macs as well.

I’m an avid user of Adobe’s Premiere Pro, but features like these always make me want to give Final Cut Pro another shot. I won’t be far behind, though: Adobe announced a similar feature for Premiere earlier this year. DaVinci Resolve also already has a similar feature called Magic Mask.

The next new highlight is the ability to automatically generate captions on your timeline. Final Cut Pro does this using an Apple-trained language mode, and the entire process takes place locally on the device without sending information to the cloud. The process is quick but not always accurate and common words are often misspelled. It fumbled for proper nouns like “The Verge” and common nouns like “machine,” when it would have just written “machine” instead. Those are just a few of the many examples. There is also no way to style your captions if you were hoping to add them to your TikToks. For that, you’ll need to look at other third-party plug-ins.

It’s a nice update, but I wish Apple would go further and add text-based editing, which allows you to edit videos only using text instead of the timeline itself. Text-based editing in Premiere has helped me a lot when working on long documentaries or sit-down interviews, and I wish it was possible in Final Cut Pro 11.

Other changes include the ability to edit local videos for Vision Pro and some new keyboard shortcuts. My favorite is Option + Up Arrow / Down Arrow to move clips between layers. It’s the little things!

Final Cut Pro for iPad is also getting a few new updates. The AI-powered “brightness and color enhancement” tool originally released in Final Cut Pro 10.8 for Mac is making its way to an iPad app. It’s the fastest way to instantly improve the color, contrast, and overall tone of your photos.

In the few tests I used, the tool did a great job of getting me started with my coloring process. Cleans up all exposures well and adds subtle color selections. For the smallest subtle color ranges, Apple increases the number of presets available in the app. In addition to that set, Apple is also adding new modular changes and new songs to its song library.

If you use the Apple Pencil Pro to edit, you will finally be able to open all those new brushes released alongside the M4 iPad Pro and features such as tilt recognition and using haptic feedback. Haptic feedback works very well on the iPad, and I enjoy it more than I thought I would. It really makes the editing process feel more engaging. In fact, I wish more touches had some haptic feedback.

Finally, there is a small but significant improvement in workflow. Now you can resize your clips in your timeline using pinch gestures, you can edit in 120fps timelines, and the picture-in-picture mode is dynamic. Apple also said there are new keyboard shortcuts, but I only found one: Assign Timeline.

I’m glad to see regular updates coming to the iPad version of Final Cut Pro, but there are still some much needed features to make this app worth the $4.99 monthly subscription plan. At the top of my wish list are things like custom LUTs, better file management, and other AI-enabled features that have already made their way to the desktop version. Since my first review, I’ve mostly started using DaVinci Resolve on the iPad, which continues to impress me with how similar it is to its desktop counterpart.

The trifecta of updates ends with Final Cut Camera, which can now film HEVC files in Apple Log – no need to stick to storage-hungry ProRes files. HEVC Log Capture will work both for standalone capture or as part of a Live Multicam session. Final Cut Camera will also include LUT preview during recording, meaning you can monitor your exposure and color while recording in Apple Log.

And to make sure your frame is nice and straight, Apple is adding a new level indicator to the app. The new level includes tilt and roll cues and crosshairs for your top-down and top-down shots, too.

The introduction of new AI features and workflow improvements mark important steps forward for content creators, but they don’t solve some of the public’s requests to fully compete with the likes of DaVinci and Adobe. I’d like to see text-based editing, solid color options, and custom captions. It will be interesting to see if these new updates convert any new users. The Magnetic Mask alone would be reason enough to switch.