Swipewipe in a nutshell
Swipewipe is one of the most popular swipe apps on the App Store: it's rated 4.7 from more than 97,000 ratings in the US. It's made by MWM, a French company known for music apps such as Edjing. It shows you your photos month by month and you decide with a swipe; it also has On This Day, a memories map, streaks, stats and AI photo enhancement.
What its App Store listing says
Before installing an app that will see your whole photo library, it's worth reading the full listing. Here's what Swipewipe's says in the US:
- Contains ads. The listing says so right under the age rating.
- Weekly subscriptions. Its in-app purchases include weekly plans from $3.99 to $9.99 and a $29.99 yearly plan. At $7.99 a week, a year costs more than $400.
- Data used to track you. Its privacy label says identifiers, usage data and other data "may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies", for third-party advertising.
- No trash of its own. You can undo the last decision, but you can't review everything you've discarded before it goes to Recently Deleted in Photos.
Swipewipe vs Criba
| Swipewipe | Criba | |
|---|---|---|
| Gestures | Right to keep, left to delete | Right to keep, left to delete, up for favorite |
| Before deleting | Undo the last one | A trash to review what you discarded; deleted only when you confirm |
| Where to start | Month by month, On This Day, map | By month, calendar, map, On This Day, albums (shared ones too) and what the analysis finds: documents, blurry and similar photos |
| Ads | Yes | No |
| Data used to track you | Yes | No |
| Price (US) | Weekly from $3.99 to $9.99; yearly $29.99In-app purchases from $1.99 to $39.99 | Free for 100 photos a day; Pro $12.99$9.99/year or $24.99$19.99 once |
| Extras | AI enhancement, memories map, streaks, widget | Map and calendar, streaks, widgets for your streak and On This Day, Siri Shortcuts, VoiceOver and Dynamic Type |
What Swipewipe does better
To be fair: Swipewipe has been on the App Store for years and has tens of thousands of ratings, which a new app can't match. And it has one thing Criba doesn't: AI photo enhancement, which sharpens old or low-quality photos. Otherwise they're on par: both let you review month by month, on a map or with photos from this day in past years, and both have streaks and widgets. If you want to touch up photos as well as clean up, that extra may be worth the ads to you.
When Criba is the better fit
- You don't want ads in the middle of something as personal as your camera roll.
- Privacy matters to you. Criba has no accounts and no servers of its own, and documents, blurry shots and similar photos are found on your iPhone.
- You want to review before deleting. Criba's trash shows everything you've discarded, and you can restore any photo before confirming.
- You'd rather pay once. $24.99$19.99 forever, or $12.99$9.99 a year. No weekly plans.
- You want to get straight to it. Tapping a photo's date or place lets you review just that day or that spot, and shared albums are cleaned by removing photos from the album instead of deleting them.
How to switch from Swipewipe to Criba without losing anything
- Cancel your Swipewipe subscription, if you have one: Settings → your name → Subscriptions → Swipewipe → Cancel Subscription. Deleting the app doesn't cancel it.
- Check Recently Deleted in the Photos app. Anything you deleted with Swipewipe stays there for 30 days; if something went by mistake, recover it before it's gone.
- Install Criba and give it access to Photos. Both apps work on the same iOS photo library, so there's nothing to export or import: you pick up where you left off.
If you'd like more options before deciding, our comparison of swipe-to-delete photo apps also covers Slider, Flic and Clever Cleaner.
FAQ
Is Swipewipe free?
It's free to download, but it's funded by ads and subscriptions: weekly plans from $3.99 to $9.99 and a $29.99 yearly plan in the US. Criba has a free plan of 100 photos a day, with every feature and no ads.
Is Swipewipe safe?
It deletes through the iOS photo library, so anything you delete spends 30 days in Recently Deleted in Photos and can be recovered. What's worth knowing is that its privacy label declares data used to track you for third-party advertising.
Does deleting Swipewipe cancel the subscription?
No. Subscriptions are handled by Apple: cancel it in Settings → your name → Subscriptions, before or after deleting the app.
Do I lose anything by switching apps?
No. Swipewipe and Criba both work on the same iOS photo library: they don't keep your photos separately. The only things that don't carry over are its stats and streaks.