The best photo editing apps on Android and iOS smartphones

With all the photos we take with our smartphones, it’s convenient to edit them directly on your phone. We have therefore selected the best photo editing applications on iPhone and Android.

There are many applications on the Google Play Store (Android) and the App Store (iPhone and iPad) that allow you to enhance the photos taken with your smartphone. An adjustment of the brightness and contrast here, a wave of the magic wand to erase an annoying passerby there and here you are with a perfect shot to share on Instagram or show to your friends. We have selected the best of them for you.

Google Photos

We no longer present Google Photos which is mainly used to store your images in the cloud to find them on multiple devices with your Google account. However, we must mention the interesting editing functions of this application.

Perfect for beginners in the field, Google Photos offers a large number of easy-to-use tools to give a boost of pep to your photos, crop, adjust the brightness, contrast, blur… You also have a nice catalog of filters to discover.

In addition, Google makes its algorithms available and immediately offers automatic retouching to improve your image with a single click or to remove unwanted elements such as passers-by in the background or poorly placed electricity pylons. As efficient as it is fast.

Google Snapseed

Although the application has not been updated since September 2023, Snapseed is essential for any self-respecting mobile photographer, since it offers many very easy to use options. It is full of advanced adjustments, but also automatic retouching, allows you to crop photos, flip them, add brush effects on small areas of an image and play with a number of filters.

Small bonus that is increasingly interesting, since high-end smartphones are generally often compatible with this format: RAW (DNG) management is included. And that’s no small thing, especially since the modification parameters of a shot can be saved to be applied to another image. Snapseed also makes it easy to add stylized text to photos. For us, it’s a favorite.

Adobe Lightroom

Unsurprisingly, the well-known Adobe also offers its services on mobile with Lightroom, well known on PC by photographers, amateurs and professionals alike. The free tool allows you to retouch photographs using predefined parameters or much finer adjustments.

Compared to Snapseed, Lightroom notably allows finer adjustment of the colorimetric shift of your photographs, allowing for example to perfectly copy the Teal & Orange style which was very popular in 2019 on Instagram.

The software is obviously aimed at premium smartphone users, since Lightroom is most useful when used to edit photos in RAW format. And besides, the application allows you to shooter directly in RAW without going through another application, with a professional mode available to play with many settings.

Adobe Photoshop Express

If you like Adobe products but are less fond of their subscription price, know that Adobe offers a free alternative for photo editing: Adobe Photoshop Express. Certainly, users have fewer features, but the application automates many tools thanks to hundreds of thematic “looks” and overlay effects.

The photo editor also includes other AI-powered features to delete unwanted elements, add makeup or create memes from predefined templates. Templates are also available to create collages to personalize, montages for your scrapbooking or even illustrations for your social networks.

Lensai AI

Lensa AI is also a free image editing application for Android and iPhone, and as its name suggests, artificial intelligence plays an important role, to the delight of users. Thanks to advanced algorithms, the application allows you to retouch your photos in a professional and creative way for your selfies (red eye correction, skin smoothing, correction of imperfections, etc.).

It detects and manages the different planes of your photo, offers dozens of filters and other automated tools to enhance your portraits or create personalized avatars. Other settings (brightness, colors, saturation, temperature, etc.) can also be adjusted according to the desired effect. The interface is simple, practical and allows quick access to all the tools.

YouCam Perfect

YouCam Perfect processes your photos, but also your videos. Filters, stickers, collage and editing tools to crop and rotate your images, the essentials are present in this free application for iOS.

It also includes a facial recognition system which identifies the different faces present in your photo and allows you to retouch them individually. It is also possible to transform your portrait into an Avatar for your social networks, thanks to the new Avatar AI module.

PhotoDirector

Available both on mobile and on PC, PhotoDirector also stands out for the numerous AI-managed tools it offers, such as Sky Replacement, automatic image enhancement, or even automatic portrait correction. This Guided mode also includes filters, but the application also offers an Expert mode, equipped with numerous manual settings to adjust white balance, tone, saturation, contrast, color levels, shade, exposure and many others.

PhotoDirector also offers a text tool, frames and borders, stickers and overlays and even animation effects. You will have creation tools for slideshows, GIFs, panoramas and even a Face Swap system to exchange the faces of two people.

TouchRetouch

We will also mention the excellent TouchRetouch for easily deleting elements “unwanted» of your photos (a passer-by on your pretty landscape, a piece of dirt lying on the table where your beautiful plate is…).

Just like other more general software, TouchRetouch uses artificial intelligence to fill the gap in an area that you have defined and thus erase an unwanted element. The result is sometimes hazardous, but generally allows, after a few attempts, to obtain a rather natural result.

Prisma

With Prisma, you can transform each of your photos into a work of art inspired by paintings by the greatest masters. The application offers more than 300 filters based on paintings by Munch, Picasso, Hokusai or Mondrian…

The application automatically manages image processing and in one click your photos become unrecognizable and almost worthy of being exhibited in a Louvre gallery.

VSCO

For its part, VSCO is a very successful vintage editing application. It allows you to apply several filters inspired by old professional cameras, but also to add effects, such as image noise to give a film look to your shots.

VSCO is a clean and efficient tool that provides quality rendering. You can also share your images within the app with a community of photographers. Retro effect guaranteed.

You can also find our advice for optimizing the format of your images on Instagram and avoiding the excessively brutal compression of the social network. In addition, don’t hesitate to check out our selection of the best video editing applications.