This smart app removes every ounce of photo-clutter from your handset or tablet
Price: Free
Subscription: $5/£5 per month
Version: 1.1.1
Size: 84.5 MB
Seller: MacPaw Inc.
Platform: iPhone / iPad
Update! It’s been a while since we looked at Gemini Photos. Does the app deserve to keep its perfect score, or have the years been cruel to this photo-cleaning utility?
So what’s new? Gemini Photos performs a core task, and does that task well – namely, cleaning up the contents of your Photos library through identifying similar images or photographs which are poor quality. As such, we weren’t expecting to see much aside from maintenance updates. However, it’s great to see that Gemini Photos has received a handful of new features which make the app better than ever. First, the app now includes reminders which prompt users to run regular scans of their library. You can also choose how you want to review videos (by size or date) and process them faster. Plus, face-scanning is speedier than ever before.
Revised rating: Gemini Photos is a must-have app for big-time iPhone photographers. It’s a smart, accurate, and speedy photo-scanner than can remove unwanted photos in a flash. The new features mean Gemini Photos more than deserves to hold onto its perfect score. ★★★★★
—–
Our original review, written in August 2018, is presented in its entirety below.
Our iPhones are, for most of us, our go-to cameras, yet this convenience means it’s easier than ever to end up with a bloated collection of digital pics. Apple’s own app doesn’t allow users to quickly clean up space in their Photos library (… yet), but Gemini Photos does. If you want to take back control of your iOS Photos library, this may be the app for you.
Gemini is able to identify with precision which photos should be pruned from the Photos app, and which should remain. It scans your library at a speedy rate (in our testing it crunched 16,000 images in around five minutes) and presents you with photo-clutter in real-time.
The app is smart. While Gemini does a stellar job of finding similar-looking photos (which have been shot either as bursts, or of the same subject, one after the other), it can also pick out screenshots, “notes” (pictures of text), and blurred images. If the kind of person who shoots pictures first and asks questions later, Gemini could save a lot of space on your iPhone.
After the initial scan in the app, users have the option of going through and manually removing the pictures it thinks you should get rid of. Repeat: Gemini does not automatically remove photos without asking; instead, it shows you what it’s found, and leaves the cut-throat matter of deleting the clutter down to users. Don’t forget that anything you accidentally delete can be recovered from the Recently Deleted folder.
Gemini also makes it easy to review your pictures by incorporating gestures within the pruning process. In a Tinder-inspired move, the app allows users to swipe up to keep a photo, and down to delete. This takes much of the repetitive boredom out of photo management, and regular pruning will also mean that Gemini’s library scans are needed less often.
The bottom line, then, is that Gemini Photos is the perfect app for taking control of your Photos library. But it does, understandably, come at a price. A one-time purchase of $14.99 allows you to use the app indefinitely; subscriptions of $2.99 per month, or $11.99 per year, are also available. Best of all, users can try the app for free for three days to ensure that they like what’s on offer before having to shell out – so you can perform a big one-time clean up without spending a dime.
If your Photos app is bursting at the seams, Gemini Photos is a no-brainer.