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Baby's first year video, month by month

Published 2026-10-25

A first-year video is twelve months of change in twenty seconds: the newborn squint, the first real smile, the first teeth. With a photo or two from each month, Grow-Up Reel lines up the faces by the eyes, labels each photo with the age and morphs one month into the next.

Choosing the photos

• One or two per month, thirteen to twenty-five in all, including one from the first days and one from the first birthday.
• The face large and towards the camera. Close-ups work best. A baby asleep on a shoulder, turned away, won't line up.
• Monthly milestone photos, if you took them, are ideal: same blanket, same pose, same light.
• Variety is fine. Different rooms, outfits and people in the background all work, because only the face is lined up.

Ages in months

Pick Age under Captions and enter the birthday. Each photo is labelled from the date it was taken: "Newborn" for the first month, then "1 month", "2 months" up to "23 months", then "Age 2". Photos without a date get no caption; tap them to add one.

The hard cases

• Newborn faces are small and often hidden. If a photo says "No face found", tap it and tap the baby's two eyes. The tool lines the photo up from your taps.
• A parent is in the photo. The biggest face is picked first, which is usually the adult. Tap the photo, then tap the baby's face.
• Photos sent over messaging apps often lose the date they were taken and land in the wrong month. Set the right date in the photo's panel.
• Eyes closed don't stop alignment, but open eyes make a nicer reel.

Music and sharing

Music box and Warm piano suit a first-year video; both are generated on your device. Many parents prefer to share this kind of video privately: download it and send it to the family group, or add it to a shared album. The tool keeps no copy, so the video exists only where you put it.