SlideFlow

SlideFlow is free to download, and you can try it in two ways:

• An unlimited free trial mode, where generated slideshows include self-promotions. Use SlideFlow for free forever if you help us promote SlideFlow!
• A fully functional free trial for a few days, included with some subscriptions.

Full access is available through subscriptions or a one-time lifetime purchase. See the current pricing on the App Store. Your purchase can be shared with your family through Apple Family Sharing.

Yes, SlideFlow works on Mac, as well as on iPhone and iPad, with only minor differences between the versions. On Mac it requires macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later.

Your purchase unlocks all features on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and can be shared with your family through Apple Family Sharing. To get started, see our tutorial on making a photo slideshow on Mac.

Yes, SlideFlow works both on iPhone and iPad, as well as on Mac, with only minor differences between the versions. On iPhone and iPad it requires iOS 17.0 or iPadOS 17.0 or later.

Your purchase unlocks all features on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and can be shared with your family through Apple Family Sharing. To get started, see our tutorial on making a photo slideshow on iPhone and iPad.

Functionally, SlideFlow is almost the same on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and your slideshows sync between all your devices via iCloud.

The user interface is designed individually for every platform, so that SlideFlow feels natural on each of them: with a mouse and keyboard on Mac, and with touch on iPhone and iPad. So the screens look different, but you will find the same features on all your devices.

The one functional difference to keep in mind is your own music. On iPhone and iPad you can add music both from audio files and from your Music app's library, while on Mac only audio files can be used.

Yes. Many DLNA-capable TVs are supported. Simply connect your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the same local network as your TV via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and you are ready to go. Our guide on playing a slideshow on your TV shows the whole procedure, and what to change when a room is watching.

You can also cast any single photo or video to your TV, not just slideshows – browsing your photo library on your device while the television shows the picture.

If your TV doesn’t appear, or appears but won’t play, connecting SlideFlow to your TV goes through the causes one by one. It is nearly always something specific about the local network.

Yes. You can export or share your slideshows as MP4 video files, which play on practically any modern device. You choose how they are encoded:

• 720p (HD), 1080p (Full HD), or 4K (Ultra HD) resolution, balancing quality and file size.
• H.264 (more compatible, but larger file size) or HEVC / H.265 (smaller file size, but may not play on older devices).

You can also pick the aspect ratio, including vertical and square videos for Instagram or TikTok.

For the full picture, see our guide on saving a photo slideshow as a video, which explains what to pick for each destination.

Yes. SlideFlow can export in three aspect ratios:

• Horizontal 16:9: for general use, YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.
• Vertical 9:16: for TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Stories, YouTube Shorts, etc.
• Square 1:1: for Instagram and Facebook posts, etc.

Whatever you choose, the slideshow content is optimized to fit the frame in the best possible way. You can also choose the resolution and video format of the exported file.

Our guide on saving a slideshow as a video shows how the same photo looks in all three shapes, and which one to use for each platform.

You don’t have to wait at all! Unlike traditional slideshow makers, SlideFlow doesn’t render the entire video before playing it. It generates the slideshow on the fly, so playback starts almost immediately – on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and even on TV.

Full rendering only happens when you choose to export your slideshow as a video file.

Yes. You can build slideshows from your Apple Photos library, from any image and video files, and from whole folders. Drop in a folder containing photos, videos, and music, and you get a finished slideshow – with that music.

SlideFlow can also create slideshows automatically, based on capture date and location (see Moments), or from any Photos album. Smart selection and filtering let you narrow things down further, for example including only favorite photos and skipping videos or screenshots.

The two sources behave differently, though: library photos are always referenced, while for files you choose whether they are copied into SlideFlow or referenced in place. Our guide on the Photos library versus files explains what each one gives you, what each one costs, and which to pick.

Yes. When you first add photo or video files, SlideFlow asks whether to copy them into the app or keep them at their original location; you can change the choice anytime in SlideFlow's settings. Referenced files take no extra disk space and no iCloud traffic – ideal for large collections stored on external drives.

Referenced files must stay reachable, though: if the drive is unplugged or a file is moved, the slideshow marks it as unavailable and offers a Locate… button to point SlideFlow at it again – picking the containing folder re-links every missing file found there in one go. Copied files, in contrast, are self-contained and sync to your other devices together with the slideshow; referenced files stay where they are.

Several devices can even share the same drive. Your slideshows sync via iCloud as usual; connect the drive to another Mac, iPhone, or iPad, press Locate… once, and the whole collection plays there too – iCloud carries only the lightweight slideshows, your media never has to touch it.

One note for iPhone and iPad: external drives are not as dependable there as on a Mac. Whether a particular drive works depends on the device and the drive – power draw and format are the usual culprits – and even a drive that shows up in Apple's Files app can stutter or disconnect partway through a long slideshow on some (weaker) iOS devices. If yours does, a drive with its own power supply may help, as well as copying the files into SlideFlow.

Our guide on the Photos library versus files covers both modes in detail.

Yes. You can freely mix photos and videos in any order within the same slideshow, whether they come from Apple Photos, files, or both.

Your settings apply to both kinds of media, so a mixed slideshow holds together as one piece: transitions ease a clip in and out just as they do a photo, and creative filters restyle videos alongside the stills around them.

