Gemini Photos (now Gemini 2) is a well-known duplicate photo cleaner for iPhone. It's genuinely good at what it does: finding similar photos and helping you delete the best-kept version. But Gemini has one significant limitation that makes it the wrong tool for many iPhone users: it only handles photos.
If your iPhone's storage problem is bigger than just duplicate photos — and for most people it is — you need something more comprehensive. That's exactly what CleanVault delivers.
What Gemini Photos Does
Gemini Photos scans your camera roll for duplicates and similar images, groups them for review, and helps you delete extras. It's clean, well-designed, and effective. The subscription (around $9.99/month or $29.99/year) is reasonable compared to competitors.
But that's where it ends. No private vault. No video compression. No contact cleaner. No file tools. No HEIC conversion.
CleanVault: The Complete Solution
CleanVault starts with the same core feature — AI duplicate photo detection — and adds everything else your iPhone needs:
- Private Vault: Face ID protected secret space Gemini doesn't have
- Video Compression: Shrink large videos up to 85% without visible quality loss
- Contact Cleaner: Find and merge duplicate contacts
- HEIC to JPG: Batch convert photos for universal sharing
- PDF & File Tools: Manage documents right from the app
- Swipe Clean: Review any photo with a fast swipe gesture
Comparing the Core Feature: Duplicate Detection
Both apps use perceptual hashing to identify similar (not just identical) photos. In testing, CleanVault and Gemini Photos find comparable numbers of duplicates in the same library. The key difference is what happens after the duplicate scan — CleanVault has a complete suite of additional tools, while Gemini's job is done.
Download CleanVault free and get the complete iPhone storage solution.