How to Remove Similar (But Not Exact Duplicate) Photos on iPhone

Want to find similar photos on your iPhone to clean up your library? With exact duplicates, it’s pretty straightforward—you can remove them right in the Photos app. But similar photos are a different story. Apple’s built-in tool won’t catch them, so you need a better way, and today we’ll show you exactly how to do it.

How to Search for Duplicate Photos on iPhone

So, as we mentioned, you can find exact duplicates right in Photos with minimal work. Apple introduced this built-in detection feature in iOS 16, which made it much easier to find and merge duplicate copies.

How to see duplicate photos on your iPhone:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and find “Duplicates” under the Utilities section.
3. Review the suggested duplicates—Photos automatically groups identical images.
4. Tap “Merge” to keep the best version and delete the rest.

Apple’s duplicate detection works well, but it only finds exact copies—files with identical pixel data, metadata, or file hashes. If a photo has even a slight variation, like a different angle, lighting change, or motion blur, the app won’t flag it as a duplicate. That’s why you might see dozens of nearly identical shots in your library, but Apple won’t group them for deletion.

If two photos look the same to you but have even minor differences, Apple ignores them. That’s where third-party apps come in. Up next, we’ll cover the best way to find and remove similar photos in just a few seconds.

How to Find (And Automatically Remove) Similar Photos on iPhone using Third-Party Apps

Because of these limitations of iOS built-in features, third-party duplicate finder apps gained massive popularity. You can find dozens of options on the App Store; many accurately find similar images as well as duplicates and offer automatic one-tap cleanup. One of the best ones we tested is the free Clever Cleaner app. Unlike most apps we have seen, this one is truly free—no three-day trial, no hidden paid features, and it does not push ads, so we will use it for demonstration.

Here’s how to check for duplicate (and similar) photos on your iPhone using Clever Cleaner:

1. Open the app and tap the “Similars” tab. This is where the app organizes your similar photos into groups.
2. At the bottom, tap “Smart Cleanup.” The app will scan your entire photo library in seconds and suggest photos for deletion.
3. The app’s AI automatically picks the best photo to keep in each group.
4. Want to keep a specific photo group? Tap “Restore” to remove it from the deletion list.
5. If you approve the AI’s selections, Slide to delete all marked photos. The app will ask for confirmation before final deletion.
6. If you prefer more control, tap on a group to compare photos yourself.
7. Choose a different best shot if you don’t agree with the AI’s selection.
8. Tap “Move to Trash” to delete the unwanted ones or “Skip All” to keep the group unchanged.
9. Once you’ve gone through all groups, tap “Empty Trash” at the bottom to remove the selected similar photos. The app will ask for confirmation before deletion.

Important! Deleted photos remain in the Recently Deleted folder in the Photos app for 30 days before they are removed permanently. If you want to free up storage immediately, go to Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted and clear them manually.

If you look at all ways to get rid of duplicate photos on iPhone, AI-powered apps like Clever Cleaner offer the fastest and most automated approach. But if you can’t use third-party apps or just want to stick with what’s already on your iPhone, Apple’s built-in tools do offer some ways to find similar photos, though they’re quite limited and take a lot more effort. Next, we’ll go over what’s available right out of the box and how you can make the most of it.

Video Tutorial

How to Find Similar Photos on iPhone Using the Photos App

If you want to find similar photos manually without using third-party apps, Apple’s Search feature in the Photos app can help. While it won’t group similar images automatically, it lets you filter and locate related photos based on content, date, location, and even objects detected within images.

The Photos app uses image recognition technology to categorize and sort photos. You can search by:

• Date – Type a specific month or year (e.g., “July 2024”) to see images taken around the same time.
• Location – Enter a city, state, or business name (e.g., “Los Angeles” or “Central Park”) to pull up all photos taken in that place.
• Objects and Categories – Search for broad terms like “beach,” “mountains,” “dog,” or “sunset” to bring up visually related images.
• Events – Type “concert,” “wedding,” or “sports game” to find pictures from specific occasions.
• People & Pets – If you’ve tagged faces in the People & Pets album, you can search their names to find related images.
• Text in Photos – If your photo contains readable text (like a screenshot or document), searching for words from the image can bring it up.

How to search for similar Photos in the Photos app:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the Search tab at the bottom.
3. Enter a keyword (e.g., “skyline,” “birthday,” or “New York”).
4. Refine your search by adding multiple terms (e.g., “dog in park 2025”).
5. Scroll through the results to find similar images.

Pro Tip. The more keywords you add, the better the results. For example, searching “sunset beach 2025” will be more precise than just “sunset.”

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model, you can use Apple Intelligence to search for specific images based on descriptions. This allows you to describe an image in natural language (like “a dog running on the beach at sunset”), and Photos should find matching images.

How to Compare Pictures Side by Side on iPhone

Apple’s Photos app doesn’t offer a built-in side-by-side comparison feature, but you can still compare similar photos with some workarounds. One of the best ways is to use Apple’s Shortcuts app to combine images. This method may seem tricky at first, but it gets the job done without needing a third-party app.

How to create a shortcut for side-by-side photos:

1. Open the Shortcuts app (download it from the App Store if needed).
2. Tap the “+” icon to create a new shortcut.
3. Tap the Search bar, type “Select Photos”, and tap it.
4. Tap the arrow next to Select Photos and enable Select Multiple.
5. Search for “Combine Images”, then tap it.
6. Under Combined Images, set the mode to Horizontally for a side-by-side layout.
7. Search for “Save to Photo Album” and add it to the shortcut.
8. Tap the field at the top to rename the shortcut (e.g., “Side-by-Side Photos”).
9. (Optional) Tap “Add to Home Screen” for easy access.

How to use the Shortcut:

1. Open Shortcuts and tap your new Side-by-Side Photos shortcut.
2. Select the two images you want to combine.
3. Tap Add, and the combined image will save to your Photos app.

If that all seems like too much work, there are popular third-party apps like Photoshop Express, PicFrame, and Canva that can put two photos side by side in just a few taps. Unlike the Shortcuts method, these apps offer ready-made templates, drag-and-drop functionality, and customization options like borders and spacing.

Final Words

To conclude, let’s quickly recap what we’ve covered. If you want the fastest and easiest way to remove duplicate and similar photos, there’s no better option than AI-powered apps that can detect not only exact duplicates, like Apple’s Photos app, but also visually similar photos—whether it’s the same person, object, or landscape.

If you’d rather stick to what’s already on your iPhone, you can use the Photos app’s smart search to find similar photos based on objects, locations, dates, and even text within images. With every iOS update, features like this become more powerful and make manual cleanup slightly easier.

And if you need to compare pictures side by side on your iPhone, built-in features like Shortcuts (which we covered) let you combine images without any extra apps. But just like with duplicates, it’s far easier to use an app that does it all for you.