The Bitcut Timeline: Complete Guide to Clip Editing

The timeline is the core of Bitcut's editor. It shows all your clips arranged left-to-right in playback order. Each clip is a rectangular block whose width represents its duration. You can drag to reorder, tap to select, and pinch to zoom.

Anatomy of the Timeline

  • Clip blocks — each block shows a thumbnail strip from the video. Longer clips are wider.
  • Playhead — the vertical white line that shows the current playback position. Drag it to scrub through your video.
  • Beat dots — if you've added a music track with beat detection, colored dots appear above the timeline at beat positions.
  • Processing indicators — clips being processed by AI show an overlay with a progress icon (magnifying glass, waveform, scissors, or checkmark).
  • Swipe left/right — scroll through clips
  • Pinch — zoom in/out to see more or less detail
  • Tap a clip — select it. The selected clip shows a blue border and its toolbar appears.
  • Drag the playhead — scrub to any position

Clip Order

Clips play in left-to-right order. To reorder, long-press a clip until it lifts, then drag it to a new position. The other clips shift to make room. See Reordering Clips for more details.

Understanding Duration

Each clip has a source duration (the full length of the original video) and a trimmed duration (what's shown on the timeline). When you add a clip, it's added at full length by default. Trimming adjusts the start and end points without deleting any source material — you can always extend it back.

The total project duration is shown at the top of the editor. It's the sum of all trimmed clip durations.

Zoom for precision: Pinch to zoom in when you need precise trimming. At maximum zoom, each pixel represents a few milliseconds — enough to trim to individual words or beats.