‘Magical’ video editing app Magisto adds themes & group albums for a more personal experience

Automated video editing application Magisto has updated its feature set to add group albums that can be accessed by many people and smarter editing of your personal moments.

As we’ve written before, Magisto offers an automated video editing service for iOS, Android, and the web that it likes to dub as “magical.” It has collected more than 3 million users to date on the strength of its mission to help people edit short videos with effects and flair. But with the new updates, which it announced today at CES 2013, the service will get a bit more personal and social.

The first major part of today’s announcement is the addition of group albums that accessible via the web. With group albums, you can connect with family and friends and share one big collection of memories. Personally, I like the idea of using it with family to collect intimate and important moments — documenting your children’s big moments, an engagement, wedding, holidays, etc.

“Essentially it’s a scrapbook,” Magisto CEO Oren Boiman told me. “It could be the story of your family, the story of your friends, or just the story of a single event. It’s one place for all the angles of the story.”

Another reason Magisto added group albums on the web is creating a better system for accessing albums among several people. Boiman said that more than 60 percent of of users share Magisto content via email rather than using Facebook or Twitter, so he wanted to provide a better sharing mechanism.

Secondly, Magisto has added “themes” to its iOS and Android apps, which help the editing algoritm better tell your story. You select a theme such as “street beat” or “so cute” and you get a slightly different take on your edited video. Boiman said that the Android app does not let you see a full preview of your theme like you can in iOS, but that will be added in the coming months.