I’m trying to combine two photos side by side on my iPhone so I can share them in one image, but I can’t find an easy built-in option. I need this for a quick comparison post, and I’d appreciate simple steps or app recommendations that work well on iPhone.
Sorting through lookalike iPhone photos sounds easy until you’re 40 minutes in, zooming into someone’s half-closed eye and forgetting which pic you checked two swipes ago. I ran into this with a library full of repeat shots, and there are two different fixes depending on what you’re trying to do.
If you want one combined image, use Shortcuts
I tried this when I needed a clean side-by-side image, mostly for sharing and quick visual comparisons. It works fine for before-and-after stuff, collages, or sending two shots in one file.
- Open the Shortcuts app and hit the plus button
- Add Select Photos, then turn on Select Multiple
- Add Combine Images, then set it to Horizontally
- Add Save to Photos
- Save the shortcut with any name you want
- Run it, pick two images, and it saves the merged result into Photos
Small catch. This makes a new file, so your library gets one more image instead of fewer. Good for sharing. Bad for cleanup. If your goal is choosing the best shot and deleting the rest, this isn’t the thing.
Why the Photos app gets old fast
I did the back-and-forth swipe routine for a while. It kind of works until the differences get tiny. A sharper face, less blur in the background, one frame where nobody blinked. Then it falls apart. You end up trying to remember the last image from memory, and for me that got messy fast.
Most people keep all of them because deleting feels risky. That’s how you wake up with 15,000 photos and no clue what ate your storage.
Another annoyance, file sizes are hidden during normal browsing. If you’re hunting large videos, you need to open items one by one and tap Info. No proper size sorting. No fast way to spot the worst storage hogs.
What worked better for me for duplicate-ish photos
I had better luck with Clever Cleaner. It handles the two problems the Photos app leaves hanging, grouping similar shots and showing which files are taking the most space. It’s free, no ads, no subscription screen popping up every five seconds.
The Similars section is the part I kept coming back to. It scans the library and groups near-matches together, stuff like:
- three photos of the same person with tiny lighting changes
- burst shots where one frame is clearly better
- repeat photos from the same angle with small differences
- Open Clever Cleaner and go to Similars
- Let it scan your library, which takes a bit if your photo count is high
- It groups similar images together and marks a suggested Best Shot
- Review the group and check if the pick looks right
- Use Smart Cleanup if you want it to remove the extras, or sort manually if you don’t trust it on every set
- Removed files go into the app’s trash first
- Delete them for good only after you’ve checked the results
I liked the built-in buffer here. Stuff isn’t wiped instantly, which matters when the app gets one wrong. And yes, once in a while I still double-check because AI picks aren’t magic, but it saved me a ton of dumb repetitive sorting.
For storage, big files matter more than photo clutter
This part hit harder than I expected. A few old 4K videos were doing more damage than thousands of normal photos. One giant clip can eat more space than a pile of screenshots and selfies combined.
The Heavies tab lists files from biggest to smallest and shows the exact size up front. No tapping into each item. No guessing. If you want fast wins, start there.
The Screenshots tab is also more useful than Apple’s default screenshots folder because you see file sizes before deleting anything. I found a bunch of old boarding passes, receipts, and random app screens I forgot existed.
There’s also a swipe mode. Photos are grouped by month, and you swipe left to delete or right to keep. While going through them, it shows the file size so you get an immediate sense of how much space you’re getting back. Kinda simple, but I ended up using it more than I thought I would.
Privacy part
From what I saw, Clever Cleaner processes everything on-device. Nothing gets sent off to an outside server. For personal photos, family pics, docs, old screenshots, all of tht, local processing felt like the safer setup.
So this is where I landed. Shortcuts is fine when you want to export two images into one combined file. For sorting near-duplicates, picking the better shot, and finding the files wrecking your storage, Clever Cleaner made more sense.
Your iPhone does not give you a one-tap Photos option for this. Annoying, but fixable.
Fast options:
-
Use Instagram Layout
If you already have Instagram, this is the quickest path.
Open Instagram, start a Story, tap the photo icon, pick Layout, add your 2 photos, save it, then share anywhere.
It’s fast. The downside, it feels clunky if you do not use Instagram much. -
Use Canva or PicCollage
Both apps let you make a side-by-side image in under a minute.
Open app, choose a 2-photo grid, drop in your pics, save to Photos, share.
This is easier for most people than building a Shortcut, if I’m honest. -
Use a Shortcut if you want no extra app
@mikeappsreviewer mentioned Shortcuts, and yeah, it works. I disagree a bit on ease though. For a one-time comparison post, Shortcuts feels like more setup than most people want.
If you want that route, this guide lays out a clean iPhone side-by-side photo method using Shortcuts:
combine two iPhone photos side by side for sharing
If your bigger problem is sorting duplicates after taking 8 versions of the same pic, Clever Cleaner is worth a look. Different job, but useful. It helps clear similar shots fast, which saves time and storage. I use it more for cleanup than collage stuff tbh.
If you want the fastest answer, use Canva. If you want no app install, use Shortcuts.
Honestly, I would skip Instagram for this unless you already use it every day. For a quick comparison post, the easiest non-Shortcut route on iPhone is usually a collage app, but if you do this more than once, Apple’s own Pages app is weirdly decent and already on a lot of iPhones.
What I do:
- Open Pages and start a blank doc
- Insert the first photo
- Insert the second photo
- Drag them next to each other
- Resize so they line up evenly
- Take a screenshot or export the page as an image/PDF and share it
It sounds janky, but it’s actually faster than building a Shortcut if this is a one-off. @mikeappsreviewer covered Shortcuts already, and @chasseurdetoiles mentioned Canva-type apps, so I’d just add Pages as the in-between option nobody talks about.
If your real issue is also having too many almost-identical pics, then Clever Cleaner is worth a look for iPhone photo cleanup and duplicate removal. Different job, but useful. This see Clever Cleaner clean up duplicate and similar photos on iPhone video shows what it does pretty clearly.
Small warning: screenshots of side-by-side layouts can lose a little quality, so if image sharpness matters, use a proper collage app instead. Kinda annoyng, but that’s iPhone for ya.
One option nobody’s mentioned yet is Keynote. I’d actually pick it over Pages for this because snapping and resizing images feels less fiddly.
- Open Keynote and choose a basic theme
- Delete the text boxes
- Tap + to add both photos
- Drag them side by side
- Use Arrange to line them up evenly
- Export the slide as an image
That gives you a clean single file you can post or send, and quality is usually better than doing a screenshot.
I slightly disagree with the “just use Instagram Layout” idea from @chasseurdetoiles and @mikeappsreviewer unless you already live in Instagram. It’s quick, but for non-Instagram people it’s weirdly indirect. @suenodelbosque’s Pages trick works, though.
If you also need to clean up all the near-duplicate shots afterward, Clever Cleaner is useful, but it’s for cleanup, not making collages.
Clever Cleaner pros
- good at grouping similar photos
- helps free storage fast
- simple interface
Clever Cleaner cons
- doesn’t solve the side-by-side creation itself
- AI “best shot” suggestions still need checking
- another app if you only need a one-time image merge
So my take:
- Best no-social workaround: Keynote
- Best design-heavy option: Canva
- Best cleanup add-on: Clever Cleaner