YouTube Create Prepares to Launch Mobile Video Editor for iOS: Competitive Landscape, Growth Trends, and DeepFounder Analysis

Google is gearing up to bring its YouTube Create video editing app to iOS, nearly two years after debuting exclusively on Android. Recent job listings indicate Google is actively hiring engineers in Bengaluru, India, to spearhead development for Apple devices.

The Road to iOS Launch

YouTube Create first launched in 2023 across eight countries and rolled out to 13 more by early 2024. This free mobile editor is tailored for content creators, providing options to add stickers, GIFs, effects, and more, supporting both YouTube Shorts and longer videos. Development included feedback from over 3,000 creators to align features with user needs.

Entering the iOS market is a calculated move, but competition is stiff. The video editing landscape is dominated by ByteDance’s CapCut and the well-established InShot. Both platforms have built significant leads in both user numbers and engagement.

Competitive Performance: A Numbers Game

According to Sensor Tower, CapCut and InShot saw 66 million and 21 million Android downloads in Q2 2025, respectively. YouTube Create trailed with fewer than 500,000 downloads in the same period, amassing just 4 million since launch. Their user engagement figures echo this gap: CapCut boasts over 442 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Android, InShot 92 million, while YouTube Create lags with under 1 million.

On the iOS side, the gulf widens further. CapCut reached 194 million iOS MAUs in Q2, and InShot 25 million. Downloads are similarly dominated by CapCut (28 million) and Instagram’s Edits tool (7 million).

Deep Founder Analysis

Why it matters

The impending release of YouTube Create for iOS signals a strategic evolution in the mobile creator tools ecosystem. For startups and founders, it showcases how major platforms are trying to capture the attention and loyalty of creative communities across operating systems. Expanding to iOS broadens Google’s potential user base and reflects a wider trend: platform exclusivity is ceding ground to cross-ecosystem reach, a lesson for any startup targeting creators or app-centric markets.

Risks & opportunities

Risk-wise, late market entry comes with substantial user acquisition challenges—especially when rivals like CapCut are deeply integrated with their content platforms (e.g., TikTok) and have established large, sticky user communities. However, the opportunity lies in YouTube’s direct tie-in with the world’s biggest video platform and Google’s resources for technical and creator community support. For founders, this highlights both the importance of ecosystem integration and the difficulty of dislodging incumbents without unique value or network effects.

Startup idea or application

An actionable concept: a meta-tool for creators that automatically recommends, integrates, and migrates best edits and assets across CapCut, InShot, YouTube Create, and Instagram. Such an app could leverage AI to personalize workflow recommendations and enable cross-platform publishing and analytics, lowering switching friction and creating value through portability.

Growth, Retention, and Market Diversity

Despite its challenges, YouTube Create’s active user base grew 28% year-over-year in Q2—a stronger pace than CapCut (9% growth) or InShot (7% decline). Analyst Abe Yousef from Sensor Tower suggests this signals a gradually more loyal community, even as new downloads slow. Still, retention remains low: just 1% of users remain after 90 days, versus CapCut’s 7% and InShot’s 4%.

Engagement metrics also highlight hurdles: users spend an average of only 38 minutes per month on YouTube Create, versus 62 minutes on CapCut. The app is opened less frequently as well (11 sessions monthly for YouTube Create, compared to 23 for CapCut).

Geographic Shifts and Future Market Share

Originally, India made up 67% of the user base, but this dropped to 51% as adoption spreads. Indonesia follows with 21%, then Germany, Brazil, and the UK. Notably, YouTube Create is seeing rapid MAU growth in Spain, South Korea, France, and Singapore.

Experts believe a well-executed iOS launch could accelerate this international expansion—though the competitive landscape will remain fierce, with native and platform-backed editors competing for share. Google has not commented publicly on the release timeline for iOS.

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