Video compressor for iPhone

Free up gigabytes of video. Keep every memory.

Emptie compresses the videos in your Photos library on your iPhone and replaces the originals, keeping their dates, places, favorites and albums. Nothing is uploaded. It’s free.

Coming soonto the App Store See how it works

PrivateData Not Collected
OfflineNothing is uploaded
FreeNo ads or subscription

Emptie reads your library and puts the videos that free the most first.

One real video

Same video.
85% smaller.

A 5-minute 4K Dolby Vision video, compressed on the iPhone. Side by side on the phone’s screen, you can’t tell them apart.

Original2.18 GB

Compressed copy323 MB

1080p HEVC at 8 Mb/s, made by Apple’s hardware encoder. Dolby Vision kept.

How Emptie does it

Half the size of Apple’s own export.

The usual way to compress on an iPhone is Apple’s standard export, and it picks the size for you. Emptie runs the iPhone’s video encoder itself, then checks every copy before it touches an original.

Direct Encode

Emptie feeds the iPhone’s hardware HEVC encoder frame by frame and sets the bitrate itself. HDR and Dolby Vision carry over, the sound is copied untouched, and it keeps working with the phone locked.

Standard export591 MB

Emptie323 MB

Biggest First

Before anything runs, Emptie estimates what each video will free and lists the biggest first. A video that would shrink by less than about 20% is marked Already Efficient and left alone.

−3.4 GB
−1.9 GB
−1.3 GB
Already Efficient

Verified Replace

An original is deleted only after its copy is saved to your library and checked. You confirm once for the whole batch, and the originals stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days.

Saved to your library
Plays from start to end
Same length as the original
Date, place and albums arrived

See it before you replace it

Your video, next to its smaller copy.

Play the original and the compressed copy together. If you can’t tell them apart, replace it. If you can, keep the original.

For parents

Keep every birthday. Get your space back anyway.

For a lot of parents, “Storage full” arrives right when the kids are doing something worth filming. Those are the videos nobody wants to delete, and you don’t have to.

Emptie makes them smaller and keeps every one, on the same day and in the same albums. Put the ones you’d never touch, like the first-year album, in a Protected Album and Emptie leaves them exactly as they are.

4K · 60 fps

4K · 30 fps

4K · 60 fps

1080p · 60 fps

How it works

Five steps. You decide every one.

4K at 60 fps takes about 400 MB a minute. Years of everyday clips add up too. Emptie finds them, shrinks them and lets you check before anything changes.

01
Your biggest videos, first.

Emptie scans your library on your iPhone and sorts every video by how much space compressing it would free. Filter to 4K, 60 fps, long or old videos. Videos that are already efficient are left alone.
02
One choice for the whole batch.

Balanced suits most videos. High Quality keeps more detail; Max Savings frees more. Every preset keeps the frame rate, HDR and sound, and you see the size afterwards and the time it takes before you start.
03
It runs while you get on with your day.

Videos are compressed one at a time by Apple’s hardware encoder. Lock your phone and the progress stays in the Dynamic Island. If your iPhone gets warm or the battery runs low, Emptie pauses and carries on later.
04
Watch them side by side.

Each original plays next to its compressed copy. Keep any original you like. Nothing has been deleted yet.
05
One tap, and the space is yours.

One iOS confirmation replaces the batch. The copies keep their dates, places, favorites and albums, and the originals wait in Recently Deleted for 30 days in case you change your mind.

Nothing lost but megabytes

The copy keeps what makes it yours.

Most compressors save a new file and leave you to delete the old one, along with its date and albums. Emptie carries them over and checks each copy before it touches an original.

Memories and Shared Album links don’t carry over. Emptie tells you before your first replacement.

Date and timeWith its original time zone, so it stays in the right place in your library
LocationStill on the map in Photos
Favorites and HiddenExactly as they were
AlbumsBack in every album it was in
HDR and Dolby VisionHDR stays HDR. Dolby Vision stays Dolby Vision
Frame rate and sound60 fps stays 60 fps. Audio is copied unchanged

Runs in the background

Lock your phone. Emptie keeps going.

A batch runs while your iPhone is locked or you’re in other apps, with progress in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen.

Pauses when your iPhone is warm, and when the battery is under 20% and not charging
Picks up where it stopped if the app closes or the phone restarts
If one video fails, its original is untouched and the batch carries on

Privacy

Your videos never leave your iPhone.

