How to quickly delete iPhone photos after sending

As Apple device users, we all seem to suffer from a common problem: We have too many unnecessary photos in our photo library. These can be photos we take once to share with friends, or screenshots taken to share with colleagues. Without regular cleaning, this often clutters our photo library, leading to unnecessary storage space taking up.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, Apple offers no options or features for this. In a previous article, TipsMake shared how you can take a screenshot and send it without saving it to your camera roll, but this is limited to screenshots only.

Automatically delete photos after sending on iPhone

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Wouldn't it be great if the device also automatically deleted the one-time photos we take after sending or sharing them?

There is a workaround, which is to sort of delete the photo from your album after you share it. This involves using the Shortcuts feature, combined with Siri voice commands.

The trick is to create a Siri-enabled shortcut that automatically detects and deletes the latest photo once you're done. This way, you'll maintain a neater photo library.

First, we'll create a shortcut to identify and delete the most recent photos in our album:

1. Open the Shortcuts application and click the + sign to create a new shortcut.

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2. Search 'Find Photos' and select it.

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3. In "Sort by", change 'None' to 'Creation Date'.

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4. For 'Order', change 'Oldest First' to 'Latest First'.

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5. Turn on 'Limit' and adjust to 'Get 1 Photo'.

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6. Next, search for 'Delete Photos' and add it below.

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This shortcut will now search for the latest photo in your photo library to delete.

To add an extra layer of safety, add a validation step. Add 'Show Alert ' action to shortcut. This will prompt for confirmation before deleting the photo.

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Final step: Choose an easy-to-remember and meaningful name for the shortcut when you use Siri. For example, you could name it "Delete Latest Photo". Then, just tell Siri: "Hey Siri, delete the latest photo" to use.

When you use a voice command, Siri will ask for confirmation and then proceed to delete said photo.

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It is done! This simple shortcut keeps your photo albums tidy without having to delete them manually.

Jessica Tanner

Update 26 December 2023