Create Edit Replay the Adobe Lightroom way.

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Hi! Welcome to my first blog of 2026. Today's blog is about a feature of the Adobe Lightroom Mobile app that you might not be aware of.

By the end of this blog you will know where to go to create short videos of your Lightroom Mobile edits, and how you can use them to promote your content to your existing and potential audience.

Before I start, for those of you who are familiar with my output, you'll know that I have been a long-time fan of Snapseed, and that I have given the impression that it's the only photo editing app I use. Well that's partly true. Although Snapseed is my main editing app, I also occasionally use Lightroom Mobile alongside it. It was whilst carrying out some edits on the Lightroom Mobile app that I came across the Create Edit Replay function.

First a bit of background. Adobe Lightroom Mobile introduced the ability to save photo edits as a time-lapse video, often used for social media reels, with its June 2023 release (version 8.4). This feature, which is called, Create Edit Replay, automatically generates a short video that showcases the before-and-after process and all the editing steps applied to a photo. You can then save this video to your device and share it directly on platforms such as Instagram as a reel. 

So how does this edit replay work? After you've finished working through your edits, hit the Share icon in the top right corner of the screen. This brings up a menu in the bottom left corner, at the bottom of which is Create Edit Replay. Hit this button and your editing workflow will be morphed into a short video, typically around 20 seconds in length. The video is automatically saved in your Lightroom Gallery. You can share the video from there.

So what? You might think, this is just another little gimmicky thing from Adobe that I am never going to use. But here are the main benefits of using this feature.

The main benefit is that Lightroom does all the heavy lifting in creating engaging content. The automatically generated time-lapse video of your photo edits and their labels (before-and-after) is perfect for sharing on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, X, and Twitter. The videos are automatically saved into your Lightroom gallery and can be exported to other photo galleries, such as Google Photos. Lightroom is saving you a significant amount of time and effort because you don't to manually record and edit a screen-capture video of your workflow.

You are able to showcases your workflow because viewers can see a high-level overview of the adjustments you made, making your post more interactive and interesting than a static image. The video is more dynamic and therefore more engaging.

Having a permanent record of your workflow means you can refer back to it to see how you got from the before to the after. It's also a useful tool for personal review and improvement. Watching the quick run-through of your edits can help you analyse your process and identify areas where you might have made too drastic of a change, helping you refine your workflow in the future.

It is a great way of promoting your skill as a photo editor, and to perhaps show off your unique editing style and creative process without revealing the exact numerical settings or presets you used. By sharing your edit replays, you could possibly be inspiring other photographers in your community, giving them an idea of the steps involved in achieving a particular look or style.

In short, Create Edit Replay is a powerful tool for content creators and anyone who wants to share the story behind their photo edits in a dynamic, shareable format.

I have uploaded a few of my reels to my revamped YouTube channel @smart_phone_photographer_53. Please subscribe for free.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog, and that you'll be inspired to give the Create Edit Replay function a whirl as part of your photography editing process.

Please drop a comment below, tell your friends, and return for my next blog. You can follow me on Instagram and Threads @smart_phone_photographer_53.

© Mike Young 2026.



















© Mike Young 2026.



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