This Free IPhone App Is an Easy Way to Compress Videos Offline
Even though Apple keeps hyping them up , these 4K 60fps videos will take up space on your iPhone like you won’t believe. When you get to the point where you have to choose between saving videos of your kids and clips from your favorite once-in-a-lifetime vacation, you have a problem. But I have a solution: not all videos need to be stored in full quality all the time.
There are many ways to compress video on iPhone, but like most things in life, the simplest option is often the best. Kompresso is a free, native iPhone app that uses your smartphone’s powerful processor to compress files. This means there is no need to download or share your video files on online compression websites.
Another plus? Most compression apps you’ll see on the App Store are filled with pop-up ads and are quite cheap. Kompresso is different from others, but remains quite reliable. You can compress a video by 30% without even changing the resolution. And lowering the resolution can result in file size savings of 70% or more.
Why you might need to compress your video
Most people think of video compression as the last tool in their arsenal, but that doesn’t have to be the case. There are many reasons why you might want to compress a video, even if you’re only thinking about backup.
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Problem with storage space . The most important factor here comes down to storage space. Your iPhone may be running low on storage space and you’ve noticed it has 30GB of videos stored on it that you don’t even remember taking.
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Problems with data usage and downloading . When it comes to downloading or sharing videos, file size really gets in the way. Large files take longer to download, and there are sites that won’t even allow you to download videos over a certain size. Not to mention the required bandwidth and data costs when trying to download a 5GB video directly from your iPhone using 5G.
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Speed problem : The larger the data size, the longer the transfer, and it doesn’t matter whether it happens offline when you upload a video from your iPhone to your computer or transfer the file using an online service.
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Playback problem : A large iPhone video plays fine on your iPhone and Mac, but that may not be the case when you transfer it to your parents’ Windows PC and they try to play it on their TV (though this happened to one of my wedding videos, which lagged and stuttered like crazy).
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The problem with the cloud : Apple is already bad at providing us with affordable storage space . And if you’re on one of the cheaper cloud plan tiers, like 50GB or 200GB, a couple of videos might encourage you to upgrade to the 2TB plan, which costs $9.99 per month. Do you really want to give Apple $120 a year just to store large video files?
What benefits does compressing your videos provide?
Good video compression is about striking a balance between file size and image quality. Compression algorithms attempt to reduce file size while keeping all of the video’s visual elements intact, or at least in acceptable quality.
The software analyzes the video frame by frame and then looks for redundancies and patterns in it. This can be between one frame or between several consecutive frames.
In one frame, the algorithm can compress neighboring pixels of the same color and brightness. For example, it could store color data for a large portion of a sky photo in one place, instead of storing data for every blue pixel.
When it comes to multiple frames, the algorithm can also skimp on static background details.
Of course, after video compression, you may notice that the video quality is slightly reduced. In some fast-moving videos, you may see visible pixelation or blocking. Although this does not happen very often with good programs. If this happens, you can try compressing again using less stringent settings or perhaps without lowering the resolution.
How to Compress Videos on iPhone Using Kompresso
The Kompresso app offers two video compression options. By default, you will see a simplified three-level option. Add any video and select High , Medium or Low quality. By changing this option you will see the file size savings you will get.
Saving at the highest quality will keep the same resolution, but will lower the bitrate and use the compression techniques I mentioned above. Thanks to this, the video will take up approximately 30% less space. The Medium Quality option will reduce the resolution to 720p, while the Low Quality option will reduce it to 480p. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend going that far.
In fact, if you find that you need to select the Low preset to save on memory, it may be better to switch to the Advanced Options tab to manually adjust the size savings.
Here you can fine-tune your compression settings to focus on one of three presets: Less Space , Balanced , and Best Quality . Then be sure to select H.265 encoding as it is very efficient. You can then choose the resolution, frame rate, and even the export format.
Finally, click the “Compress” button and wait for a while while the video is compressed. Now you can directly share the video and save it in the Photos app. After saving the new video, be sure to go to the Photos app to delete the old video, and then delete it again from the Recently Deleted folder.
Kompresso is free to use up to three compressions per day, and you can unlock all restrictions by paying $1.99 per month or $9.99 to fully unlock it for life.