What to expect for Final Cut Pro
for the 2nd half of 2025
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During the 2024 FCP Creative Summit FCP/Pro Apps Team Q&A session, I asked the Team if Final Cut Pro 11 had a similar 10 year "roadmap" (actually foundation) as was mentioned by Apple originally referencing Final Cut Pro X.
Q&A (from my notes)
RT: "First off, I'd like to say thank you for Final Cut Pro 11.
And thank you for that great presentation in the theater this time. It was the best!"
(Applause)
"So when Final Cut Pro 10 was announced, there was a 10-year roadmap mentioned that turned into 13-plus years."
"Is there a similar roadmap for Final Cut Pro 11?
Or are we going to see Final Cut Pro 12 in six months?"
(Laughter)
Bill Davis Product Marketing Manager, Pro Video Apps:
"The short answer is, one of the big messages that we wanted to share, going from Final Cut Pro 10 to Final Cut Pro 11, was yes, this was a very significant update in terms of features. But we really are signifying that this is the beginning of the next chapter of Final Cut Pro."
Then someone said:
"We're going to be doing our best to continue to roll the product forward as aggressively as we can. And It's much better than a 10-year roadmap."
The "Next Chapter of Final Cut Pro" and "roll the product forward as aggressively as we can" sounds promising.
But what does that actually mean?
The Final Cut Pro Team does not consider itself in a race with the DaVinci Resolve features set or update schedule. No NLE can compete with them. For better or worse, Final Cut Pro has its own Feature Update "Timeline". For example, it took thirteen and a half years before we got a scrolling timeline!
I certainly expect an FCP feature update at the 2025 Final Cut Pro Creative Summit in November, which I presume will be happening. We could/should be hearing a Summit 2025 announcement from FMC sometime this summer. I think that Apple, FMC and everyone who was involved with and attended the 2024 FCP Creative Summit was very pleased with it. I thought it was the best Summit ever.
Pro Apps feature update schedules are all over the place. As an example, Logic Pro went from 11 at the 2023 FCP Creative Summit to 11.1 at the 2024 FCP Creative Summit one year later. And then to 11.2 in May 2025 six months later. Final Cut Pro went from 11 at the 2024 Summit and four+ months later to 11.1 in March just pre NAB as we thought it might.
If we get a feature update for Final Cut Pro between now and the Summit in November (certainly possible), it could be 11.1.2, saving the full point 11.2 number for the Summit. Or it could be 11.2 and the Summit update 11.3. In any event, any feature update for Final Cut Pro will be welcomed by most of the millions in the FCP Community at large.
What new features can we expect for
the next major feature update for Final Cut Pro?
That's the eternal next feature update question. Everyone has their FCP wishlist items. At the 2023 and 2024 FCP Creative Summits, the FCP Team said that they hear us complaining about the slow pace of Final Cut Pro development, especially compared with DaVinci Resolve. But they said that they know Final Cut Pro the best and will continue to update it based on that special knowledge.They also said that it is not their intention for the iPad version of Final Cut and the Mac version to have 100% feature parity. It seems that the two apps development paths are diverging.
Here are a few of my wishlist items for the next major feature update to FCP
1) Text-Based Editing. Long overdue.
2) Transcribe Audio (or Captions) to Titles/Subtitles
3) Better Keyframing with a Keyframe editor
4) A Notes HUD or Panel like Logic Pro's
5) Dual Timelines and Dual Browsers
6) And a big one - a Roles Based Audio Mixer
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