iCloud Storage Was Driving Me Crazy—So I Built an App to Fix It

Like many iPhone users, I kept running into the “iCloud storage full” notification. Videos were the biggest culprit, but I didn’t want to delete them. So, I built HEVCut—a simple iOS app that shrinks video file sizes without killing quality.

Lessons from Building & Iterating

🚀 MVPs should be ruthlessly simple – My first version just compressed videos. No extra features, no complex settings. That made it easy to ship quickly and get real user feedback.

🔍 The real problem isn’t what you think – At first, I thought people just wanted smaller files. But early users kept asking: “Can the app automatically find the biggest videos?” That insight led to my biggest improvement—a smarter algorithm that detects large videos for compression.

📈 Small iterations matter – I didn’t launch with a “perfect” product. But each tweak (better video detection, improved compression) has made HEVCut way more useful over time.

The App Now Does:
• Finds large videos automatically (so you don’t have to manually search)
• Shrinks video sizes by up to 50% without noticeable quality loss
• One-tap compression for a simple, no-fuss experience

It’s free to try, and if it helps, you can unlock unlimited compression. If you’re an indie hacker building an app, my biggest takeaway: Ship early, listen to users, and iterate relentlessly.

👉 Check it out here: https://alepacheco.dev/hevcut