Whether we snap a photo ourselves, receive a picture from a friend, or download an image from the web, we all have photos of some sort on our iPhones. While Apple’s Photos app continues to improve over time, it still may not provide the type of organizational features you need.
Criteria for Selecting an iPhone Photo Organizer
How do we decide which apps to put on this list of the best iPhone photo organizers? We begin by determining a baseline set of criteria and then use each app to be sure it delivers on those criteria.
We also look for things that might not be mentioned on the App Store or issues that may pop up. But it all starts with the following evaluation criteria.
🦾 Basic Features: Believe it or not, many apps that claim to help you organize photos don’t offer the most basic features you’d expect or offer them in a haphazard way. It’s like a to-do list app that doesn’t offer a reminder feature or limits you to one task per day.
For those apps on our list, you’ll find that they each give you customizable albums or folders, the ability to search, sort, or filter pictures, and fast access to your favorites. These are certainly the most expected and appreciated basic features.
🎁 Advanced Features: If you’re about to review our list of photo organizers, then you’re probably seeking an app that goes beyond what Apple Photos offers. Because Photos gives you the basics, we want alternatives that provide some extras; features that make the apps stand out and ease the task of organizing photos.
This might include features like a robust photo and video editor, the ability to delete similar or blurry photos (not just duplicates), or organizational assistance via artificial intelligence (AI).
🤗 Ease-of-Use: When it comes to any mobile app, you want one that’s easy to use. This is especially true when you’re performing a grueling task like organizing hundreds or thousands of photos. If it takes you longer than just a few minutes to figure out the interface, then how long will it take to manage all those pictures?
Rest assured that each app you see here offers an interface that makes photo organization a breeze.
Best Photo Organizer Apps for iPhone: Free & Paid
Below, you’ll find several iOS photo organizers that cover various needs. Be sure to review the list of features for each app especially if you’re looking for something specific. While they all do what they claim, it may be the way they do it or that one extra feature you want that sends you to the App Store to grab it.
1. Slidebox – Photo Manager
For organizing pictures speedily, Slidebox lets you do it all with gestures. Slide to delete, tap to sort, swipe to compare, and tap to mark favorites. It’s so easy that you can manage, move, and arrange hundreds of photos in minutes.
✨ Features:
- Direct connect to Photos and iCloud
- Support for GIFs
- Undo option to reverse the last action
- Walgreens photo printing (select U.S. cities)
- Deleted photo recovery
- Snapshot view of photo, favorite, and album counts
👤 User Experience: Slidebox – Photo Manager currently has 9,800 ratings and 4.8 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: The gestures you use to organize photos with this app truly make the process simple. With just swipes and taps you can sort, favorite, or delete photos. Plus, your deleted items go into a trash can where you can review them again and then recover or remove them for good.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app purchases starting at $4.99. Subscription plans include a free three-day trial.
2. Secret Photo Vault – Keepsafe
If privacy is your main focus when organizing pictures, check out Secret Photo Vault. Whether you have photos that no one should see but you, need to make sure that document images stay protected, or want to prevent accidental deletion of important family memories, this is the app you want.
✨ Features:
- PIN and fingerprint access
- Protection via military-grade encryption
- Full-screen and slideshow viewing options
- Built-in camera for snapping shots with the app
- Safe Send feature for time-limited sharing
- Photo sync and backup
👤 User Experience: Secret Photo Vault – Keepsafe currently has 309,900 ratings and 4.7 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: While some photo organizers require you to grant access to all of your photos, this one does not which is a great option. You may not have the need to organize or protect every single photo in your camera roll. So, having this flexibility is a huge plus.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app purchases starting at $4.99. Subscription plans include a free three-day trial.
3. Photo Cleaner – Album Organizer
Want to clean and organize at the same time? Photo Cleaner – Album Organizer makes both of these tedious tasks easier. Sort, filter, and organize your pictures with albums while you get rid of duplicates, similar items, and other media that takes up your storage space.
✨ Features:
- Find and remove duplicates, similar photos, and those with closed eyes
- Photo and video compression to save space
- Home screen widgets for monitoring album storage
- Search by date, size, hidden, album, or favorite
- Private Album for protecting photos
- Magic Eraser for removing blemishes or unwanted parts of photos
👤 User Experience: Photo Cleaner – Album Organizer currently has 3,300 ratings and 4.7 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: When you first start organizing photos with the app, it provides a fast and easy way to place your pictures in albums. Just select a photo, tap the album you want, and move onto the next photo.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $2.49. Subscription plans include a free three-day trial.
4. MyPics – A Powerful PhotoAlbum
For an app that combines many of the features of the previous tools on this list, look at MyPics. From album groups and customizable covers to filtering by date and a powerful search feature, you’ll appreciate everything this iPhone photo management app has to offer.
