Choosing a phone with a great camera is only part of the equation. The apps that you use with it — and after the fact — are equally important. But once you’ve taken the photo, how do you make it better? These are the best apps that help you get the most out of your photographs.
Tweak and edit everything
Snapseed
Staff Pick
Google’s Snapseed is one of the most accessible photo editing apps for Android, with a wide range of features for experienced users and newcomers alike. The range of features is diverse. It has everything from basic automatic color and contrast enhancement, to cropping and sharpening, to selectively adjusting color properties within a particular radius.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Better than you think
Google Photos
Google makes editing photos a breeze. The app has a number of non-descructive (meaning you can undo them if you don’t want them) tools so you can quickly and easily make changes and share them to various social networks. Plus, with Auto Awesome, Photos can provide you with enhanced versions of your images alongside the original versions.
Free at Google Play
Surprisingly robust
Instagram adds new filters all the time, and for the most part, it does a good job of giving photos character without stomping all over them. In addition to controlling lux and the level of filtering, you can tweak photos’ color temperatures, adjust highlight and shadow brightness, add a vignette, sharpen, and even introduce tilt-shift effects.
Free at Google Play
Beautiful presets
VSCO Photo & Video Editor
VSCO Cam aims to be your one-stop shop for photography and image editing on your Android phone. VSCO lets you capture images, tweak and tune them to your liking, sync them across devices, and share them with the world. You can even discover the best original photography from other VSCO users through the Grid feature.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Get the subscription
Adobe Lightroom – Photo Editor & Pro Camera
Using Lightroom Mobile can take a few minutes to get used to, but after you figure out where everything is, it’s a breeze to edit your photos. At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a bar that has settings that can be applied with a tap. You just need to select the category of tool that you want to use from adjusting the look of the photo itself, to cropping it or adding a gradient.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Create easy collages
Fotor Photo Editor – Photo Collage & Photo Effects
Fotor wants to be your all-in-one photo editor for your Android device. Not only is there an array of editing effects and filters, but you can even customize the Edit functions within the app. Plus, Fotor makes it possible to quickly and easily create photo collages.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Glitch it up
Glitch Lab
Glitch art may not be for everyone, but for those who want to dive down into editing photos in a different way, Glitch Lab is the app for them. There are over 100 different effects, which are broken down into different categories, all while maintaining a simple and easy-to-use interface.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Just start editing
Pixlr
Pixlr is a fan-favorite for those looking for free photo editing services on the computer. Now with the mobile app, you can take it with you on the go. Not only can you do basic photo editing, but there are plenty of different effects, overlays, and filters to choose from and you can share the edited photos to your social network platforms right from the app.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Remove unwanted items
TouchRetouch
Sometimes you come across a potential image that is absolutely perfect, only to find out that someone walked through the picture at the last minute. With TouchRetouch, you open the picture in the app, highlight that person, and remove them, giving you the perfect picture.
$2 at Google Play
Custom overlay tools
Polarr Photo Editor
Polarr is another fan favorite for those who like editing photos in a browser, but there’s also a powerful Android app. There are plenty of auto-enhance tools, but Polarr offers even more controls, such as creating custom overlays, to look just the way you envisioned them to.
Free w/IAP at Google Play
Use what works for you
There are tons of great apps on Android that can help you take and tweak photos of the people, places, and things that you love. Sometimes it helps to figure out what you want in a photo-editing app before you download all of them, but a lot of the options on our list have every feature you could need. With apps like Snapseed, photo editing on the go is easier than ever, and you are given so many different filters and overlays
In most cases, you will be perfectly fine taking advantage of the editing tools found within Google Photos. In addition to likely already being installed on your smartphone, Google has added quite a few tools to help you tweak the photo to your liking. Plus, you get the added benefit of having everything backed up for syncing across platforms and devices.
