I’m trying to delete duplicate or similar pictures on my iPhone, but I want to compare two photos side by side first so I don’t remove the better one by mistake. I took several shots of the same moment, and switching back and forth in the Photos app is making it hard to decide. Is there a built-in iPhone feature or an easy way to view photos side by side before deleting one?
Looking through a pile of near-duplicate iPhone photos sounds easy until you’re 20 minutes in, zooming into two almost identical shots of the same dog and forgetting which one had the better focus. I ran into this mess myself, and there are two different jobs people usually mean when they say “compare photos.” Those jobs need different tools.
If you want a single side-by-side image
The built-in Shortcuts app does fine if your goal is making one combined image, like a before-and-after, a quick comparison, or something you want to text to someone.
Here’s the setup:
- Open Shortcuts and hit the plus button.
- Add Select Photos, then turn on Select Multiple.
- Add Combine Images, then set it to Horizontally.
- Add Save to Photos.
- Save the shortcut with any name you want.
- Run it, pick two photos, and it saves a stitched version into your library.
I used this a few times for sending comparisons. It works. The catch is simple. It makes a new image, so now you’ve got a third file sitting there. Good for sharing, bad for cleanup. If your library is bloated with ten copies of the same sunset, this does nothing to help you choose what stays.
Why the Photos app gets old fast
I tried the normal way first. Open one photo, swipe, go back, zoom in, squint, forget what the last one looked like, repeat. It’s clumsy. If you’re checking blur, exposure, or whether somebody blinked, your brain starts dropping details after a few swaps. You end up keeping all of them because deleting the wrong one feels worse than wasting space.
That’s how a library creeps up to 15,000 photos and you still don’t know what’s safe to remove.
Another annoying bit, file size visibility is weak in the native Photos app. For videos especially, you have to open items one by one and tap Info. There’s no proper largest-to-smallest view. No fast way to spot what’s eating storage.
What worked better for me
For the actual cleanup part, Clever Cleaner handles the stuff the Photos app doesn’t. It’s free, no ads, no subscription wall, which I didn’t expect.
The part I cared about most was the Similars section. It scans your photo library and groups photos that are almost the same. Think burst shots, tiny angle changes, five tries at the same portrait, all of it.
- Open Clever Cleaner and go to Similars.
- Let it scan your library. If you have a huge camera roll, give it a few minutes.
- It groups lookalike photos together.
- In each group, it marks a suggested Best Shot.
- Check the group yourself. The app tries to flag the cleaner image by looking at issues like blur or closed eyes.
- Use Smart Cleanup if you want it to remove the extras fast, or review each set manually.
- Deleted files go into the app’s trash first.
- Empty the trash later when you’re sure.
I liked this part because it cuts out the stupid back-and-forth. You see the similar shots together, which is how this should have worked from the start on iPhone.
For storage, look at the big files first
This is where people waste time. Deleting 300 screenshots feels productive, then one old 4K video turns out to be bigger than all of them combined.
The Heavies tab sorts files from biggest to smallest and shows the exact size. That gets you to the real storage hogs fast. In my case, old videos were the main problem, not photos.
The Screenshots tab is also more useful than the default Photos screenshot folder because it shows file sizes right there before you remove anything.
There’s also a Swipe view. Photos are grouped by month, then you go one at a time, left to delete, right to keep. Sizes show while you sort, so you see how much space you’re getting back as you move through the stack. Kinda simple, but it keeps the process moving.
Privacy part
One thing I checked before using it, the processing stays on the device. Photos don’t get sent off to some outside server. For personal albums, family shots, receipts, private junk, whatever, I’d rather keep it local.
So this is where I landed. Shortcuts is fine when you want to export two images into one combined file. For sorting duplicates, picking the best shot, and finding what’s chewing through storage, that’s a separate problem, and Clever Cleaner did a better job for me.
3 Likes
iPhone does not give you a true side by side compare view inside Photos. That’s the annoying part. You swipe back and forth, zoom, forget what you saw, then keep both pics anyway.
I’d split this into 2 use cases.
If you want to place two iPhone photos next to each other on one image, use the Shortcuts route. This guide explains it in a clean way, how to combine two iPhone photos side by side for easier comparison. It helps for visual checks, but it creates a new file, so for cleanup I don’t love it.
I slightly disagree with @mikeappsreviewer on one thing. Making a side by side image first is slow if your goal is deleting dupes fast. It adds one more photo to sort out later.
For deletion, your best built-in option is Albums, Duplicates. iPhone merges exact duplicates, but it misses near-duplicates from burst shots or tiny pose changes.
For those, Clever Cleaner is more useful. Its similar-photo groups save time, and you review sets before deleting. That gets closer to the side by side decision you want, without doing the dumb swipe dance 50 times. I used it for a messy camera roll and it cut the clutter prety fast.
Honestly, if your goal is to decide which pic to delete, I would not obsess over making a literal side-by-side view first. @mikeappsreviewer and @cacadordeestrelas already covered the combine-image angle, but for cleanup that feels kinda backwards to me. You end up creating another photo while trying to remove photos. Very iPhone logic, lol.
What I do instead:
- Open both photos in Photos
- Tap Edit on the first one and check the sharpness/exposure
- Swipe up for the info if needed
- Favorite the better one
- Delete the loser after comparing
A small trick that helps more than people mention: use the filmstrip in Edit mode. When you open a photo and tap Edit, you can scrub through nearby shots way faster than normal swiping. It is not true split-screen, but it’s probly the closest built-in comparison workflow that doesn’t make extra files.
Also, if these came from burst mode, tap the burst stack and use Select…. iPhone actually lets you review the burst frames and keep only the best ones. That part is way better than the normal duplicate cleanup.
For larger messes, I’d still use Clever Cleaner because it groups similar photos in a more practical way for deleting dupes and near-duplicates. That’s more useful than manually bouncing between two almost identical selfies until your eyes stop working. If you want a quick look at it, this video shows the cleanup flow pretty clearly: see how Clever Cleaner finds similar photos on iPhone
So short version: no true native side-by-side compare in Photos, but Edit mode filmstrip + burst selection + Favorites is the best built-in workaround. Then use Duplicates album for exact copies and Clever Cleaner for the “same moment, slightly different shot” stuff.
I’m with @boswandelaar on one point and not on another. Yes, iPhone Photos still lacks a real compare mode, but I wouldn’t bother creating a stitched side-by-side image unless you actually want to keep that combo pic. For deletion, that just adds clutter.
A better built-in trick that hasn’t been stressed enough:
- Put the two photos in a temporary album first
- Open that album and tap Select
- Tap each photo back and forth to view them from the same place
- Use pinch zoom at the same focal area each time
- Mark the winner with a caption like “KEEP” or make it a Favorite
- Then sort the album later and delete the weaker one
Why this helps: context stays tighter. Jumping around the full library is what makes comparisons annoying.
Also, if both shots were taken seconds apart, check the timestamp in Info. Sometimes the later one has better HDR processing or focus lock, especially on night shots.
About Clever Cleaner: it’s actually useful for near-duplicates because it groups similar images instead of only exact copies.
Pros:
- catches lookalike shots
- suggests a best image
- faster for huge libraries
- local/on-device processing is a plus
Cons:
- “best shot” suggestions are not always what you’d pick
- you still need to review sentimental photos manually
- another app in the workflow if you prefer all-Apple tools
So my take versus @cacadordeestrelas and @mikeappsreviewer: don’t chase true side-by-side too hard. For cleanup, fast grouping beats perfect layout. Built-in for small batches, Clever Cleaner for hundreds.