How to Find and Sort Cat and Dog Photos on iPhone

By Eugene Grunin, developer of SwipellioUpdated October 17, 2026

Pet photos are often hard to delete because the small differences matter. Start by bringing them into one review session. You can keep several good moments instead of reducing every series to one picture.

What Pets is looking for

Swipellio’s Pets mode finds photos of cats and dogs in the camera roll. It is not a promise to identify every species or recognize each animal by name. The point is to build a focused queue, so you can review those pictures without scrolling through documents and unrelated photos.

Review the moment, not just the count

Open or enlarge a photo to check expression, focus and what makes it worth keeping. A sleeping pet and the next frame with open eyes may both deserve a place. A long series does not mean that every picture after the first is redundant.

Keep or set aside

Swipe right to keep and left to move into the in-app Trash Bin. A double tap undoes the last swipe. Nothing is removed from your library just because you swiped left. Review the Bin before emptying it, especially for a series where your favourite is easy to confuse with another frame.

Pets and Similars solve different parts

Pets finds the cat-and-dog part of your library. Similars groups near-identical shots, and Autoselect can suggest which frames to keep. Pets is not the same as a duplicate finder. Use a similar-photo review when comparing a close sequence is the job you want to finish.

What you can try free

Pets includes 20 free items, then needs Pro to continue in that mode. Similars offers 5 free packs. Everything and Photos remain free basic modes with no swipe limit. The pet-specific shortcut is optional; you can still review your library manually.

More guides

Check before deleting

A left swipe only moves the photo into the in-app Trash Bin. You can restore it until you empty the Bin; a double tap undoes the last swipe. After deleting from your library, check Recently Deleted in Photos too. Permanently deleting from there cannot be undone.

With iCloud Photos enabled, deleting also syncs to other devices on the same account. Keep a separate copy of important memories before permanently removing them.

Apple’s guide to deleting and recovering photos

Try Swipellio on iPhone

Everything, Photos, Videos and Screenshots are free basic modes, with no daily swipe cap. All sort orders, the Trash Bin and double-tap undo are included. No ads, cooldown timers or account.

Download on the App Store