SlideFlow offers smart animations, a great way to introduce people within their environment. When enabled, SlideFlow looks for faces – or, with the Subject options, for the area the AI finds most interesting when there are no faces – and animates the photo accordingly:

• Zoom In (on Faces, or on Subject) first introduces the environment (the full photo) and then focuses on the people or the area of interest.
• Zoom Out does the opposite: it begins with the people or the area of interest, then reveals the environment around them.
• Zoom In or Out picks one of the two at random for every photo and playback.

You can see some examples in the final video of our Mac tutorial.

Yes. SlideFlow includes a wide selection of built-in music tracks across various genres. In addition, you can add your own music from:

• Any audio files. They work on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Your files join your personal My Music library: each track is added once, synced via iCloud, and ready for any slideshow on any of your devices.
• Your Music app's library. Note:
  • Import from the Music app's library only works on iPhone and iPad, not on Mac.
  • Music imported from the Music app is only available on that one iPhone or iPad. It doesn’t sync to your other devices via iCloud.
  • The Music app has copyright restrictions. You can only import songs that you own, for example songs you imported yourself or purchased. Streamed music is not available.

For the full picture, see our guide on making a photo slideshow with music.

1. Open a slideshow.
2. Open the slideshow settings, for example using the Customize button.
3. Click or tap Music in the General section.

You are now on the Music Tracks screen, showing the tracks that play while the current slideshow shows your photos. Here you can play and manage them: drag to reorder, remove them one at a time or with Remove All, and use Add Music to add more built-in tracks or your own.

Your own music files live in the My Music library (Add Music → Add My Music), where you can import files – or whole folders of them – with the file picker or drag & drop. SlideFlow keeps one copy of each track, synced via iCloud, so a track added once is ready for any slideshow on any of your devices. You can also manage the library from SlideFlow's settings.

The Shuffle music tracks toggle sits at the top of the same screen, above the list, once the slideshow has at least two tracks. It is on by default, so the tracks play in random order and your slideshow sounds a little different every time. Turn it off, and they play in the order shown.

Our guide on making a photo slideshow with music walks through these steps with screenshots for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Yes, you can change all these and many other slideshow settings. You can even define settings at multiple levels:

• Slideshow Settings: settings applied to one slideshow, and to every photo and video in it that has no settings of its own.
• Media Settings: override any slideshow-level setting for one specific photo or video.
• Default Slideshow Settings: settings applied to all newly created slideshows. They belong to the app rather than to a slideshow, so you'll find them in SlideFlow's settings. Choose your favorite settings there, and all new slideshows will use them!

Our guide on customizing slideshow settings walks through every setting at all three levels. There are also dedicated guides for transitions and creative filters.

Turn on the four settings that vary while the slideshow plays, and no two viewings will be the same:

• Shuffle photos & videos plays your media in a different order.
• Slide transitions: enable a set rather than a single one, and SlideFlow varies among them.
• Filters: enable several, and the same photo comes back in a different style.
• Shuffle music tracks changes the order of the soundtrack.

None of this is decided in advance. SlideFlow builds the slideshow as it plays instead of rendering a video up front, so the choices are made afresh every time you press play – and again on every pass when Repeat slideshow is on. That is what keeps a slideshow looping on a TV at a party from turning into wallpaper nobody notices after the second loop.

It is also a way to experience your own photos and videos in new ways. A familiar shot arriving in Noir, or after a whip pan instead of a fade, shows you the picture rather than the memory – and none of it re-saves anything. Filters and every other effect are applied while the slideshow plays, so your library keeps one untouched original instead of an edited copy for every style you want to see.

Our guide explains the four settings that make every playback different, including where to find each one. Note that an exported video is a fixed file: the variation is resolved once at export and kept, so switch the shuffles off first if the video should match what you previewed.

Moments are slideshows SlideFlow builds for you automatically. Pick a date range from your Photos library and press Create Moments: SlideFlow looks at when your photos and videos were taken, groups them into the events they naturally belong to, and names each group after its dates and, where it can tell, the place. A weekend away becomes one Moment, a birthday dinner another. Moments can also be built from files and folders – point SlideFlow at a camera dump or a messenger export, and it sorts the chaos into events the same way, referencing the files in place without copying anything.

Moments are temporary. They last until you replace them with a new set, clear them, or quit the app, and that is the point: you can generate dozens of them, look through your last year in a few minutes, and your saved slideshows stay uncluttered. Play them on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, or TV, and export them as videos, exactly like any other slideshow.

When a Moment turns out to be worth keeping, press Save as Slideshow and it becomes a normal saved slideshow, editable and synced through iCloud. You can also skip the temporary step altogether: the New Slideshow menu creates saved slideshows from a date range the same way, from your Photos albums and smart albums, and from folders – one slideshow per folder, or grouped by date. Either route can include only photos, only videos, or only your favorites.

Yes. Your slideshows are synced across all your devices – Macs, iPhones, and iPads – using iCloud. This happens when:

• You are signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.
• iCloud sync is enabled in Settings for SlideFlow.
• If you use photos and videos from your library:
  • iCloud sync is enabled for the Photos Library.
  • SlideFlow has sufficient Photos access on all devices.

Note that files referenced in place rather than copied in don't travel with the slideshow: the slideshow itself syncs, but another device shows those items as unavailable until it can reach the same files – connect the same external drive to that device and press Locate…, and the slideshow plays there too, with the media staying off iCloud entirely.

For the full picture – including what sync costs in iCloud storage and why music from the Music app stays on one device – see our guide on syncing slideshows across devices.