Okay, so the other day I was trying to do something seemingly simple – slap together an audio track with a video on my iPhone. I figured, “Hey, there’s gotta be an easy way to do this, right?” Turns out, it wasn’t as straightforward as I thought, at least not without downloading some extra apps. But then I remembered Shortcuts! I’ve dabbled with it before, so I decided to give it a shot and see if I could build my own little audio-video combiner.
Getting Started
First things first, I opened up the Shortcuts app. I’ve played around with it enough to know the basics, like how to add actions and stuff. I’m no expert, but I can usually fumble my way through.
The Process
I started by trying to get the video. I figured the “Select Photos” action would be the way to go, and yep, it let me pick a video from my library. So far, so good.
Next up was the audio. This part was a little trickier. I initially hoped there’d be a “Select Music” action or something similar, but no dice. I messed around with the “Get Music” Action.
- Add “Select Photos” action: To select the video.
- Set “Select Multiple” to off, and “Videos” only.
- Add “Get Music” action: To select the audio track.
- Set “Ask During Run” to let me choose each time.
- Add “Encode Media” action. To merge the audio and video
- “Encode Media” action to set the video from “Shortcut Input”.
- Turn off “Audio Only” to keep the video.
- Set the audio to your selected music.
- Add “Save File” action. To save it on the file system.
Saving the Masterpiece
Finally, I needed a way to save the combined video. I used the “Save File” action, and I could choose where to save it. I picked “iCloud Drive” just to keep things organized, but you could save it wherever you want, really.
The Result
I hit the play button, crossed my fingers, and… it worked! It took a bit of trial and error, and honestly, I’m still not 100% sure I did everything in the most efficient way, but I got the result I wanted. My video and audio were combined! It’s not the prettiest solution, but it’s mine, and it gets the job done without needing to download some random app. It saved on my device. I’m pretty stoked about that.
I might try to refine it later, maybe add some options for trimming the audio or video, but for now, I’m calling it a win. It’s a simple shortcut, but it’s super useful for me. If you’re trying to do the same thing, hopefully, this little walkthrough of my experience helps you out!