✨ Features:
- Passcode, Face ID, and Touch ID protection options
- Calendar and map views for pictures taken on specific dates or at certain locations
- Dropbox support for automatic backup
- Integrated camera with real-time filters
- Photo and video editor
- Themes for customization
👤 User Experience: MyPics – A Powerful PhotoAlbum currently has 1,600 ratings and 4.5 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: Two standout features of this app include the calendar view and app themes. So, you can view pictures by date, which is handy for holidays and special occasions. Then, you can apply a theme (which includes a personal photo option) to match your style and make the app more attractive while using it.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app purchases starting at $8.99.
5. Ollie: AI Photo Organizer App
Formerly named GoodOnes, Ollie: AI Photo Organizer App gives you a helping hand. Using artificial intelligence, you’ll automatically see your best photos marked as Favorites, can review which pictures could be deleted, and receive recommendations for organizing all those images.
✨ Features:
- Machine learning for your photo preferences
- Find and delete duplicates, blurry photos, screenshots, and more
- Smart Deletion to automatically remove unwanted photos
- Photo book printing
- Timeline view for sorting pictures
- Ability to connect to Google Photos
👤 User Experience: Ollie: AI Photo Organizer App currently has 662 ratings and 4.9 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: It may sound silly, but Ollie makes organizing photos fun. The app has a slick interface, cute character, and extras like a timeline view to see which pictures you have yet to organize. You can also see your favorite photos with a tap.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone with in-app subscriptions starting at $3.99. Subscription plans include a free three-day trial.
6. Mylio Photos
If you enjoy viewing your iPhone pictures on your iPad or Mac, Mylio Photos makes this simple. Use one device, like your iPhone, as the main storage source and then sync, backup, and view your photos from your tablet or laptop. Plus, you’ll love the additional features you get with this photo organizing app for iPhone.
✨ Features:
- Sort by date, folder, format, camera, lens, people, or location
- Photo and video editor with ability to connect to apps like Adobe Lightroom Classic or Affinity Photo
- Duplicate or similar photo deletion
- Social media recovery for backing up pictures and videos you post on Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Google
- Local AI processing on your device only
- Photo gallery sync and backup options
👤 User Experience: Mylio Photos currently has 373 ratings and 4.5 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: The app offers an extensive number of features, but the interface and navigation are both super clean and clear. From organizing to editing to adjusting the settings, you can get where you need to go and do what you need to do quite easily.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $9.99.
7. Google Photos: Backup & Edit
One final iPhone picture organizer app that’s definitely worth a spot on this list is Google Photos. While you may think this app is mostly for Android users, Google Photos has offerings that go beyond the boundaries of platforms. Take advantage of the fast and effective search, smart sharing and shared libraries, robust photo and video editing tools, and more.
✨ Features:
- Both automatic and manual creation of photos collages, movies, and GIFs
- Live Albums for automatically including people and pets as you add photos
- Google Lens for searching and learning more about items in photos
- 15 GB of cloud storage for free
- Ad-free experience
- Google Chromecast and Apple AirPlay support for TV viewing
👤 User Experience: Google Photos: Backup & Edit currently has 404,000 ratings and 4.7 stars on the App Store.
💭 Personal Experience: Along with the various ways to organize and view your pictures, the ability to create collages and animations is not just convenient but an awesome bonus feature. Additionally, you can set up and order photo books, prints, and similar physical products in just a few taps.
🏷️ Price: Available for free on iPhone and iPad with in-app subscriptions starting at $1.99.
Conclusion
No matter how many photos you have on your iPhone, keeping them organized is important. This helps you find the pictures you need faster, get rid of unwanted photos that simply take up space, and browse through your memories with ease. Each of the iPhone photo organizers on this list provides something the others don’t. So, have another look, give one or two a try, and enjoy managing your pictures the easy way.
FAQ
Apple provides iPhone users with the Photos app which also comes preinstalled on iPad and Mac for photo syncing across devices.
Photos offers basic organizational features letting you create albums, tag people and pets, use the search and sort features, and mark your favorites. You can also share photos and albums or hide photos you want to keep from prying eyes.
It’s rare to find a completely free iPhone photo organizer with all the features you need or want that go above what Apple’s Photos app offers. Remember that Photos is free, already installed on your Apple devices, and does offer basic features for organizing pictures.
So, if you want a completely free photo organizer for iPhone, the Photos app is likely the best option.
Each app is different with its privacy policies and their practices can vary depending on the app version (free versus paid), the features you use, and your age. It’s recommended that you read the app developer’s privacy policy for complete details.
On the App Store, visit the app’s page and scroll down to the App Privacy section. There, you’ll see brief information provided to Apple by the developer and can tap developer’s privacy policy to view their practices.
