With the increased penetration of smartphones in our lives, millions of images are clicked and shared on the social media as they are still considered a best way to gain someone’s attention. And as it is known, a picture is worth a thousand words, so how do we make them look amazing and great? Well, we bring you five best photo editing apps available on Android and iOS.

Snapseed

Available on Android and iOS.

Developed by Google, Snapseed is one of the best photo editing app on both Android and iOS. With a huge range of features and an easy-to-use interface, Snapseed is very much capable to topple some of best desktop apps. Users can choose from a range of pre-set filters and unlike most apps, you can also edit these filters, and even create your own filter from scratch.

The app is equipped with common editing tools including cropping, straightening, adding text, frames, vignettes, etc. What I like most is the sharpening feature, that makes the image look clean without making the image look grainy. Then, there is precision masking that which allows users to edit depth of field to make the subject stand out from the background.

Another interesting feature of the app is ‘Selective Adjust’ tool. This tool lets you adjust the saturation, contrast, and brightness of a particular area in an image.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Available on Android and iOS.

The Adobe Photoshop Express inherits popular features of the desktop version into a small screen. You can either upload a photo from your smartphone or click a new one or upload an image from your Adobe Creative Cloud account. Tools such as cropping, red-eye correction, brightness, contrast, saturation, filters, borders, etc. are available at the fingertips.

The main USP of the app is its selection of smart filters. These smart filters are designed in such a way that automatically corrects colour temperature and exposure problems – some of the common issues in photo editing. Once you are done editing, the app allows you to shared directly to social media apps such as Instagram. One interesting feature is ‘fill light’ that reduces harsh shadows. There is also an auto correct mode that quickly tunes your image colours, and if you like it, a single click implements them all.

Overall, Adobe Photoshop Express is a neatly designed app with immediate access to almost all the tools and thus tops our list of best photo editing apps. The app works like a charm even if you've never used a photo editor before.

Foodie

Available on Android and iOS.

Of all the images clicked and shared on social media particularly on Instagram, ‘food’ is one of most clicked subject apart from travel and adventure. While we all have at any given point of time clicked images of our meal to share to social media, or to friends or family, or just to replicate the recipe later at home.

And while not all food is photogenic, however, Foodie is one such app that helps you click wonderful images that matches your visual stimulations. The app understands how it is positioned over your meal. The app’s shutter button turns yellow when it decides that you are in the best lighting conditions to have a great photo. The app also slightly blurs the edges to give you that portrait look and to make your photo standout.

The app offers 24 filter each focuses on a specific food type. There is also brightness and flashlight feature that enhances images in low light situations. So, next time when you are awaiting a delicious food, don’t hesitate to use Foodie to click and share.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC

Available on Android and iOS.

While Adobe Photoshop tops the list of best photo editing apps, but if you want to take your editing game a notch higher, Adobe Lightroom CC is the one you should work with. The app variant provides easy access to professional editing tools on the go. The plus side is, it even works with RAW files, a popular image format among photographers as is contains minimally processed image data with lossless quality.

While the app is not for everyone, as it focuses on offering a number of high-quality image adjustment tools such as light, detail, colour, distortion, and grain of your photo -- all presented in easy to use sliders.

The functionality of the app is enhanced further if you have a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud as you will get some additional features and filters and pre-sets along with Adobe Sensei – an artificial intelligence based system that auto-tags your images based on their content, allowing you to quickly find the ideal image.

VSCO

Available on Android and iOS.

Pronounced as visco, VSCO is another one of the best photo editing apps available on Android and on iPhone. The app offers a wide selection of VSCO that allows you to add a vintage feel to your images. Similar to Instagram, VSCO Like Instagram combines a camera, a set of editing tools, and an online community. You can explore content from the people you follow, curate work from the community. Unlike Instagram’s heavily-filtered presets, the VSCO app offers soft and subtle filters to add a vintage style to your photos.

Standard editing tools such as adjustments, cropping, borders, and vignettes are all easily available as sliders. The app also allows you to adjust the exposure, contrast, temperature, or skin tones. The app is easy to use for both beginners and advanced photographers. The camera in the VSCO app allows you to set focus while taking a picture. The camera in the app also lets you change the shutter speed and white balance for better control while taking photos.

Summary

While these are five best photo editing apps and the selection can become tiring at times, we recommend you to stick to just one or two, as it’s always good to be skilled on one app instead of having average skills on many.