Auto b-roll

How to Add B-Roll to a Video Automatically on iPhone (2026)

B-roll is the line between "this looks produced" and "this is a webcam clip." It is also where your editing hour quietly disappears. Every cutaway is the same little chore: find the right clip, remember which folder it is in, drag it in, trim it, nudge it so it hits on the right word. Ten of those per video and you have spent longer placing b-roll than filming.

Wavcut takes that chore off you. Your clips live in a library inside the editor, and it lays them over your footage automatically as a first pass, so you start from a rough cut with b-roll already in it instead of a blank timeline. Then you do the fun part, swapping and nudging the few moments that matter, on the phone, with nothing uploaded.

Quick answer

Keep your clips in Wavcut’s b-roll library and let it lay them over your talking-head or voiceover as a first pass. Instead of hunting for a clip and dragging each one onto the timeline by hand, you open a rough cut that already has b-roll in it and only change the moments you want to change. It runs on-device on iPhone.

How to add b-roll to a video automatically on iPhone with Wavcut

1
Build your b-roll library
Add your b-roll clips, filmed footage, stock, screen recordings, into Wavcut’s library so they live where you edit.
2
Import your main clip
Open the talking-head clip or voiceover you want to cut b-roll into.
3
Let Wavcut place the b-roll
Run the auto b-roll pass. Wavcut drops clips from your library onto the timeline at sensible moments as a first cut.
4
Review and nudge
Scrub the rough cut and adjust any b-roll moment, swap a clip, shift the timing, or remove one.
5
Export from your phone
Render straight from your iPhone, no watermark at 720p on the free tier.

The two b-roll problems: storage and placement

B-roll wastes your time in two different ways, and most tools only think about one. The first is just finding it. Your footage is scattered across the camera roll, a cloud folder, an old downloads pile, so every edit opens with a few minutes of digging, and you forget half of what you own. Wavcut keeps a real library inside the editor, so the clip you need is where you are already working.

The second is the placing itself: picking the cut-in point, dragging the clip down, trimming it, sliding it until it hits the right word. That is the part that stacks up, because you repeat it for every cutaway in every video. Wavcut does that first pass for you and then gets out of the way so you can adjust.

Automatic placement, then you tweak

This is not "let the app make the video." A machine picking every cutaway with no taste is how you get generic. The point is narrower: skip the assembly, keep the judgment. Wavcut lays b-roll in at reasonable spots and hands you a rough cut, and every one of those choices is yours to swap, move, or delete.

Stack it with the silence cuts and captions and one pass gives you the whole skeleton: tight pacing, subtitles on, b-roll placed. All that is left is a skim and a few tweaks, which is what turns "I should edit that clip" into a posted video the same evening instead of next week.

Consistency through presets

How much b-roll you like, and how often it cuts in, is a taste you have already decided. So save it, in the same preset that holds your caption look and your silence sensitivity. Every new video then inherits the whole style in one tap, and your channel looks like one channel instead of fifty separate experiments.

It all stays on the phone. Your b-roll and your footage never leave the device, so there is no upload, no round-trip to a server, and the entire shoot-edit-post loop happens on the one thing you filmed with.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add b-roll to a video without a timeline full of dragging?

Keep your clips in Wavcut’s library and run the auto b-roll pass. It lays them onto the timeline as a first cut, so you open a rough edit that already has b-roll in it and only touch the moments you want to change.

Where does the b-roll come from?

Your own library inside Wavcut: filmed footage, stock, screen recordings, product shots, whatever you drop in. You add a clip once and it stays organized where you edit, ready to place.

Can I control where the b-roll goes?

Completely. The auto pass is a starting point, not a locked edit. Every cutaway sits on the timeline where you can swap the clip, slide the timing, or pull it out.

Does adding b-roll require uploading my footage?

No. Placement runs on the phone, so your library and your footage stay there. No upload, no render queue.

Can I reuse the same b-roll behavior across videos?

Yes, that is what presets are for. Save how much b-roll you want and how often it cuts in, and every future video applies it in one tap so the look holds steady.

Does auto b-roll work for faceless and voiceover videos?

Yes, and that is the sweet spot: laying b-roll over a voiceover is the faceless workflow. Wavcut builds the first pass from your library and leaves the refining to you.