Today, we’ll take a close look at Clever Cleaner, a free AI-powered app that claims to make iPhone cleanup painless while boosting productivity. I’ve spent a full week using it, testing every feature it offers, so this is going to be a full-fledged Clever Cleaner review, not a reworded App Store feature list.

If you’re curious whether it actually delivers, you’re in the right place.

I’ll walk you through what it does, what actually worked, what felt smooth (or didn’t), and whether it’s worth a spot on your own home screen.

Let’s dive in!

Who Made Clever Cleaner and What Makes It Stand Out

The app comes from CleverFiles Inc., so I guess the name Clever Cleaner checks out. As of writing this, it’s ranked in the top 200 under the Productivity category on the App Store and holds a 4.8 rating from over 15,000 users. 

Most of the reviews I’ve come across are genuinely positive, and a lot of people seem to really appreciate one thing above all: it’s actually free. No “unlock premium” tricks.

And I get it – because I’ve been burned by this kind of app before. You install something that says it’s free, it scans your phone, gives you hope, then right before cleanup… a paywall.

Some even make you subscribe after you’ve already picked the files to delete. In my opinion (and it’s one I know a lot of people share), apps on the App Store that are free to download but not free to actually use shouldn’t be labeled as “free” at all. It’s misleading.

I can confirm that Clever Cleaner does none of that. Everything is unlocked from the start. No ads even.

Key Features of Clever Cleaner

Okay, so the app is honest. That’s good, refreshing, actually, but what do you actually get for that price of zero dollars? Let’s break it down:

• The main attraction is called Similars, and it’s front and center on the app’s home screen for a reason. This is where Clever Cleaner shows off what its AI can actually do. Unlike the default Duplicates folder in the iPhone Photos app, which only finds pixel-perfect copies, Clever Cleaner scans for similar-looking photos. Think: the same person or object shot a few times in a row, different angles of the same scene, or nearly identical photos taken with different lighting.
• The Heavies tab is another useful one. It scans your entire library for the largest media files and ranks them by size. Most of these end up being 4K videos or long screen recordings;
• Then there’s Screenshots. You probably don’t realize how many you’ve piled up until you see them all in one place. Clever Cleaner gathers every screenshot on your device so you can wipe them out in bulk. Technically, you can do this in the Photos app too (there’s a “Screenshots” album tucked away), but it’s nice having all your cleanup tools in one spot.
• If you’re not into auto-cleanups or suggested picks, the Swipe Photos feature might be your thing. This lets you go through your library month by month, swiping left to delete or right to keep. Great for people who want full control but without the usual scrolling.
• And if you’re one of those people (like me) who accidentally fills up their phone with Live Photos, there’s a fix for that too. Clever Cleaner gives you the option to convert Live Photos into still images.

On paper, that’s a solid set of tools – even for a paid app. Honestly, I don’t remember seeing Live Photo conversion in many other free iPhone cleaners. That feature alone can save you a lot of space if you’re someone who snaps photos with Live turned on. 

And yes, I would’ve loved to see a video compression option too. I deal with 4K footage fairly often, and trimming those down without deleting them would be huge. But even without that, this is a satisfying set of features.

Hands-On Test (How Clever Cleaner Performed)

Now I want to cover each feature separately and share my actual experience using them – what worked and how it all felt in real-world use. Let’s start with the star of the show: Similars.

Similars

This is where Clever Cleaner flexes its AI muscle. After the initial scan (which took about 10 seconds for my photo library), the app showed me a bunch of photo groups it thought were nearly identical.

And I have to admit, they really were. People, places, pets, random objects – everything was neatly categorized. 

I didn’t see a single group where two unrelated photos got lumped together, which tells me this isn’t some shortcut using filenames or metadata. It’s actual image analysis. Real AI, and not just a buzzword slapped on to ride the trend.

The app also picks a “Best Shot” for each group. That’s the one it plans to keep if you hit the Smart Cleanup button. Most of the time, its picks made sense. I changed the selection a few times, but nothing major or weird.

And I liked that the app never forced anything – it let me review every group, skip ones I wasn’t sure about, switch the selected photo, or exclude them entirely. 

Once I was ready, the deletion took one tap. Simple. 

You can also skip the whole review process and just tap Smart Cleanup if you’re feeling confident. And if you change your mind after that, the app has its own Trash folder.

It doesn’t immediately wipe anything from your phone. Deleted files sit there for a while, giving you a chance to restore anything important before it’s gone for good. 

Heavies

This one is underrated, in my opinion. If you’ve ever tried to sort files in Photos by size, you know what I mean – it’s not something the native app lets you do.

You can’t just tap a button and see which videos or images are taking up the most space. You end up scrolling, maybe spotting a few obvious ones, but that’s it.

