GoPro pulls the plug on its desktop Quik editing app – less than a year after bringing it back
- GoPro is sunsetting its Quik desktop video editing app
- The Mac version will be removed from the App Store on December 31
- GoPro says it’ll no longer be launching a Windows version
GoPro has pulled a surprise U-turn and announced that it’s sunsetting its Quik desktop editing app – less than a year on from bringing it back.
The Quik Desktop for Mac app will disappear from the App Store on December 31, according to a GoPro blog post. Meanwhile, the long-promised Windows version, which never arrived, will “not be released”.
The app was a handy video editing option for GoPro subscribers, and its return was announced in late 2023 after GoPro discontinued a previous free version in 2017. But after finally launching the Mac version in February, GoPro says it’s now “shifting gears to focus solely on mobile-focused editing solutions”.
That means the GoPro Quik app for iOS and Android will soon be the only GoPro-made way to edit your videos and boost their stabilization. If you’d prefer to edit on desktop, GoPro says it’ll be releasing updated versions of its plug-ins for some of the best video editing software like Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
GoPro does also have a web app for subscribers who’ve stored their videos and photos in the GoPro Cloud service, but that’s strictly for watching and sharing footage rather than editing.
Why the U-turn?
GoPro is clearing going through some challenging times, with its main focus in 2024 being growing its subscriber base. But while the Quik desktop app was part of that plan (being only available to GoPro subscribers), it clearly wasn’t moving the needle enough to justify the development costs.
As GoPro recently revealed in its latest earnings call, the GoPro Max 2 – its long-awaited challenger to the best 360 cameras like the Insta360 X4 – now definitely won’t be launched until sometime in 2025.
That’s a big delay considering it was confirmed to be “in the works” back in September 2023, so it’s no surprise that the Max 2 is a bigger priority than shipping a Windows version of the Quik desktop app.
When the Max 2 does eventually arrive, it’ll be interesting to see what editing options GoPro provides, because 360-degree clips are notoriously demanding and often better edited on a desktop machine.
Until then, current GoPro owners who prefer desktop editing will need to either continue with an out-of-date Quik Mac app or switch to the likes of Adobe Premiere, After Effects or (hopefully) DaVinci Resolve, if GoPro makes a plug-in for the latter.