Key Takeaways
- Aves Gallery is a free, simple, compatible photo viewer app for Android phones since as early as KitKat.
- Snapseed is a lightweight, powerful, and free photo editing app for Android with RAW support and various tools.
- PhotoScan is a simple Google utility for digitizing old photos, solving blurry and crooked composition problems.
If you’re a very involved photographer like me, you know that the selection of digital tools can be a bit overwhelming. The Google Play Store is home to many apps related to photography and graphics for the Android operating system. Many of the most popular apps are free to start, but require in-app purchases or registration to remove ads and unlock functionality.
Among the crowded field, there are a number of good quality, free wireless applications. Here are five photography apps designed for Android phones that fall squarely into this category.
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1 Gallery of Aves
The simplest and most compatible camera app
Gallery of Aves
A simple and friendly gallery app to view all your favorite memories.
Aves is a free photo gallery app that focuses on compatibility and simplicity. It’s compatible with Android phones as far back as 4.4 KitKat, and supports obscure file formats like GeoTIFF, Google Photo Spheres, 360° videos, and more.
These days, OEM gallery apps like Google Photos feel more comprehensive than ever, with AI, cloud storage integration, and other added bells and whistles. If you are looking for a free and integrated app to view your camera. images, then Aves is a solid choice.
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2 Snapseed
Simple and very useful photo editor
Snapseed
A lightweight yet incredibly powerful photo editing app owned by Google.
Snapseed has been a popular photo editing app for Android for quite some time now, and Google itself bought the app a few years ago. The app supports RAW image files, and has many photo manipulation tools and filters. These include cropping and swapping tools, healing and brushing tools, advanced filters, and much more.
Snapseed is completely free, and offers all the essentials if you want to quickly edit a photo away from your Android phone. It may not be as rich as other options, but the lack of a price tag makes it hard to complain.
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3 PhotoScan
A Google-powered solution for digitizing your memories
PhotoScan with Google Photos
A little-known Google tool that makes updating your old photos a breeze.
Google’s in-house PhotoScan app is an underappreciated tool — it seems to solve the problem of blurring and distortion when taking a digital photo of a photo that’s already been taken. The app is easy to use, with basic information that guides you to identify the four corners of any image you are creating.
Most of us have made pictures stored in photo albums or displayed in picture frames. PhotoScan is a completely lightweight and simple utility to help you save precious analogue memories in seconds.
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4 Open the Camera
A free and open source app for taking photos on the go
Open the Camera
Another free and open source viewfinder and photography app.
In general, the default camera app on most modern Android phones is more than useful for everyday use. In fact, in most cases it’s advisable to stick with your phone’s native shooter — the software often benefits from stronger integration that a computer can do than a third-party app can provide.
There is always room in the market for something free and open source.
That being said, there is always room in the market for something free and open source, which is exactly what Open Camera offers. The app is full-featured, so it’s a solid solution if your phone’s default camera app isn’t working for you. The interface lacks visual polish, which is unfortunate, but it’s a small price to pay for software that isn’t tied to great technology.
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5 Muzei Live Wallpaper
An app to bring a powerful new look to your home screen
Muzei Live Wallpaper
An amazing free live wallpaper selection app that focuses on famous works of art.
Live wallpapers were once a big selling point in the Android world — remember that glowing Nexus display cube? Although the novelty may have worn off over the years, live wallpapers are still actively supported by the Android OS, and there are plenty of great options without adding some life to your home screen setup.
The live feature here will cause more battery drain, but it’s worth the trade-off for the eye candy it provides.
Muzei is a great choice with an interesting background story, choosing backgrounds based on famous works of art (think van Gogh’s The Starry Night). The app rotates new wallpapers every day, keeping your device feeling fresh and in style.
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Unlike many other active live wallpapers, Muzei’s collection is on the subtle side — a double tap on your home screen will temporarily put focus on the artwork in question, and remove the blackout filter. The live feature here will cause more battery drain, but it’s worth the trade-off for the eye candy it provides.
