When you tap the Share button from the Media screen, Facebook is one of your destination choices (Figure 24-2). iOS has some pretty deep integration with Facebook, so you set up your account from the Settings app on your iDevice. (Figure 24-3). Open Settings, scroll down to Facebook, and then tap the panel to open Facebook’s Share Project screen.

Figure 24-2. The Share menu lists all your choices for distributing your movie. Drag to the left to see options that don’t fit in the window.

If you haven’t signed into Facebook yet, fill in your user name and password. If you have, be sure you can share your movie to Facebook. Under “Allow these apps to use your account,” turn on iMovie access. Then click the Settings button on the same screen and turn on Upload HD, as shown in Figure 24-3. If, for some reason, you don’t see iMovie listed under “Allow these apps…” go back into iMovie and try sharing a movie to Facebook. Your device asks your permission to share movies with Facebook.

Figure 24-3. Left: In your Settings app, make sure you allow iMovie to use your Facebook account. If iMovie is not in this list, try to share a movie to Facebook—when you do, iMovie asks your permission to talk to Facebook from here on. Right: Tap Settings (under the Facebook logo). Turn on Upload HD if you have a speedy data connection, one that can handle large files.

With your account information entered and access granted, tap the Share button from iMovie’s Media screen to launch the Share Project screen (Figure 24-4). Tap Facebook, and then enter the movie or clip’s name and description, choose a movie quality, and decide who can see your video. (See Share to Facebook for more on these choices.) Then tap Share.

iMovie exports your video, uploads it, and then gives you a chance to visit it or tell a friend where to find it. Don’t worry if you forget the exact web address. You can always get to it by tapping to share the same thing to Facebook again. When you do, iMovie reminds you that you’ve already shared it, and you can go see it or tell a friend about it again. You can publish the same project a second time (if, for example, you made changes to it), but that doesn’t replace the old version; it just uploads a new one.

Figure 24-4. Left: When you share to Facebook, the first half of the screen asks for your video’s name and description and lets you choose a file size. Right: The other part of the Facebook screen lets you decide who can see your video.

iMovie doesn’t help you manage a video once you upload it, so editing or deleting your video requires a trip to Facebook.

The first time you share to YouTube, you have to log into your account (YouTube isn’t integrated with iOS the same way Facebook is). Enter your user name and password, and you see the YouTube Share Project screen (Figure 24-5).

Fill in the details about your movie, including the size of the file you want to upload and who can see it (choose Public to make it available to the world). Tap Share once you decide.

Figure 24-5. Left: To share to YouTube, enter your movie’s name, description, category listing, and tags (page 248). Right: Pick a video quality and then decide who can see your movie. Choose Public if you want the world to see it!

iMovie uploads your movie and tells you where you and your friends can find it. As with Facebook, trying to share the file to YouTube again results in a reminder that you’ve been this way before. And again, to edit or delete your video, you have to log into YouTube itself.

iOS integrates your Vimeo account the same way it does for Facebook, so you need to take a trip to the Settings app to enter your login details. (iMovie sends you there if you haven’t signed in yet.)

Once that’s done, Vimeo sharing is almost identical to YouTube sharing. The only difference is that you choose Anyone instead of Public to share your video with the world.

Like YouTube, CNN iReport is not integrated into iOS, so iMovie will prompt you to log into your account. Once done, fill in the details about your movie.

Note that iReport doesn’t offer a privacy setting—iReport videos are, by design, public. In addition, you can’t delete them. Short of persuading someone at CNN to remove a video you’ve uploaded, it’s going to stay there.

All kinds of apps can tap into an iDevice’s Camera Roll, the shared photo library explained in detail on Duplicate Audio. That includes apps for third-party file-sharing services like Dropbox, making it easy to upload a video from your Camera Roll to Dropbox so you can share the Dropbox folder with family and friends.

To share to your Camera Roll, tap the Share button and then choose Save Video. Once you select a file size (Figure 24-6), iMovie processes your movie and sticks it in the Camera Roll, nestled among all the other video clips and photos found there. Now any app that can access your Camera Roll can see your video.

iMovie Theater is a convenient way to share videos among all the devices on the same iCloud account. This includes Macs, iDevices, and AppleTVs. You can share full 1080p HD movies, too, making this a really slick setup.

Chapter 16 discusses iMovie Theater at length (starting on Sharing Basics). All you really need to know here is that you can share any clip or project to iMovie Theater from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch by choosing iMovie Theater from the Share menu, or by turning on the Add to Theater switch anytime you share a video to the Internet.

Once you upload a video, tap Theater in your iDevice’s toolbar to see it. Unlike in iMovie for the Mac, you don’t need to worry about uploading the video to iCloud—iMovie for iOS automatically does that when you share a movie to iMovie Theater.

iMessage is Apple’s free messaging service for all Mac and iDevice owners. Not only can you send messages, but you can also send photos, videos, and other files.

Because iMessage’s maximum file size is 100 MB, iMovie automatically exports your movie at a video quality that’s, well, low—360p, in fact. If you need to transfer something of higher quality, like HD, consider using AirDrop (described on AirDrop) or iTunes.

Figure 24-6. To share a video to the Camera Roll, tap Share and then Save Video. iMovie asks you to pick an export size. It’s usually best to go big and later export a smaller movie if your first choice ends up taking too long to share.

When you choose Message from the Share window, iMovie automatically converts your project and starts a new message (“Check out my video!”) with your movie attached to it (Figure 24-7). (You can, of course, edit the message.) Type in your recipient’s contact information and then tap Send.

Mail’s data limits, as noted in Chapter 16, are dramatically lower than iMessage’s for most email accounts. When you choose Mail from the Share menu, iMovie generates the same low-quality video (360p) it does for iMessage and opens a new mail message with your video attached. Type in the name of your recipient and a message, and then tap Send.

Figure 24-7. When you share using iMessage, it automatically attaches a low-res version of your video to a new message. Just type in the recipient(s) and then tap Send.

If you’ve been underwhelmed by the sharing options thus far, get ready to be impressed. AirDrop—discussed in detail on Transfer Video from One iDevice to Another—is a tool that lets you share files between iOS devices.

Before you use AirDrop, you need to know a few things:

If you’ve covered these bases, AirDrop sharing works this way:

When AirDrop finishes, your friend’s device posts a message telling you the transfer is finished and invites you to check out the file you sent.

Figure 24-8. When you have your devices set up right for an AirDrop share, your friend should show up on the Share screen in place of the AirDrop logo. Tap his picture to transmit your movie.

Figure 24-9. Left: An iPhone is sharing a video to Aaron’s iPad. Right: The iPad is receiving the video. The blue circle on both screens indicates how far along the transfer is.

Every iDevice has a camera. That means both iPhoto (which is free with every Mac) and Aperture ($80 in the Mac App Store) can import your gadget’s photos and videos just as it can any other camera’s photos and videos. To make that happen, you first have to save your images and movies to the Camera Roll (see Add Clips as Overlays for the details). Once there, you can import them into iPhoto, Aperture, or any other compatible photo-management program on your Mac or PC.