Cleaning My Gallery with a Sponge

I switched to Linux around two years ago, and I’ve been so engrossed in the FOSS world that I’ve become accustomed to hating on every piece of proprietary software I come across. However, I’ve mellowed out since and adopted a more reasonable approach: I would prefer to use FOSS, but if the proprietary software is just that good, I’ll use it.

This is how I felt when I discovered Sponge.

No-frills, fun, and probably the most effective way to clean your gallery.

A Little Obsession with Storage

My first smartphone was an ASUS Zenfone 5. No, not the iPhone X clone, the 2015 one with the… Intel Atom chip (I know, right?). It came with a meagre 8GB of storage. This seemed like a lot to me back then but a few games and photos/videos were enough to fill it up quickly. Every time that dreaded ‘Your phone is running out of space’ notification popped up, I would have a minor crash-out. This habit carried over to this day, where I feel a little worried every time I fill up space on my device, compelling me to go on a cleaning/optimization spree.

Sponge’s Ingenious Use of the Swipe System

When you launch the app, you’re greeted with a percentage of your cleaning progress. When you choose to start cleaning, it sorts your gallery by month and reveals how many images/videos there are and how many you’ve processed. Once you select a month, you’re shown the deleting interface, and that’s where Sponge really shines.

The way Sponge works is reminiscent of the Tinder ‘Swipe Left/Right’ matching paradigm that took the dating (and software) world by storm a decade ago. When you swipe to delete, the app does not immediately delete your selected items, allowing you to confirm or undo your decision. There’s also a settings option that gives you a choice on whether to send your selected items to the trash or delete them completely.

This workflow makes going through my gallery a lot more pleasurable and intuitive, compared to using my gallery’s built-in delete system or my laptop’s file manager to sift through the thousands of images and videos.

Funnily enough, I just realized why they named the app ‘Sponge’.

So Good, I Got the Premium Sponge

Unfortunately, cleaning videos and other non-essential features are locked behind a paywall. Thankfully, Sponge Premium is a one-time, lifetime purchase and it’s also great value for money at RM 26.99 (~$6 USD). This is the first time I’ve ever spent money on an in-app purchase for a proprietary program (outside of games), and I’m very happy with my purchase.

Once again, I highly recommend this app if you’re looking for an effective and simple way to clean your gallery. You don’t have to go through them all at once. Personally, I spend around 30mins a day just cleaning my gallery and I save between 300MiB to 3 GiB+ just doing that, daily!