Why is my iPhone screen recording so big?

iOS records the screen at native resolution (1170×2532 on iPhone 13, 1320×2868 on iPhone 15 Pro) at 60 fps. A 5-minute recording is often 300-500 MB. The recording is in .mov with HEVC video — high quality, big file.

How do I make a screen recording small enough to text?

Drop the recording here, pick a smaller resolution (720p or 540p — still readable for app demos), and a smaller quality preset. Most 1-2 minute screen recordings shrink to under 20 MB.

Does this work directly on my iPhone?

Yes. Open this page in Safari. Tap the upload box, pick the screen recording from Photos, hit convert, then save the result back to Files or share into Messages / WhatsApp / Slack.

iPhone screen recording to MP4

iOS screen recordings come out as huge .mov files in HEVC. Hard to text, slow to share, sometimes rejected by Slack and Discord. Drop yours here for a small MP4. Works directly in iPhone Safari.

drop a screen recording here

or click to pick from Photos / Files

Why iPhone screen recordings are big

iOS records the screen at the device's native pixel grid — 1170×2532 on iPhone 13, 1290×2796 on iPhone 15 Pro — at 60 fps. The video codec is HEVC (H.265). The audio is AAC. Files end in .mov.

At full resolution and 60 fps, a 5-minute recording is typically 300–500 MB. That's too big for email, Discord free tier, WhatsApp Status, or text messaging. Even AirDrop is slow at that size.

What we do here

Re-encode to H.264. Universal codec — plays everywhere, including chat apps that reject HEVC.
Downscale, optionally. 720p is plenty for app demos with readable text. 480p is fine for general UI walkthroughs.
Re-encode audio to AAC. Already AAC in the source, but we standardize bitrate.
Output MP4. Universal container.

How much smaller?

Real examples from typical iPhone screen recordings:

3-minute app walkthrough — 220 MB → 18 MB at 720p Balanced.
30-second feature demo — 45 MB → 3 MB at 720p Balanced.
5-minute tutorial — 380 MB → 32 MB at 720p Small.

If you need a specific target (Discord 10 MB, WhatsApp 16 MB, Gmail 25 MB), use the platform-specific compressor pages: Discord / WhatsApp / email.

Right on iPhone Safari, no app

This page works on iPhone. Open in Safari, tap the upload box, the iOS file picker shows your recent Photos. Pick the screen recording, hit convert, wait. Save the result with the "download" action sheet — goes back to Files or shares directly.

Conversion is slower on phone hardware than on a laptop, but the privacy benefit is bigger — you never transmit the recording across the network. It stays on the device.

Privacy of screen recordings

Screen recordings often contain things you didn't realize were on screen — notifications, message previews, business apps, account names, payment info. Uploading the recording to a generic converter exposes all of that. Browser-only conversion keeps everything in your device's RAM.

FAQ

My screen recording has audio. Will it keep it?

Yes, including microphone audio recorded via the long-press in Control Center.

iPhone records vertical. Will it stay vertical?

Yes — aspect ratio is preserved. 720p means the long edge is 720, scaled to match the source aspect ratio.

Why does iOS save it as .mov instead of .mp4 if both are H.264 / HEVC?

Tradition — iOS uses Apple's QuickTime container by default. The codec inside is mostly compatible with MP4 already; we're just swapping the wrapper and downscaling.

The output is still pretty big. Can it be smaller?

Pick Small quality and 480p resolution. For exact size targets, use the platform pages: Discord, WhatsApp, email.

How do I save the output back to my iPhone Photos?

Tap the download link. iOS prompts to save in Files. From Files you can move into Photos using the share sheet, or upload directly to whatever chat app you're sharing into.

Does the file get uploaded anywhere?

No. The conversion runs in WebAssembly in your Safari tab. Even on Wi-Fi, the file never leaves your phone.