The Heavies tab in Clever Cleaner fixes that. It scans your photo and video library and instantly ranks everything by file size, biggest first. In my case, it pulled up a bunch of 4K video clips, screen recordings, and raw camera imports I didn’t even know were still on my phone. Some were over 2 gigabytes each. 

All I had to do was select them and tap Move to Trash. That’s it.

Swipe

This one I spent the least time with. Swipe mode shows your photos sorted by month, and then you just swipe left to delete, right to keep. Simple as can be. I know a lot of people like features like this, and I get why. It’s hands-on, satisfying, and gives you control.

Personally, I lean more toward the automatic side of things. I want a cleaner to do the heavy lifting for me. But to be fair, this feature works really smoothly.

No lag, and it’s actually kind of relaxing if you’re in the mood to curate your gallery photo by photo. So if that’s your thing, go for it – it does the job well.

Screenshots

As I said earlier, it’s a convenient place to remove all your screengrabs in one move. I had around 200 screenshots sitting in my library – random receipts, Wi-Fi passwords I screenshotted six months ago and never needed again. 

All I had to do was tap Move to Trash, and that was it. Way faster than manually digging to find the Screenshots album in Photos. Having it right there, alongside the other cleanup tools, just makes the whole process feel more streamlined.

Lives

This one was great for me. I totally forgot I never turned off Live Photos, and honestly, I’m not a fan. When I take a photo, I want a still image, not a short video clip attached. But unless you dig into camera settings and switch it off, Live Photos stay on by default.

Clever Cleaner flagged dozens of them in my library and gave me the option to convert them into regular stills. It keeps the image, drops the motion, and frees up quite a bit of space in the process.

The app doesn’t force anything (you choose what to convert), but the workflow was smooth, and the file size savings were noticeable – those little video clips eat up a lot of storage.

One thing I didn’t totally get is why the app calls it “compress” when it’s really more of a convert. It doesn’t reduce file size by lowering quality – it removes the motion part entirely.

But honestly, who cares what they call it. What matters is that it works, and it gives you back space you probably didn’t even know was being wasted.

Overall, I’d say Clever Cleaner absolutely delivers on its core promise. This is an app that can substantially free up your iPhone storage – no question. Whether it’s duplicates, similar shots, large files, or Live Photos, it actually finds the stuff that’s taking up space and gives you options to deal with it.

I started this test with about 5 GB of free space on my 64 GB iPhone. After running through all the cleanup tools, I ended up with over 20 GB free. That’s a huge difference.

Interface and Usability

Every feature here is color-coded, which sounds like a small detail, but it really helps keep things organized. Similars is green, Lives is blue, Screenshots is yellow, and so on. The moment you open the app, you know exactly what section you’re in.

Navigation is intuitive and glitch-free. You always know where you are and what’s happening. The app shows the number of selected files, how much space they take, and what percentage of your storage is used – all clearly displayed. 

And at the bottom, there’s a Trash tab that’s always one tap away. You can restore, skip, or undo actions anytime, which makes cleanup feel low-risk and fully in your control.

I didn’t run into a single bug while using it. Everything was smooth and responsive, and it felt like a native iOS experience.

Is the Clever Cleaner App Safe?

When I first opened Clever Cleaner, it asked for permission to access my photo library, standard iPhone thing. Nothing sketchy or unexpected there.

But since the app uses AI, I did wonder if it was uploading anything to the cloud for processing. You know how some apps quietly send your data off somewhere and never tell you what happens to it?

So I checked the official info, and here’s the good news: Clever Cleaner does all its processing locally on your device. No photos or personal data get uploaded to any servers. Your gallery stays on your iPhone. That’s a huge plus for anyone who cares about privacy (and let’s be honest, that should be all of us).

Clever Cleaner’s Pros and Cons

Here, I sumamrize the pros and cons I found during my Clever Cleaner review.

Clever Cleaner’s Pros

• Completely free
• No ads and no locked features
• Real AI-powered cleanup
• Accurately detects similar photos
• Local processing
• Simple, colorful interface
• Trash folder with undo

Clever Cleaner’s Cons

• No video compression
• Doesn’t detect similar videos

Final Verdict: Clever Cleaner

Would I recommend the Clever Cleaner app? Absolutely.

The other Clever Cleaner reviews I’ve seen on the App Store didn’t lie – this is a legitimately great app for anyone looking to free up iPhone storage without gimmicks or hidden costs. It delivers exactly what it promises: a smart and private way to clean up your photo library and reclaim free space.

It’s rare to find an app that’s this useful, and still completely free – especially in a category full of bait-and-switch apps. If you’ve ever run out of space, or you’re just tired of scrolling through a sea of near-identical selfies and memes, Clever Cleaner is 100% worth installing.

Aron Kantor

Hey there! I am Aron, the founder of Thebusinessdive. With my website & YouTube channel, I reach 25.000 -35.000 people monthly with the mission to help you find the perfect productivity apps. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to hear more about the best productivity tools. Let’s dive in!