Starting a new editor is the hardest part, because the app shows you everything at once and you do not yet know which buttons matter. This page is the beginner roadmap: one hour, in order, from installing the app to posting your first Reel, with links to the step-by-step guides for each skill. Follow it once, and the app will stop feeling new.
By Alex Carter, Editor · Published October 24, 2026 · Updated October 24, 2026
30-second answer: Your first hour with Edits is six steps: install and sign in (10 minutes), record one short clip (10 minutes), cut it tight (15 minutes), caption it (10 minutes), add music and a title (10 minutes), and export it clean (5 minutes). Do them in that order, with one clip, and you will have a finished Reel and five skills you can reuse on every video after it.
In this guide
- Before you open the app
- Your first hour, in order
- The five skills that matter first
- What to make first
- Mistakes beginners make
- Frequently asked questions
Before you open the app
Two things before you start: the app itself, and one idea for a video. Install Edits from the official store listings, and sign in with your Instagram account; our download guide walks through both, and our PC guide covers the computer route if you prefer a bigger screen. Then pick one idea, and keep it small: a 30-second talking-head tip, a product shot, or a single story. A small first video teaches the same skills as a big one, and it finishes.
Do not start by exploring every feature. The app has effects, filters, templates, and AI tools, and all of them will still be there next week. The first hour is about the core loop: record, cut, caption, export. Everything else is decoration on top of that loop.
Your first hour, in order
- Install and sign in (10 minutes). Get Edits from the official store listings and sign in with your Instagram account. On a computer, run it inside a free Android emulator, as our PC guide explains.
- Record one short clip (10 minutes). Record vertically, in good light, with the phone steady. Say one thing, clearly, and stop. One clip is enough for the first hour.
- Cut it tight (15 minutes). Trim the dead air at the start and end, and split out any stumble in the middle. Our trim and split guide walks through both.
- Caption it (10 minutes). Generate the auto captions, fix the wrong words, and style them in the middle band of the frame. Our captions guide covers the whole flow.
- Add music and a title (10 minutes). Pick in-app music that fits the mood, and add one short title in the upper middle of the frame. Our music guide and our titles guide explain both.
- Export it clean (5 minutes). Export at 1080 by 1920, check the file in your photos at full size, and confirm the sound plays. Our export settings guide covers the settings.
That is the whole first hour, and it ends with a finished Reel. Do not judge the Reel against professional channels; judge it against the goal, which is a complete loop from record to export. The second Reel will be faster, and the tenth will feel automatic.
The five skills that matter first
Five skills carry almost every Reel you will ever make, and the first hour teaches all five. Cutting is first: a tight cut is the difference between a video that holds attention and one that wanders. Captions are second: they make the Reel work with the sound off, which is how most Reels are first watched. Titles are third: one short line that tells the viewer what the Reel is about before they decide to stay.
Music is fourth: the right track sets the mood, and the wrong one distracts from the words. Export is fifth, and it is the skill beginners skip: checking the exported file in your photos, at full size, before posting, is what catches clipped captions, soft picture, and missing sound while they are still fixable. Everything else in the app, effects, filters, templates, and AI tools, is decoration on top of those five skills.
What to make first
The best first video is a talking-head tip: you, facing the camera, explaining one thing in 30 seconds. It needs no b-roll, no complex timeline, and no effects, and it teaches every core skill in one pass. Record it twice if the first take stumbles, and use the better take; nobody posts a first take, and nobody should.
If talking to the camera feels hard, make a product video instead: three shots of the product, a title, and a voiceover explaining what it does. The structure is the same, and the product does the talking for you. Either way, keep the first video under a minute; a short video that finishes beats a long one that stalls.
Mistakes beginners make
- Starting with effects instead of the cut. Effects decorate a good cut; they cannot save a bad one.
- Skipping captions. Most Reels are first watched with the sound off, and an uncaptioned Reel loses those viewers.
- Posting before checking the export. Clipped captions and missing sound are fixable before posting and embarrassing after.
- Recording too much. Ten minutes of footage for a 30-second Reel means nine minutes of cutting you did not need.
- Comparing the first Reel to professional channels. Compare it to the goal: a complete loop from record to export.
Get the official app
Edits is free from the official stores. Get it from the official listings below, then start your first hour with our tutorials hub and our Reels guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Edits free for beginners?
Yes. Edits is free to download, edit with, and export from, with no watermark and no paid tier, as of October 24, 2026.
How long does it take to learn Edits?
One hour covers the core loop: record, cut, caption, export. A week of daily practice makes it feel automatic.
What should my first Edits video be?
A 30-second talking-head tip, or a short product video. Both teach every core skill in one pass, and both finish fast.
Do I need a computer to use Edits?
No. Edits runs on a phone, and that is where most creators use it. On a computer you run the same free app inside an Android emulator, as our PC guide explains.
Does Edits export without a watermark?
Yes. Exports from Edits carry no watermark, as our watermark page explains.
Where do I go after my first Reel?
To our tutorials hub, where every skill in this guide has a step-by-step page, and to our Reels guide for safe zones, covers, and export settings.
Edits for PC is an independent, unofficial guide. It is not affiliated with Meta Platforms, Inc. or Instagram.
Your second hour
Once the core loop feels familiar, the second hour adds three skills in the same order: transitions, voiceover, and templates. Transitions connect clips without jarring jumps; start with simple cuts and one clean transition style, and keep it consistent. Voiceover adds a second audio layer on top of the music, and the balance matters: the voice should sit clearly above the music, not fight it. Templates are shortcuts, not crutches: a template shows you a structure that works, and you replace its clips with your own.
The rule for the second hour is the same as for the first: one skill at a time, one finished video at the end. A Reel that uses one new skill well beats a Reel that uses five new skills badly, and the finished video is what teaches you, not the feature list.
A week of practice
A week of daily practice turns the loop into a habit. Day one is the first hour, exactly as this page describes it. Day two is the same loop with a different clip, which proves the skills transfer. Day three adds transitions, day four adds a voiceover, and day five is a full Reel from storyboard to export without looking at this page.
By day six, the workflow is yours, and the interesting questions change: which hooks work, which covers get tapped, and which captions read best. Those are the questions our Reels guide answers, and they are worth asking only once the loop itself is automatic. Practice the loop first, and the style questions will answer themselves faster.
Where beginners get stuck
Beginners get stuck in three places, and all three have simple fixes. The first is sign-in: Edits signs in with an Instagram account, and a wrong account or a delayed code looks like an app fault. Our login problems guide works through the checks in order, from connection to account to server. The second is captions that will not generate, which is usually a connection problem during generation or a language setting that does not match the spoken language; our captions troubleshooting guide covers both.
The third is exports that fail or look blurry, which is usually storage, a damaged clip, or a low export setting rather than a broken app. Our export failed guide and our blurry export guide work through those in order, quickest first. The pattern across all three is the same: check the simple cause before the deep one, and check our help hub before reinstalling, because reinstalling is slow, risks drafts, and rarely fixes the problem on its own.
One last habit for the road: export finished work the same day you make it. Drafts live on the device that created them, not in the cloud, and an exported file is the only copy that survives a phone switch, a reset, or an uninstalled app. That habit costs seconds and saves projects.
Start today, not next week. Install the app, record one clip, and follow the hour. The first Reel is the hardest one you will ever make, and every Reel after it gets easier, because the loop is already yours.
Bookmark this page, and come back after your first Reel. The second read will feel different, because the words will now describe skills you have actually used, not skills you are imagining.