Private video enhancement for creators
If you make a living from your content, unreleased footage is your inventory. Running it through a cloud "enhancer" means handing that inventory to a third-party server, under terms of service you probably haven't read, before your audience has even seen it. There is a simpler model: enhance the video on the phone it was shot on, and let it leave your device only when you publish it.
Why this matters more for creators than anyone else
- Unreleased content is valuable. Paid-content creators, filmmakers, and anyone selling exclusivity lose real money if footage leaks or is retained somewhere they don't control.
- Client work often can't be uploaded at all. NDA'd brand footage, wedding archives, corporate interviews — "we ran it through some website" is not an answer clients accept.
- Terms of service are not your friend. Cloud tools process your file on their infrastructure; retention windows and content-analysis clauses vary and change. A physical guarantee (the file never leaves the phone) beats a contractual one.
- You enhance constantly, not once. Credit-based cloud pricing punishes exactly the person who posts daily. On-device compute is already paid for — it's your phone.
The workflow
Shoot or import the draft
Pull the clip from Photos or Files. Older archive footage, compressed drafts, and clips from a secondary phone all work.
Enhance on-device
Pick HD or 4K and a model: Apple SuperRes / MetalFX for fast turnaround on daily posts, Real-ESRGAN / BSRGAN when a hero clip deserves maximum detail recovery. Airplane Mode on, if you want the proof.
Check the before/after
The side-by-side comparison shows exactly what changed — judge sharpness on your own content, not marketing claims.
Publish the clean master
Export to Photos and post. Giving Instagram, TikTok, or your paid platform a sharper master means their re-compression has more to work with — the version your audience sees holds up better.
What it does well — and what it won't do
On-device AI upscaling is strongest on soft, compressed, or downscaled footage: drafts shot on older phones, screen recordings, clips that went through messenger compression, or vertical video you want to enlarge to a crisp 4K master. It reconstructs plausible detail; it cannot reliably recover what was never captured (severe motion blur, deep shadow noise). The free tier exists so you can verify results on your own footage before paying anything — see the step-by-step guide and theon-device vs cloud comparison for the full picture.
Frequently asked questions
Are my videos uploaded? Does processing work offline?
Video upscaling, conversion and editing run on your device without uploading the video for processing. Download iCloud-only files first. Purchases, restoring a subscription and some optional services need internet access. AI metadata suggestions may send metadata and analysis results to an online service when local generation is unavailable.
Which video formats can I use?
Import videos that iOS can decode from Photos or Files. MP4, MOV and M4V are common choices; the codec inside the file also matters. Export formats are MP4, MOV and M4V. Renaming an unsupported file does not convert it to a supported format.
Why does my export have a watermark?
Free exports, including free promotional exports, include a watermark. An active Pro subscription or an export that uses a paid export credit removes it. Export credits are used only after a successful premium conversion; a failed or cancelled conversion does not use a credit.