Squeeze Your Videos.
Reclaim Your Mac & iCloud.
Reclaim up to 85% of your storage without losing a single frame of visual quality, timestamps, GPS locations, album organization, or favorites. Built natively for macOS and iOS.
Compression Without Compromise
Most video compressors strip your memories: they delete original creation dates, drop GPS locations, and break your Photo albums. Squeeze was built from scratch to preserve everything.
| Feature / Capability | Standard Compressors |
Squeeze (Native)
|
|---|---|---|
| PhotoKit Album Membership |
Removed from albums
|
100% Preserved in-place
|
| GPS Location & Geotags |
Stripped / Lost
|
Exact coordinates kept
|
| Creation Date & Timestamps |
Overwritten with "Today"
|
Exact historical date
|
| Favorite Status & Stars |
Reset to default
|
Heart / Star preserved
|
| Hardware Acceleration |
Slow CPU ffmpeg renders
|
Apple Silicon VideoToolbox
|
| Pricing & Privacy |
Subscriptions + Ads
|
Lifetime License — Zero Ads
|
Apple Silicon Acceleration
Leverages the dedicated media engines in M1, M2, M3, and M4 chips with zero fan noise. Compresses 4K video faster than real-time playback.
100% On-Device Privacy
Your personal library never leaves your device. No cloud uploads, no telemetric tracking, and no external servers. 100% local macOS sandboxing.
Year-by-Year Smart Batching
Tackle your storage backlog chronologically. Select 2023 or 2024 to reclaim 200+ GB from older vacation clips while keeping current projects untouched.
How Squeeze Works in 3 Steps
Engineered to operate seamlessly alongside your existing Apple Photos setup without requiring you to move files manually.
Scan & Audit
Squeeze securely connects to your Apple Photos library via PhotoKit, instantly surfacing bulky H.264, uncompressed 4K, and ProRes video assets eating your disk.
High-Efficiency Squeeze
The VideoToolbox engine encodes video into high-efficiency HEVC / H.265 using advanced rate control that preserves sharpness, color depth, and audio fidelity.
Non-Destructive Swap
The compressed version replaces the original in your library. Album folders, favorite stars, GPS coordinates, and historical timestamps remain 100% intact.
See How Much Space You Could Reclaim
Explore potential gigabyte recovery based on real-world test libraries. Actual results will vary by video codec and local iCloud pricing.
* These figures are realistic estimates based on benchmarks conducted across actual personal Apple Photos libraries of real people. Your exact savings depend on several key factors:
- Video Formats & Codecs: Older H.264 clips, 4K 60fps action captures, and Apple ProRes yield massive reductions (70%–88%), whereas files already encoded in modern HEVC will see more moderate savings (30%–50%).
- Selected Quality Preset: Maximum space saver presets (e.g. 720p HD) deliver larger space reclamation than native resolution or near-lossless archiving profiles.
- Country & Regional Apple Pricing: Financial calculations are estimated against US iCloud+ pricing tiers (200GB at $2.99/mo, 2TB at $9.99/mo). Actual subscription savings will vary based on your local currency and Apple's pricing in your country.
The Evolution of Squeeze
We are building the definitive media management companion for the Apple ecosystem. Here is where we stand and what is arriving next.
The inaugural release focusing on high-performance video compression with zero metadata loss. Complete integration with Apple Photos on macOS and iOS.
- Apple Silicon VideoToolbox HEVC engine
- Non-destructive PhotoKit in-place replacement
- Chronological Year & Size filters
- macOS 14+ Sonoma & Sequoia native app
Expanding the compression engine to the entire photo catalog. Reclaim massive space from bulky RAW camera files, HEIC captures, and Live Photos.
- Full support for Images & Photos
- HEIC, JPEG & Apple ProRAW compression
- Live Photo paired still + video preservation
- Universal iOS 17+ / iPadOS companion
We are actively evaluating community feedback and exploring new possibilities to expand Squeeze. Future directions will be guided by user requests and real-world workflows.
- Community-driven feature requests
- Advanced custom encoding presets
- Shortcuts & workflow automations
- Next-gen Apple Silicon optimizations
Everything You Need to Know
Transparent insights into compression speeds, iCloud storage mechanics, hardware recommendations, and real-world file size benchmarks.
How much time does it take to compress a file? What determines the speed?
The time required to compress a video depends on three primary factors: file download status (local vs. iCloud), your device hardware, and video duration/framerate.
1. Local vs. iCloud Storage
If the video is already downloaded locally on your Mac or iPad, compression begins instantaneously. However, if your Photos library uses "Optimize Mac/iPad Storage", the original high-resolution file resides in iCloud. Squeeze must download it from Apple's servers first. In this scenario, your Wi-Fi/5G connection and Apple's CDN speed are the real bottleneck, not the compression algorithm. Once downloaded, compression takes only seconds.
2. Device Processing Speed
Squeeze harnesses Apple's hardware-accelerated VideoToolbox engine. A powerful chip will process multiple video streams simultaneously. On an Apple Silicon Mac (M1/M2/M3/M4), encoding typically runs at 2x to 5x real-time—a 1-minute 4K clip encodes in just 12–25 seconds.
Why do I need free storage space on my device if my videos are in iCloud?
