Processing location
Where the processing happens
Editing location decides battery, heat, upload time and consistency. Platform capture references include
Apple AVFoundation,
Apple photo capture APIs,
Android CameraX
and
Android Media3.
On-device
On-device editing: no upload, no server cost, but battery, heat and older phones set the ceiling
Local GPU and CPU do the work. Privacy and offline feel strong. Mid-range devices throttle under heavy filters, so the minimum supported phone becomes a product promise.
Server
Server-side processing: consistent results on any device, but upload time on mobile data and a hosting bill that grows with every export
Uniform output across devices. Users wait on upload and download. Cloud minutes rendered become a recurring cost line, not a one-time build fee.
Hybrid
Hybrid: preview locally at low resolution, render the final file remotely
Fast feedback on device, final export on a controlled pipeline. Needs a written contract for what the preview promises versus what the server ships.
Codecs
Codecs and formats, and what the phone's camera actually produces versus what the app can play back
HEIC, H.264, H.265 and vendor camera stacks differ by OS version. Design export presets against real device output, not only studio samples.
Storage
Storage: originals, edits and exports, and who pays to keep them
Keeping every original plus every export balloons cost. Decide retention, compression and user-owned versus app-owned media during discovery.
GPU
Filters and effects that need a GPU the phone may not have
Effects that look fine in a flagship demo stall on older GPUs.
AI app development
features for tagging or generative edits need the same device-class honesty.
Kill state
What happens to a half-finished edit when the operating system kills the app
Draft persistence, crash recovery and background upload queues decide whether users trust the product after a phone call interrupts an export.
Consequence: where processing happens is decided before any feature is designed, because it sets the cost per user, the minimum supported device, and what the app can promise offline.
