Best Android Apps: 40 best apps for Android

A new Android app will be added to our round-up each week, so check back for a new suggestion on Fridays. Got an idea for our list? Leave a comment and we'll take a look.

APP OF THE WEEK: SNAPSEED

Get professional image editing tools in app-form with Snapseed.

WHAT IS SNAPSEED

This photo editing app was developed by Google-owned Nik Software, and has been around for a while. But with an ever increasing amount of image enhancing apps making their way onto the Play Store, it’s becoming harder to separate the gems from the dross.

Snapseed 2.0 debuted last year with a number of updates and improvements, and was voted one of the best best apps in several year-end lists in 2015. So what’s all the fuss about?

WHAT’S GOOD?

Snapseed’s focus on gestures and swiping is the main draw here. You can edit any image from your phone’s gallery simply by selecting a tool or filter from the many available, and swiping left or right to change the intensity of the effect. Swiping up and down switches between various sub-tools – for instance, if you tap on 'Tune Image', you can then swipe vertically to change between brightness, contrast, saturation etc.

Like most great apps, Snapseed succeeds because it makes things easy. The whole swiping thing is highly intuitive and you can start editing pictures within seconds of the app loading. There’s also an impressive amount of tools and filters available, from the standard crop and levels options, to healing and transform functions. Plus, Snapseed 2.0 added a brush tool so you can edit particular areas of an image rather than having to apply effects to the entire thing.

Here's how Snapseed transformed TrustedReviews deputy News and Features Editor and very orange man Sean Keach:

image: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/0000392bc/eefc_orh616w616/snapseedss.jpg

And in Snaseed 2.0, you can now easily retrace your editing steps using the Snapseed stack. Each filter or tool you apply to the image is saved in a list of layers, which you can navigate back through if you want to remove a particular edit.

There’s also a handy ‘original image’ icon in the top right of the editing interface which allows you to see the image as it was before you started adding layers of filters and effects. You just tap and hold to see the original shot. Simple.

WHAT’S BAD?

The app lost a few filters with the 2.0 update (although it gained so much more in other areas), and unlike some image apps there’s no option to add stickers or stamps. But these are very minor failings.

VERDICT

Snapseed’s combination of deep editing tools with easy tap and swipe functions make this a serious contender for best image editing Android app. Whether you want to apply some filters to your shots or you’re looking for more in-depth editing abilities, you should find Snapseed the perfect tool.