VSCO unveils Montage, an editing tool that lets users stack and layer multiple photos and videos to create a collage, as it continues to shift focus to video
VSCO, a popular photo editing app (and Gen Z meme), is continuing to shift its focus to video. Last month, the company finally gave …
Context & Ripple Effects
Montage is the third step in a slow pivot VSCO has been making since it shipped its first video editing tool for VSCO X members back in 2017 and then bought video startup Rylo — which had raised roughly $38M — at the end of 2019. The collage format also puts VSCO in the same lane Pinterest tested with Shuffles, an invite-only collage app that went viral on TikTok.
The strategic logic is visible in hindsight: by 2024 VSCO reported profitability on 200M users but only 160K subscribers paying $59.99/year for Pro, so free-tier creative tools like this are how a filter app earns its keep beyond presets.
First-order effects
- VSCO's user base gains a native way to mix photos and video in one composition, extending the Rylo-acquired video stack from a standalone editor into everyday creation tools.
Second-order effects
- Pinterest's Shuffles proved collages can drive viral acquisition, so VSCO now competes for the same Gen Z collage-creation habit rather than just the filter market.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, photo-editing subscriptions get defended by shipping multi-format creation features rather than more presets — the path VSCO later took to profitability — while platform players like Google push generative photo-to-video tools into the same workflow.
The trend: Photo editing apps are layering video and collage creation onto their filter roots to convert large free user bases into paid subscribers.