The core difference: where your photos live
Google Photos is built around a cloud library: your photos and videos are backed up to Google’s servers, which is what gives you search and access from any device. deja is built the other way around: it reads the photo library already on your iPhone through Apple’s Photos framework, and nothing is uploaded. deja has no account; Google Photos needs you to sign in with a Google Account.
Neither is wrong; they solve different problems. If you want your whole library backed up and searchable everywhere, that’s what Google Photos is for. If you want your photos to stay on your iPhone, that’s deja.
Cleanup: automatic suggestions vs. reliving a day
Google Photos leans automatic. Once your photos are backed up, Free up space on this device can remove their copies from your iPhone. That frees space on the phone, not in your Google storage, since the photos stay in the cloud (and on iPhone, you then empty Apple’s Recently Deleted to get the space back). When your Google storage is full, it also groups similar photos, preselects the ones to delete and keeps what it considers the best shot, which you can change.
deja doesn’t scan or flag anything. It plays your photos full screen in the order you took them, as if you were back in that day, so bursts and near-duplicates come one after another and the choice is easy to make in context — yours, not an algorithm’s. You mark what you don’t want as you go and delete it all with one confirmation at the end.
Memories
Both have a memories feature. Google Photos shows featured memories at the top of the Photos tab, including photos from earlier years, and you can turn them off in its settings. deja works differently, by the rule you choose when you start (and can change in Settings): Random day deals you any past day or week you haven’t relived yet, ordinary days included; On this day deals you today’s date from an earlier year.
Deleting and getting things back
Google Photos: deleting an item in the app moves it to Trash, where it stays for 30 days before it’s deleted permanently. You can empty Trash yourself sooner. Deleting in Google Photos also deletes the copy on your iPhone, so it can show up in Apple’s Recently Deleted as well.
deja: deleting goes through iOS’s own confirmation, once per batch, and deleted photos go to Apple’s Recently Deleted album, where they stay for 30 days.
The number is the same, but the places differ: Google Photos’ Trash is Google’s, Recently Deleted is Apple’s. A photo deleted only with deja or the Photos app isn’t in Google’s Trash; if it was backed up, it stays in your Google Photos library until you delete it there.
Where each one helps
Google Photos’ strength is taking the decision off your hands: once something is backed up, it can free space without you going through your library. That’s useful if you want space back with the least effort and you’re comfortable with an algorithm deciding what counts as similar.
deja trades some of that automation for context. It doesn’t guess what you don’t want: it shows you your photos a day at a time, the way you lived them, and lets you decide. For the clutter a scan struggles with — a screenshot you needed for one afternoon, a photo of a parking spot, an accidental shot from your pocket — remembering the day it came from makes the decision obvious.
Pick deja if…
- You want your photos to stay on your iPhone, with no account and nothing uploaded.
- You’d rather look back at a day in context and decide yourself than have an algorithm pick “similar” photos.
- You want cleanup to be free with no limit: deja never charges you to delete your own photos.
Pick Google Photos if…
- You want your whole library backed up to the cloud and searchable on any device.
- You’re already in the Google ecosystem, or also use Android.
- You want space freed on your phone once photos are backed up, without reviewing each one.
Or use both
They don’t conflict. Google Photos can keep backing up your library while deja works on the same photos on your iPhone, a day at a time.
