If you want to edit photos you’ve taken on your iPhone or Android device, you have many options. However, it can be difficult to find an app that suits your needs. To help you out, we’ve handpicked the best free photo editing apps for Android and iOS.
1 Photoshop Express
Photoshop Express by Adobe is a simple yet powerful application that allows you to quickly edit photos. It’s handy if you often take several pictures on the move. Available tools include layers, filters, text, light leaks, and adjustments like exposure, saturation, tonal colors, brightness, and shadows.
You will need an Adobe account and a premium subscription to get the most out of this app. You can sign in to your Photoshop for desktop account in case you need to make advanced edits that Photoshop Express might not be able to handle.
Download files: Photoshop Express for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
2 Snapseed
Simplicity is Snapseed’s standout feature. It’s a free photo editor that does exactly what it’s supposed to do, without any frills. Whether you’re a pro or just need to polish up a quick selfie, Snapseed has all the tools you need on Android and iOS.
You can sharpen, crop, blur, apply filters, contrast, add frames and brighten your images all in one place. You can also use Snapseed’s advanced options if you need them. For example, Selectively The tool can help you focus your attention on a specific part of the image you’re working on.
Download files: Snapseed for Android | iOS (free)
3 PhotoDirector
Of all the apps on this list, PhotoDirector comes the closest to full-featured photo editing software. If you’re a pro, you can play around with the many advanced tools at your disposal, such as animating objects and retouching specific areas.
However, if you are a beginner, you can take advantage of basic tools such as contrast, brightness, cropping and background replacement. You can also choose from the many templates available if you’re editing for social media.
Consider using the PhotoDirector app because it’s easy to use and doesn’t have a steep learning curve. Its premium subscription will get you more templates and elements to work with. It also comes with several advanced AI tools, such as an AI background generator and an ID photo enhancer.
Download files: PhotoDirector for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
4 YouCam Perfect
YouCam’s standout feature is its ability to enhance your photo in real time. It lets you beautify, add effects and use frames before you even take a photo. Once you’ve made the desired changes to the live image, you can share or use the photo as is.
Another feature that you may find useful is the face reshaping tool. It allows you to enhance your selfies by allowing you to add contours for more beautiful cheekbones and jawline.
YouCam uses a mix of artificial intelligence and augmented reality to make all the adjustments to your photos as perfect and realistic as possible. By paying a subscription, you can get more advanced manual and AI-powered features.
Download files: YouCam for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
5 Apple Photos
Apple Photos can walk you through most basic photo editing tasks on your iPhone. Some of the features in Apple Photos include cropping, rotating, flipping photos, straightening and adjusting perspective, and applying effects.
On top of these basic but essential photo editing capabilities, Apple Photos also lets you batch edit photos on your iPhone. The good thing about this app is that it comes pre-installed on iOS, so you won’t need to install a third-party editor if you want to do basic photo editing on your iPhone.
Download files: Apple Photos for iOS (Free)
6 Picsart AI photo editor
Picsart is one of those photo editors that will serve you well whether you’re just getting started with editing or you’re a pro. It is available for Android and iOS, and the free version is good enough for most users.
One of its prominent features is A remix of photography and artwork, which allows you to rework images or artwork already created by other Picsart users. However, my personal favorite is Magic effects a feature that uses AI to apply filters to the images or artwork you’re working on without you having to do much.
The only downside to this app is that it is loaded with ads, so you may want to spend money on a subscription to get rid of them.
Download files: Picsart for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
7 Canva
Social media campaigns need colorful and attractive images to grab the audience’s attention. Canva is an excellent application for this task, offering thousands of graphic templates and image elements with the help of artificial intelligence.
Canva templates are available and optimized for any social media platform you can think of—YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.
You don’t need any special skills to use Canva. All you have to do is upload your photo and use Canva’s many features to create a unique design in minutes. You can also collaborate with others to edit projects in a team on different platforms.
While the free version is sufficient in most cases, a paid subscription will unlock even more unique elements, templates, and functionality like background removal and instant resizing of an existing photo or project. Note that you will need to create a Canva account to access your projects across devices.
Download files: Canva for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
8 Gallery Samsung
If you own a Samsung Galaxy device, you don’t need to download a third-party photo editor. Samsung’s Gallery app has photo editing features similar to Apple’s Photos app.
To access these features, launch Samsung Gallery, open the image you want to edit and tap Edit tool (marked with a pencil icon). After you finish editing the image and tap Saveyou should be able to find the edited copy in the Gallery app alongside the original photo.
Samsung Gallery may not be as powerful as some of the dedicated editing apps on this list. However, its features should be sufficient if you only want to do minor touch-ups before sharing your images on social media platforms.
Download files: Samsung Gallery for Android (Free)
9 Google Photos
Google Photos comes pre-installed on most Android devices. So you probably already have one of the easiest photo editing apps in hand – even if its primary purpose is to back up your device’s photos.
Its tools are good enough for casual photo editing, and you’ll be happy with it if you just want to perform quick edits like fixing lighting, cropping, and applying simple filters.
After you finish editing a photo in Google Photos, you can tap Save and access it on your other devices, such as an iPad or PC (via a web browser), with the same Google Account.
Download files: Google Photos for Android | iOS (free, subscription available)
With a little creativity and the right free photo editing app, you won’t have to spend a dime on an app subscription. You can get the most out of these Android apps without needing to upgrade to their premium versions, unless you need very specific features like advanced AI editing tools.