No account, no upload, no ads, no analytics. Emptie makes no network calls at all. Its App Store privacy label says what it collects: nothing.

No trackingNo analytics, no ads
Works offlineNo network calls
Nothing to sellWe collect no data
No accountNo sign-up, no email

App Privacy Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Compared

Not another cleaner app.

Storage cleaner apps do a bit of everything, often for a weekly fee. Emptie does one thing well: it makes your videos smaller and puts them back where they were.

	Emptie	Typical cleaner app	Typical compressor app	iOS on its own
Price	Free	Often weekly, e.g. $5.95–$11.99 a week	Free with ads, or a small upgrade	Free
Compresses existing videos	Yes, in batches	Some, one of many tools	Yes, usually one at a time	Only by re-exporting in iMovie
Replaces the original for you	Yes, after you review	Varies	Usually you delete it yourself	No
Keeps date, place and albums	Yes	Rarely stated	Rarely stated	—
Sorted by space you’d free	Yes	By size, at best	Rarely	No
Privacy label	Data Not Collected	Most declare data used to track you	About a third declare tracking	—

Based on our review of 888 iPhone storage and video-compression apps on the US App Store, using their listings and privacy labels as of 23 October 2026. See the full comparison or what we found about cleaner apps.

Pricing

Free. Really.

No subscription, no trial that turns into a charge, no ads, no account.

Emptie

Free

Everything Emptie does, on every video in your library.

Scan your whole library and see what each video would free
Compress in batches, even with your iPhone locked
Review side by side, then replace with one confirmation

Founding Supporter

$2.99 once, optional

Emptie is made by one person. If it gave you back gigabytes and you’d like to say thanks, this is how. It never renews.

Who makes Emptie

Nothing in Emptie is behind a paywall.

Who makes Emptie

Made by one person.

I’m Dimitar Zurnov, and I build Emptie on my own. Emptie is free. If it gives you back some space and you’d like to support the work, the optional $2.99 Founding Supporter purchase goes straight to that. Questions or ideas: [email protected].

Questions

Does Emptie upload my videos?

No. Emptie compresses every video on your iPhone with Apple’s hardware video encoder. It makes no network calls, has no account and collects no data. Its App Store privacy label is “Data Not Collected”.

Will my videos look worse?

Compression always removes some detail, but on a phone screen it is usually hard to see. Emptie turns a 5-minute 4K Dolby Vision video from 2.18 GB into 323 MB, and on the phone’s screen the two look the same. Before anything is replaced, Review plays each original next to its compressed copy, and you can keep any original you like.

How is Emptie different from other video compressors?

Apple’s standard export, the usual way to compress video on an iPhone, picks the file size for you. Emptie runs the iPhone’s hardware HEVC encoder directly and sets the bitrate itself, so the same 5-minute 4K video comes out at 323 MB instead of 591 MB, with Dolby Vision kept. It also replaces the originals for you, after checking each copy, so your storage actually goes down.

What carries over to the compressed copy?

The date and time it was recorded (with its time zone), its location, Favorite and Hidden status, and the albums it was in. HDR stays HDR, Dolby Vision stays Dolby Vision, the frame rate stays the same and the sound is copied unchanged. Memories and Shared Album links don’t carry over, and Emptie tells you so before the first replacement.

What happens to the originals?

Emptie deletes an original only after its compressed copy is saved to your library and checked: it plays, its length matches and its details arrived. You confirm once for the whole batch in the iOS delete prompt. The originals then sit in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so you can restore any of them.

Why didn’t my storage go down straight away?

iOS keeps deleted videos in Recently Deleted for 30 days. The space comes back when you empty it, and Emptie gives you a button that opens Photos so you can do that.

How much does it cost?

Nothing. Emptie is free, with no subscription, no trial that turns into a charge and no ads. If it frees up space for you and you’d like to support the founder, there’s an optional one-time $2.99 Founding Supporter purchase.

Which videos does Emptie skip?

Slo-mo, Cinematic and Spatial videos, because compressing them would remove what makes them special. Videos whose full file is only in iCloud, videos that are already efficient (they would shrink by less than about 20%), and anything in an album you’ve protected.

Does it work with the phone locked?

Yes. A batch keeps going while the phone is locked or you’re in other apps, with progress in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen. It pauses if the phone gets too warm or the battery drops below 20% while not charging, and carries on when things recover.

You could free about 28 GB.

That’s the number on the screen above. Yours is waiting in your library.

Coming soonto the App Store

iPhone 11 or later with iOS 26.