VSCO Buys Trash, Adding AI-Editing Features to its Growing Video Support
Trash was always going to sound funny if a company were to acquire it, as VSCO has done today. Trash is an AI editing video app whose acquisition allows VSCO, which has traditionally focused on still photography, to further diversify.
The value of the acquisition has not been made public.
Trash is an app that uses artificial intelligence technology to analyze a set of video clips and identify the most interesting shots, automatically stitch those shots together, and produce a finished video. The app has been updated over time to allow you to tell the algorithm what kind of video you wanted. Called Styles, the update let you tell the app that you wanted it to be a music video, or narrative, or something more abstract.
The edits that Trash made to videos wasn’t set in stone and could be fine-tuned before exporting. The idea, though, is that Trash could significantly reduce the amount of time you spend culling and fast-track you to just minor tweaks. For videos designed to go out on social, it promised to be a massive time-saver.
In a blog, Trash’s Co-Founder Hannah Donovan says that VSCO made an excellent partner for its technology because both brands believe in the power of creativity and its positive impact on people’s lives.
“We have similar audiences of Gen Z casual creators,” Donovan writes. “And are focused on giving people ways to express themselves and share their version of the world while feeling seen, safe, and supported.”
Trash will be shutting down its app on December 18. Anyone currently using the app will lose access to any videos not stored on their devices as the Trash team transitions to bringing its functionality to VSCO’s app.
VSCO intends to integrate Trash’s technology into its own app immediately. The first feature that will come in the next few months is support for multi-clip editing, and over time more of Trash’s features will find themselves inside of VSCO.
Big news: my company @thetrashapp has been acquired by @vsco and we’re thrilled to be joining! 🎉https://t.co/A5Vky6YBIp
— Hannah Donovan (@Han) December 3, 2020
The company has been on a bit of an acquisition tear lately, scooping up video companies like Rylo and Montage to bolster its video offerings. Likely in an effort to stand out in the visual social media space, VSCO recently added the ability to publish videos to the main VSCO feed which previously had only supported photos.
It is speculated that since all the other video features found in VSCO are available only to subscribers to its $19.99 a year plan, the coming Trash features will also be locked behind that paywall.
Life update: https://t.co/Wn7qyCwAn9
— Trash (@thetrashapp) December 3, 2020
VSCO is most well known for its mobile app and photo filters, but it appears to be trying to change that with this run of video-focused acquisitions. The company may be trying to expand on its over 100 million registered users (2 million of those paid users) by offering more features, or perhaps the company believes that the same users who are interested in its photo offerings will find video editing capabilities just as compelling. Whatever the case, VSCO is becoming a one-stop-shop for creative imagery on mobile.
(via Tech Crunch)
