How to Find Similar (But Not Duplicate) Photos on iPhone

Need to find near-duplicates in your library? Many people know how to find exact duplicates on their phones, but what about those dozens of super similar-looking photos from the same event? Or portraits taken from different angles? That’s a completely different story, and today we will show you several solutions, from an automatic way to find similar photos on an iPhone to a more old-school approach to photo management.

Duplicate vs. Similar Images

Many people assume duplicates and similar images are the same, but they are not. Since iOS 16, Apple’s Photos app can detect duplicates based on identical file characteristics, like metadata, and pixel structure. Similar images, on the other hand, may look almost identical to the human eye but differ in data, which makes them undetectable by Apple’s duplicate detection tool.

What makes a duplicate? Apple classifies a photo as a duplicate if it matches another file based on specific criteria:

• Exact pixel data – The image must be a bit-for-bit match. Even slight edits, such as cropping or adjusting brightness, create a new unique file.
• Identical metadata – The file must have the same timestamp, resolution, format, and camera settings. Any difference in these values, even a small shift in exposure, results in a unique image.
• Matching file hash – Apple’s Photos app likely uses cryptographic hash functions (such as SHA-256) to compare files. If the hash values are identical, the system considers the images duplicates.

If two photos look almost the same but have small differences—such as a slightly shifted angle, different lighting, or motion variations—they will not register as duplicates. However, there are still some features and tricks that can help with similar images.

3 Ways to Find Similar Photos on iPhone

OK, let’s see how to deal with similar photos that Apple’s built-in duplicate detection ignores. To not waste your time, we will start with the easiest way to find similar photos and quickly get rid of the ones you definitely don’t need. Then, we’ll cover some more old-school alternatives for those who prefer a hands-on approach.

Method 1: Use Third-Party App

The first and definitely best option is third-party duplicate finder apps. Unlike the Duplicates album in Apple’s Photos app, these apps can spot visually similar images—even if they are not exact copies. We have tested dozens of these tools, and you can read about them in our rating of the best apps to remove duplicate photos on iPhone.

To demonstrate, we will use the #1 from that list—Clever Cleaner: AI Cleaner app. This app is completely free, with no hidden payments, so you can try it with no strings attached. Also, despite being 100% free, it has surprisingly powerful AI that can compete with bigger names on the market, which usually are quite pricey. Clever Cleaner is quite straightforward, but here’s a quick guide:

1. You can either type “Clever Cleaner” into the search bar in the App Store or download it using this link.
2. Open the app and go to the Similars tab.
3. At the bottom, tap Smart Cleanup. The app will scan your library in seconds and suggest images for deletion.
4. If you don’t want to remove a specific photo, tap Restore to keep it.
5. Scroll through the list and review the choices. If you approve, Slide to delete, confirm the deletion once more and the app will take care of the rest.
6. Alternatively, if you want to go through each group for a more hands-on cleanup, tap on a group and make decisions on your own.
7. The app’s AI automatically preselects the Best Shot to keep. It is quite good at this, but if you disagree, you can choose a different shot.
8. When you made your decision tap Move to Trash to delete the marked photos or Skip All to skip this group and move to the next one. This process is fast and definitely easier than manually sorting in the Photos app.
9. When finished, tap Empty Trash at the bottom. The app will ask for confirmation before deletion.

If your goal was to find similar photos to free up space, you can use three other tools in Clever Cleaner to clear even more storage. Like Similars, all of these are free and unlimited as well, and as we read on the official Clever Cleaner cleanup app’s page, they should remain free for all early users. Here’s what they are:

• Screenshots – The app identifies all screenshots you have taken and allows you to delete them all in one go.
• Lives – This feature converts Live Photos into still images, which reduces storage space without losing the core of the shot.
• Heavies – Sorts your videos by size from big to small for quick removal—something the Photos app can’t do natively.

Method 2: Use Built-in Photos App Features

Now, let’s get back to what you have available without third-party solutions. As we said at the beginning, the Photos app has no problem finding duplicates, but when it comes to similar images, it’s a whole other story. Apple doesn’t offer any targeted tools for similar images, but there are a couple of features that can help. Maybe not as useful as the previous method, but better than nothing.

Here’s how to use the ‘Albums’ and ‘Search’ functionalities:

Use Albums to Group Similar Images

Automatically generated albums are a handy feature in the Photos app. These albums are based on certain criteria like location, date, and picture type (e.g., Live Photos, Portraits, Panoramas).

1. Open the Photos app and tap on the ‘Albums‘ tab at the bottom.
2. Scroll to find albums automatically created by your iPhone, such as ‘Selfies‘ or ‘Landscapes.’
3. Review these albums to discover groupings of similar images based on the context of the photos or the camera settings used.

Use Search to Find Images by Content

The search functionality in the Photos app uses image recognition technology to categorize photos by recognizable scenes. The Photos app can recognize thousands of objects and scenes, including beaches, mountains, pets, food, and more. If you remember taking multiple shots of the same subject, this feature can help find similar images by keywords.

1. Tap on the ‘Search‘ icon in the Photos app.
2. Enter a keyword like ‘beach,’ ‘dog,’ or ‘sunset.’ The app will display photos that match the descriptor, often pulling up similar images related by content.
3. Browse through the results to find and organize images that are visually or contextually similar.

While albums and search help sort photos, they lack automation. If you manage your iPhone photos on a Mac, there’s another way to organize similar images faster: Smart Albums. The next section explains how to use them.

Method 3: Create Smart Albums on a Mac

For those who prefer the larger display of a Mac, macOS offers powerful tools to organize photos automatically. Smart Albums in the Photos app can help sort your photos based on specific criteria you set, which is excellent for dealing with large collections of photos.

Here’s a simple guide on how to use this feature:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac and sync your photos. This can be done using Finder on macOS Catalina and later, or iTunes on earlier versions. (You can also use iCloud Photos to sync albums on both of your devices.)
2. Open the Photos app on your Mac, go to ‘File‘ > ‘New Smart Album‘. Set criteria like date, camera type, or keywords such as “holiday” or “family”.
3. Smart Albums automatically update when new photos that meet the criteria are added. This keeps your photos organized without ongoing effort.

Smart Albums on Mac won’t analyze images like third-party apps, but they offer a faster and more organized way to sort and delete similar photos compared to iPhone’s Photos app. If your photos are synced with iCloud, this method saves a lot of time with bulk deletion. For those who prefer a manual but structured approach, Smart Albums are a solid option. But if you want true automation, a third-party app is still the best choice.

Final Words

With the development of AI, it has become easier than ever to find and remove similar photos on an iPhone. Third-party tools like the one we covered (Clever Cleaner) use AI to automatically group images and even suggest the best photo to keep in each set. What once required hours of manual sorting and organizing can now be done in minutes with the right app—and if you choose to trust its automatic cleanup, it usually takes just seconds.

If for some reason you can’t or won’t use a third-party app, there are still some built-in options in the iPhone’s native Photos app. They’re pretty basic, but Apple keeps improving them with each update. As of iOS 18, Photos can organize images by topics such as Recent Days, Trips, and People & Pets. It’s not much compared to dedicated tools, but it’s still a step in the right direction.

And if you’re a Mac person, the Photos app on macOS offers some additional possibilities that aren’t available on the iPhone. Smart Albums let you automatically group photos based on metadata like date, file size, or keywords and tags to organize and delete similar images in bulk. Plus, managing a photo library on a larger screen gives you a better overview, especially when sorting through hundreds of photos.

Whether you prefer AI-powered automation, built-in Apple tools, or a Mac-based approach, there’s a method for everyone.