A new iOS app called Reelful uses AI to automatically turn photos and video clips from your camera roll into polished TikTok- and Instagram Reels-style videos for social media. Reelful is designed for people who want to create social content, but find traditional video editing tools too complex or time-consuming.
The app’s launch reflects a broader shift in video creation, as AI is allowing users to move beyond traditional creative tools to AI agents that are capable of automating content creation. Reelful joins a growing wave of AI startups that are reshaping how content is created, including Opus Clip and Captions.
Reelful, which is currently participating in a16z’s Speedrun program, was founded by Kate Deyneka, a former machine learning engineer at Snapchat who helped develop video and image models.
Deyneka left the social media giant to build an agentic video editor that helps people create short-form videos automatically, getting rid of the need to spend time selecting clips, adding effects, recording a voiceover, and fine-tuning edits.
“I want to post more on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, but video editing takes a lot of time, so much time that I do not even want to spend it because I have a lot of things going on in my life, especially now as an early-stage founder,” Deyneka said in an interview with TechCrunch. “I have a lot of events, I meet a lot of interesting people, and this is what I see for all my founder friends: they have a very active life, especially right now when AI is booming, but we do not have time to edit. I see Reelful as a tool that can help people build their online presence and their personal brand.”
Reelful works by getting users to enter a prompt describing the story they want to tell, whether it’s a travel recap, product demo, or event highlight. Users then create a voice clone by recording a 30-second sample, and select photos and videos from their camera roll. Reelful will then plan the video, write the script, add an AI voiceover, and assemble the final edit, complete with captions, music, and sound effects.
Reelful will turn still images into AI-generated video clips. For example, if a user includes a photo of someone cutting a mango, Reelful can animate the image into a short video showing the person slicing into the fruit. The AI-generated videos feature a watermark to inform users that it has been created with AI.
After Reelful generates a complete video, users can continue editing it further by chatting with the app to do things like swap the soundtrack, revise the script, or adjust other aspects of the video.
Deyneka says Reelful’s target audience, at least for now, is founders and business owners who need to consistently create content to build their online presence, personal brand, or company brand. For example, a salon in the Bay Area may have a lot of content on hand about its services and customer transformations, but not have the time or resources to turn that content into polished social media videos. That’s where Reelful comes in, Deyneka says.
“My target use case is that you went to an event or you met some cool people, and you recorded a short interview with them and while you are driving back home you just uploaded everything to the app, and by the time you’re home, the video is ready,” Deyneka said. “So I want to make it very effortless for people to share their life, their content, their expertise without actively editing or setting up the things on their laptop.”
Reelful offers both one-time purchases and subscription plans. Users can buy video credits in bundles of five videos for $15, 15 videos for $43, or 33 videos for $90. The “Creator” subscription costs $25 per month for 10 videos, while the “Pro” plan offers 25 videos per month for $50. The Studio plan includes 60 videos per month for $100.
While Reelful is currently only available on iOS, Deyneka plans to launch Android and web versions in the future.
