by Where most video apps on our iPhones focus purely on Kodak moments, Lightt is kind of like a personal documentarian. With an eye for short clips that can be quickly captured and posted, the video-recording app stitches together your posts into an endless looping timeline that plays a bit like a disjointed flip book. Version 3 brings it up to speed with its filter-happy contemporaries, and a host of editing and audio tools make it a viable alternative to Vine and Instagram.
Lightt packs a ton of features into an interface that aims to be as simple as possible. The recording screen features several options that are accessible at a tap, including ghost mode (which overlays a translucent image of your last capture), image stabilization, and auto focus. An array of live filters and special effects dress up your clips in a variety of ways — we particularly enjoyed Gaussian and Glass Sphere — and a series of shortcuts let you quickly switch cameras, toggle the flash, and delete your last capture.
Tapping and holding your finger anywhere below the square video window starts recording (lifting pauses it), and a clever sliding gesture zooms in on your subject without fumbling to pinch. After recording, clips can be individually trimmed before your masterpiece is finalized. While we had fun exploring Lightt’s effects, the interface feels extremely crowded on the iPhone screen. Buttons often failed to respond to our touch, and the navigation felt somewhat confusing, especially when recording. Also, the camera is a little slow to launch at times.
Lightt gets in on the social media game with its own network of Lightters, and varying playback speeds let you scrub through dozens of clips in just a few seconds. Saved videos are automatically added to your revolving timeline, though individual clips can be posted to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr as well. We do wish that there was a clearer way to designate videos as private, however. A pair of in-app purchases take away the 60-second cap on recording, but we didn’t find the limit too constricting.
The bottom line. Lightt is a great way to record your living history, but a muddled interface takes away some of its luster.
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