When your videos reside in iCloud with "Optimize Storage" enabled, your local device only holds a low-resolution proxy thumbnail. To compress the video without losing quality, Squeeze must perform a safe, non-destructive sequence:
- Temporary Download: Squeeze requests the full uncompressed master file from iCloud to local temporary storage.
- Hardware Compression: Squeeze encodes the video into efficient modern HEVC, creating the compressed file on disk.
- Safe In-Place Replacement: Squeeze verifies the new video's integrity and writes it directly to your Apple Photos library via PhotoKit, preserving all dates, GPS coordinates, and albums.
Because both the uncompressed original and the new compressed file must exist simultaneously for a few seconds to guarantee zero risk of data loss, your device requires enough temporary local free space to hold both files. For example, compressing a 4 GB 4K clip requires ~5 GB of temporary local headroom and adequate internet bandwidth.
Active Improvement: Squeeze already handles in-place replacement safely, and we are actively finalizing an automated cache purge engine that instantly deletes downloaded temporary originals the moment compression succeeds, keeping your internal disk lean!
Which device do you recommend using Squeeze on?
While Squeeze is engineered as a unified universal experience for both macOS and iOS/iPadOS, the physical hardware of your machine makes a measurable difference when processing hundreds of gigabytes:
macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)
MacBook Pro, Mac Studio, Mac mini, and MacBook Air provide dedicated ProRes & HEVC hardware encode engines, active cooling, high memory bandwidth, and virtually unlimited scratch drive headroom. Best for multi-year library batches and 4K 120fps video archives.
iPads with M-Series Chips (iPad Pro & iPad Air)
M1, M2, and M4 iPads offer near-desktop encoding speeds in a tablet form factor. Perfect for creators processing action camera footage, vacation videos, or drone shots on location.
Modern iPhones (iOS 17+)
Ideal for compressing recent video captures directly on your phone before uploading or traveling. For processing thousands of videos at once, we recommend using your Mac for optimal thermal performance.
What are real-world file sizes with different settings? (4K 120fps vs 4K 30fps)
Video file sizes are dictated by three variables: resolution (e.g. 4K vs 1080p), framerate (e.g. 120fps vs 60fps vs 30fps), and codec efficiency (legacy H.264 vs modern HEVC / H.265).
A high-framerate 4K 120fps video stores four times as many individual image frames per second as standard 30fps video. Converting it to efficient HEVC or standardizing the framerate unlocks astonishing storage savings:
| Original Capture Format | Typical Bitrate | Original Size (1 min) | Squeeze Compressed (HEVC) | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4K @ 120 fps (H.264) iPhone Action / Slo-Mo mode | ~160 Mbps | ~1,200 MB | ~180 MB (4K 60fps HEVC) | ~85% Saved |
| 4K @ 60 fps (H.264) Smooth action capture | ~60 Mbps | ~450 MB | ~95 MB (4K 30fps HEVC) | ~79% Saved |
| 4K @ 30 fps (H.264) Standard iPhone 4K capture | ~30 Mbps | ~220 MB | ~50 MB (4K 30fps HEVC) | ~77% Saved |
| 1080p @ 60 fps (H.264) Full HD high framerate | ~20 Mbps | ~150 MB | ~28 MB (1080p 30fps HEVC) | ~81% Saved |
| Apple ProRes 422 HQ 4K Pro iPhone video recording | ~750 Mbps | ~5,500 MB | ~110 MB (4K Master HEVC) | ~98% Saved |
Will I lose timestamps, GPS locations, favorites, or album organization?
Never. Generic video converters spit out raw files into your Downloads folder with today's timestamp, wiping out years of chronological organization and GPS location data.
Squeeze is built specifically for the Apple Photos ecosystem using official PhotoKit APIs. Every compressed asset keeps its exact capture date, original creation timestamp, GPS geolocation coordinates, camera model, lens metadata, favorited status (the heart icon), and album placement 100% intact.
Does Squeeze upload my private videos to any external cloud server?
Zero bytes leave your device. Squeeze does not operate an external cloud processing backend. All decoding, compression, frame analysis, and re-encoding are executed 100% locally on your device's Apple Silicon chip.
Squeeze works entirely offline without an internet connection (the only time internet is used is when your Mac contacts Apple's official iCloud servers to download an iCloud-stored video you asked to compress). There is no telemetry, no tracking, and no external analytics.
Is Squeeze really a one-time purchase? Will I be charged for updates?
Yes. Squeeze is sold under a transparent Lifetime License model. You pay once and own it forever.
We do not believe in holding your memory storage hostage behind monthly subscriptions. When Version 2 launches with support for photos, Live Photos, and Apple ProRAW compression, existing license holders receive all updates at no additional cost.
No Subscriptions. No Ads. Ever.
We believe software should be bought once, loved for years, and never hold your memories hostage behind monthly subscription fees or obnoxious ads. Squeeze is built on respect for your device and your privacy.
Lifetime License
Pay once and it is yours forever. No recurring monthly or annual charges. Ever.
Free Updates Forever
We will never charge extra for future updates, feature releases, or the upcoming v2 image support.
Strictly Zero Ads
Committed to never adding any advertisements, popups, sponsor banners, or telemetry tracking.
100% Local Privacy
Your videos and photos are processed strictly on your Apple Silicon chip. Nothing ever leaves your Mac.