How to record time-lapse videos on Android

posted by Victor H. / Jul 18, 2014, 9:43 AM

How to record time-lapse videos on Android

Time-lapse videos are the type of artistic recordings that make you stop and think about the beauties of life that we often don’t notice - the slow movement of clouds in the sky, or the way our planet rotates in the vastness of space, surrounded by countless stars. But did you know that you could create such time-lapse videos on your Android smartphone or tablet?

Time-lapse functionality is not baked in the stock Google camera app (it appeared in it for a very short time, and may come back in the future, but it is not available at the time of this writing), so you’d need another solution.

Luckily, there are a couple of ways to shoot great-looking time-lapse videos. We’ll start off with a free app that gets the job done, and has passed the test of time.

1. Droid Timelapse

Price: Free
Download on Android

This free app comes with the single purpose of recording time-lapse videos on Android devices, and it has no ads. It supports the highest resolution of your camera (up to 1080p), has a recording delay timer, so you can control the speed of your time-lapse and the resulting video is of high MP4 quality.

You also have both manual and auto-focusing modes, as well as the option to fine-tune white balance and color effects.

The second app is a bit more advanced, and it comes with an even higher rating on the Google Play Store, but you’d need to pay for it.

2. Lapse It

Price: $1.99
Download on Android

Lapse It supports the maximum resolution of your camera, and allows you to mash up your time-lapse video with any song from your library as a sound track. It can brag with a good-looking UI, a fast rendering engine, custom frame rates, filters effects, and even a bonus stop-motion mode.

It has advanced options like reverse time, a video trimmer, the capability to export to MP4, MOV and FLV, and it can also upload your video directly to YouTube, or other services.

Note: Time-lapse recording quality depends on your smartphone and to get the maximum (1080p Full HD quality for these apps) you'd need to use a smartphone with a camera that supports this high resolution like the Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 3, LG G3, LG G2, Sony Xperia Z2, Z1, HTC One (M8), etc.

Options

15 Comments

1. DEATHSTROKE9

Posts: 399; Member since: Nov 09, 2013

So I can't use my Nexus 5? Its not in the list.....

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 10:12 AM 0

2. Anshulonweb

Posts: 468; Member since: Feb 07, 2014

you dense motherf***er...... "etc" has been written at end implementing at they work on other phones other than that mentioned...

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 10:38 AM 15

7. mmmanuuu

Posts: 403; Member since: Nov 05, 2013

Lol..

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 1:10 PM 0

10. ManusImperceptus

Posts: 724; Member since: Jun 10, 2014

"implementing"...? "Implying", right...? Dense indeed!

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 3:01 PM 3

13. medicci37

Posts: 1361; Member since: Nov 19, 2011

No need to be a d*ck about it ^^

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 3:24 PM 2

3. amats69

Posts: 1527; Member since: Nov 12, 2012

you know what etc means right?

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 10:54 AM 2

8. mrmessma

Posts: 271; Member since: Mar 28, 2012

After my 3yr old Galaxy Nexus got 1080p video, Google thought it was just a gimmick and scaled them all back.

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 2:37 PM 0

4. diehardnokian

Posts: 148; Member since: Apr 27, 2014

how about the camera fv-5?!

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 11:03 AM 0

5. needa

Posts: 205; Member since: Jun 30, 2014

thanks for the apps. i would have never thought to time lapse without this.

posted on Jul 18, 2014, 12:15 PM 0

6. apple4never

Posts: 1064; Member since: May 08, 2013

as long as the camera is at least 3mp it means its full HD i.e. 1080p its actually 2 mp but you know. the quality might be horrendous though id use no less than 8mp, 5 if you know how to set up a camera properly and 3 if your like a camera god lol