Overview
According to its App Store page,
“AI iPHONE CLEANER – the best AI-powered app on iOS 18 that cleans up your iPhone’s duplicate & similar photos to free up space in just a few taps.”
Developed by Smart Tool Studio, Phone Cleaner holds a 4.6-star rating from over 105,000 reviews—an impressive number that clearly shows its popularity. Despite this, it is currently ranked #147 in the Utilities category, which is lower than expected. Interestingly, we’ve seen other apps with fewer reviews placed much higher in the Utilities chart.
It includes tools to remove duplicate and similar photos and videos, compress large videos to save space, manage and merge duplicate contacts, and secure sensitive files in a private photo gallery.
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Developer | Smart Tool Studio |
| Rating | 4.6 / 5 |
| Number of Ratings | 105K Ratings |
| Free Version | Yes (with limitations) |
| In-App Purchases | Yes (Subscription-based) |
| Size | 222.1 MB |
| iOS Compatibility | Requires iOS 12.2 or later |
| Languages | English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese |
Features and Functionality
Phone Cleaner・AI Clean Storage packs a decent set of features. It has the toolset you’d expect from a modern cleaner app. Let’s list them all:
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Duplicate and similar photo detection – Scans your gallery to find and remove duplicate and similar photos. -
Similar video finder – Identifies nearly identical videos so you can delete redundant clips without hesitation. -
Contact manager – Merges duplicate contacts and removes incomplete or empty entries to keep your address book organized. -
Video compression – Shrinks video file sizes while keeping quality intact. -
Private photo gallery – A secure space to store sensitive or personal media that you want to keep hidden. -
Battery charging animation – Adds custom charging effects for a more visually engaging experience while your phone is plugged in.
Verdict
On paper, Phone Cleaner appears to be a well-rounded app, combining storage optimization with useful visual extras. While we’ll examine its real-world performance later, for now we rate it 4 out of 5. The core features are solid, though we would have liked to see a few additions—such as a manual swipe mode for easier selection or Live Photo conversion to free up extra space. Still, the features it currently offers hold up well against competitors.
Interface
Our first impression of the app was very positive. The interface is bright, clean, and well-organized, making it easy to navigate. All sections are clearly labeled, and the group list displayed on a white background looks sleek and modern. The app runs smoothly, with no noticeable lag when switching between menus or scanning files. It’s clear that a lot of effort went into creating a fluid and responsive user experience.
That said, a couple of small things could be improved. The ads blend into the interface, placed in a way that makes them look like part of the app itself. More than once, we tapped what we thought was a feature, only to be redirected to an ad screen. While not a dealbreaker, this can slow you down. Another minor drawback is the lack of standard swipe gestures in photo previews. Instead of swiping between images, you have to tap manually, making one-handed use less convenient.
However, these are minor complaints in an otherwise well-designed app.
Verdict
The interface remains one of the app’s strongest points—smooth, stylish, and easy to navigate. It looks modern and polished. A few small tweaks, like improved ad placement and swipe gestures, would make it even better, but overall, it’s one of the best-looking storage cleaners we’ve tested.
We’ll be generous and give it a 5 out of 5.
Note: To see how it compares to other cleaners in terms of design and key features, check out our complete ranking of the best iPhone cleaners.
Cleanup Results
Now for the most important question—how well does it actually clean?
We tested Phone Cleaner・AI Clean Storage on an iPhone 15 with 256GB of storage, loaded with a substantial media library—thousands of photos, videos, contacts, and everything you’d expect on a personal device. To cut to the chase, the results were disappointing.
It excels in the looks department, but when it comes to actual cleanup performance, the results were underwhelming.
The app detected a significant amount of clutter—2,099 similar photos (5GB) and 1,153 similar Live Photos (3.1GB), totaling about 8GB of potential cleanup. On paper, that sounds impressive.
But the problem? The AI grouped photos incorrectly too often. Many of the “similar” images weren’t actually similar, and the app struggled to distinguish meaningful differences.
Another major issue was the Best Photo selection feature. While the app grouped photos correctly about 60% of the time, it only chose the true best shot 10% of the time. In some cases, it even selected photos with closed eyes as the “best” option—not exactly reliable.
Video cleanup also had issues. The compression tool crashed, and video previews were always displayed in vertical format, even for landscape videos.
While it automates the cleaning process, we don’t think this is an app you can trust blindly. You’ll have to double-check a lot. In our case, every 2–3 groups were wrong. The app mixed people with trees and fields, trees with flowers, and oceans with mountains. It couldn’t distinguish between one person, two people, a full-body shot, or just a portrait—to the AI, they were all the same.
Verdict. Phone Cleaner looks like a great cleaner but doesn’t clean like one. The AI misgroups too often, Best Photo is unreliable, and the video tools don’t work as expected. For cleanup results, we’re giving it a 2 out of 5.
Note. If you’re looking for a cleaner with more advanced AI algorithms, check out our list of the best AI-powered iPhone cleaners.
Scan Speed
The automatic cleanup scan took 3 minutes and 52 seconds, which isn’t the fastest we’ve seen but still within a reasonable range. We could have given it a 4 here, but there’s a catch.
Every time you check a new category, the app triggers a short re-scan that takes a few seconds. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, it adds up quickly. If you’re reviewing multiple sections, the real scan time ends up being much longer than what’s advertised.
Verdict. It’s not the slowest, but it’s not the fastest either. The scan itself is decently quick, but the constant re-scanning holds it back. Because of this, we’re giving scan speed a 3 out of 5.
Pricing and Free Version
Now, let’s talk about what it costs—and what you can get for free. Like most similar apps, it’s all about the subscription. Here are the price tiers:
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$3.99 per week
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$29.99 per year
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$59.99 for a lifetime license
It’s not the most expensive app we’ve tested, but we can’t call it cheap either. For this price, we would expect more than just good looks.
If you’re hoping for a usable free version, think again. The app only lets you delete 20 photos per ad. Want to clean more? Prepare to watch multiple ads. In fact, the very first thing we encountered upon launching the app was a 15-second unskippable ad. Ads in free apps are expected, but one before we even got to test the app? That’s bold. Not every app dares to hit users right from the start.
Verdict
The free version is barely usable, and the paid version doesn’t offer enough to justify its cost. With aggressive ads and an overpriced subscription model, it’s hard to see the value here. We rate it 2 out of 5.
Final Score
So, how does Phone Cleaner stack up overall?
Breakdown of scores:
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Features & Functionality: 4/5 – A solid set of tools, but nothing groundbreaking. -
Interface: 5/5 – One of the best-designed cleaner apps we’ve seen. -
Cleanup Results: 2/5 – AI misgrouping and unreliable Best Photo selection hold it back. -
Scan Speed: 3/5 – Decent, but frequent re-scanning slows things down. -
Pricing & Free Version: 2/5 – Overpriced and flooded with ads; the free version is nearly unusable.
Final Score: 3.2/5
The sleek design could have earned this app a great rating, but inaccurate photo grouping ruins the experience. Since precise cleanup is the app’s core purpose, this is a dealbreaker. The developers still have a long way to go before functionality matches the interface. Right now, it’s all style with not enough substance.
Pros:
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Visually stunning, modern interface
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Fast and smooth navigation
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Decent feature set
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Automatic cleanup available
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Photo grouping by category and type
Cons:
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AI misgroups photos too often
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Best-photo selection is highly unreliable
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Video compression tool is broken
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Free version is extremely limited
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Overpriced for what it offers