Scallion

Scallion is a photo and video compression app for iPhone and iPad, made by Jesse Benjamin, that uses AI to shrink media files while keeping their quality. It is meant for people whose device storage is filling up with large photos and videos and who want smaller files to keep on the device or share with others, without a significant loss in quality.

Scallion's AI analyzes each photo or video and compresses it, aiming to preserve the original quality. A user selects the media files, chooses a compression level, and Scallion handles the rest; within moments the compressed files are ready to share or store. Several compression levels are available, so the balance between file size and image quality can be matched to what the user needs.

Compressed photos and videos can be shared directly from Scallion without exporting them first. Batch compression and image editing, including cropping and filters, are announced as coming soon and are not part of the current version, so files are compressed one selection at a time. The developer states that Scallion collects no data from its users.

Scallion is a paid app at $2.99, and up to six family members can use it with Family Sharing. It requires iOS 13.4 or iPadOS 13.4 or later, runs on Macs with an Apple M1 chip or later on macOS 11.0 or later, and supports visionOS 1.0 or later. Scallion is available in English.

Use cases

• Freeing storage space on an iPhone or iPad taken up by large photos and videos
• Making photos and videos smaller before sharing them
• Keeping a media library on the device at a smaller size without a visible drop in quality