Blurry Bokeh

Now you can record bokeh-filled video on an iPhone with the Focos Live app

And it actually seems to work surprisingly well.
Oliver Haslam

iPhone XS Portrait modeSource: iMore

What you need to know

  • There's a new app that lets you record Portrait mode video.
  • Focos Live is available for download from the App Store now.
  • It's free but will cost if you want to record anything better than 720p video.

Apple's Portrait mode is one of the unsung heroes of Apple's camera technology in recent years and it's continued to improve since its debut in 2016. But it still hasn't gained support for video which is a real shame. Don't worry though, this is the App Store. And now there's an app for that.

Enter Focos Live, an app that came to my attention when I spotted Ben Geskin using it on Twitter. Check out Geskin's comparison tweets showing how an iPhone 11 handles recording video with and without the new app.

We can all agree that the results are surprisingly good, although it's to be noted that there is no support for image stabilization right now. Hopefully the developer has that on their list of upcoming improvements.

You can download Focus Live from the App Store right now for free. That will let you record video at 720p, but if you want to increase that to 1080p or 4K you can – so long as you hand over $14.99 or subscribe starting at $1.99 per month.