Vern

Why It Matters

Every photo taken on an iPhone embeds metadata you can't see in the photo itself: the precise GPS coordinates of where you were standing, the make and model of your device, the exact time down to the second, lens and exposure settings, and more. When you share that photo — to social media, to a messaging app, by email — all of that data travels with it. Vern removes it before it leaves your hands.

What Gets Stripped

• GPS location — the exact coordinates where the photo was taken
• Device info — iPhone model, iOS version, serial data
• Camera info — lens, aperture, focal length, exposure settings
• Date & time — the precise timestamp of capture
• Author & copyright — creator name, copyright strings, IPTC data
• All remaining EXIF, XMP, and IPTC fields

The pixel data is never touched. Vern rewrites the image container without re-encoding the image — JPEG quality and HEIC fidelity are preserved exactly.

Two Ways to Use It

Open Vern directly — tap Choose Photos, pick one or more images from your library, review what metadata was found, and save a clean copy or replace the original.

Share extension — in any app (Photos, Files, Messages…), tap Share, then Vern. The metadata review screen appears immediately. Confirm, and a clean copy is saved to your library — without ever switching apps.

Review Before You Strip

Vern shows you exactly what it found before removing anything. Metadata fields are displayed as labelled chips — GPS location, Device info, Camera info, Date & time, Author & copyright, and a count of any remaining fields. If GPS data is present, a small map shows the recorded location so you can see precisely what would be shared. If a photo has no metadata at all, Vern tells you that too.

Batch Processing

Select as many photos as you need at once. Vern processes them all in parallel, showing a combined summary of what was found across the batch and writing clean copies concurrently.

Native and Private

Vern is a native iOS app built in SwiftUI, available for iPhone and iPad. All processing happens entirely on your device using Apple's own ImageIO framework — no cloud upload, no account, no subscription. Your photos never leave your device.