A converter that doesn't need your photos to leave your device

Heic Lab started from a small, specific annoyance: iPhones save photos as HEIC by default, and a lot of the world still doesn't open that format easily — older Windows machines, some upload forms, some editing software. The usual fix is a converter site that asks you to upload your photo, wait, then download it back. That's a strange amount of trust to ask for over a personal photo.

This tool skips that step. It decodes and re-encodes your HEIC files entirely inside your browser tab, using WebAssembly — the same kind of technology that lets complex apps run client-side without a server round trip. Your photos are never sent anywhere. You could disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the conversion would still work.

Why I built this

I work in content production, where handling digital assets — images, video, and the endless format conversions that come with both — is a routine part of the job. HEIC shows up constantly in that work: a batch of photos comes in from someone's iPhone, and half the pipeline can't touch them until they're converted into something more universally usable.

I've relied on plenty of existing converter tools over the years to get past that. Some were fine. Others were inconsistent — a bit unreliable, occasionally slow, sometimes producing results I didn't fully trust with client work. Enough of that friction adds up, and at some point building a version you actually trust starts to look like the better option. That's where this came from.

Get in touch

Found a bug, or a HEIC file that won't convert? Get in touch — that kind of feedback directly shapes what gets fixed next.