My Favorite Photo Editing Apps
Both in my professional and personal life, I spend a lot of time on the visual aspects of social media profiles and published content. While I work in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom for larger projects, sometimes I want to quickly edit something on my phone or don’t have immediate access to a laptop with the Adobe programs. I wanted to share a few of my favorite photo editing apps.
My Favorites
Unfold
One of my all-time favorites. I’ve been using this app to create Instagram Stories for years. This is the app I probably use the most. There are multiple templates and you can change the background color to fit your aesthetic. While simple and straightforward, I use this both personally and professionally.
Facetune
This app has a reputation for altering the way that people look and being used by Instagram influencers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate all of its other features and practical uses. Whenever someone is in the background of my photo or I want to whiten the sky to match my feed, Facetune never fails to deliver.
VSCO
This is the app that I’ve had the longest. Does anyone remember when we would put our VSCO profiles in our Instagram bios? I miss that time in my life. Anyways, despite the app becoming a meme, it still boasts simple and clean filters that you can apply at varying degrees.
Lightroom (App)
Adobe has done a great job of adapting Lightroom for the iPhone. For lighting fixes and color correction, the app performs as well as its desktop counterpart. It’s important to note that you must have an Adobe subscription to use all of the features, but it’s worth it IMO.
Layover
Like VSCO, I’ve had this app for years. It’s great for combining images together while on-the-go and allows for multiple layers to be added. Want to photoshop yourself in someone else’s photo but don’t know how to use Photoshop? This is the app for you.
PicPlayPost
Another app I’ve been loyal to since high school. First, you choose the dimensions of your work. Then, you choose between collage layouts. I love this app because you’re able to combine images and videos within the same collage and add music to the background. It’s also very easy to use.
Glitché
Glitché is a fun app that allows you to distort your images and according to the app’s description, “create your most psychedelic works of art.” There is a lot of room to be creative.
kirakira+
This app adds sparkles to your photos and videos. You can choose how strong you want the sparkles to be and choose between a few different sparkle options.
Pixaloop
Pixaloop allows you to animate your images. For example, I edited an image of myself in front of a waterfall and was able to animate the water in the background. I’ve had this app for a while and haven’t explored it too much, but I love what I have seen so far.
Honorable Mentions
Template | Story + Feed Design
I recently downloaded this app and just like Unfold, it has fun templates for your Instagram Stories.
TouchRetouch
This is an app that became popular from TikTok. If you have something in the background of your image that you want to get rid of, Retouch will remove the object and replace it with its best guess of a replacement.
FaceApp
Another popular TikTok app. There are so many fun things you can do with this one. The most popular features popularized on TIkTok include swapping someone’s gender or aging them. The results look realistic and people have been able to prank their friends with photos of themselves.
I have other editing apps that I didn’t mention, but I don’t want this to get too long and they’re not used as frequently. I’m considering doing an “iPhone Tour” and listing out all of the apps that I have on my phone, both for fun and because I have the time. Do you have any of the apps that I mentioned and are there any others that you suggest? Let me know!