Smartphones and photos go hand in hand. With an increasing trend in taking selfies and capturing videos, the demand for the best filter app has gained more popularity. While many apps like Snapchat have built-in camera filters, users still strive to find a dynamic app that caters to their needs.
Every user has a specific set of requirements and expectations from an app. Some users may only want the beautification feature, while others may require a comprehensive set of options, like makeup and face reshaping.
This article will explore the importance of a filter app and its salient features. We will also discuss some of the best apps with major filtration options. You will also know how to avoid extra costs using free features.
Why use a photo filter app?
Before we delve into our best recommendations about the photo filter app, you should know the scenarios in which we may require the best filter app to take our desired photos.
Following are some of the reasons why a person would need a filter app:
- Enhancing visual appeal: Most personal photos are captured for a record to cherish memories later on. That’s why we need to make our pictures more attractive. Everyone wants to look good in their photos. For that reason, filter apps with beatification options are introduced. These filters enhance the picture dynamics to increase the overall impression of pictures.
- Improving photo quality: We have recently witnessed an increasing demand for smartphone HD cameras. With the introduction of DSLR cameras, people want to take pictures from their phones to match the quality of an HD camera. They may also intend to zoom pictures later on while keeping the picture quality intact. In other cases, you may also want to frame your family pictures in large sizes. This can be achieved by having the best filter app on a smartphone.
- Ease of use: An average user doesn’t want to get involved in the technicalities of professional photography. However, users still want to capture pictures that look professional. Filter apps are aimed at providing options that are easily understood by average users. You may have experienced easy sliding options in a photo filter app that changes picture effects. People prefer using apps that don’t take much time to apply the required changes.
Top features to look for in a filter app
What do you look for in a photo filter app before downloading it on your phone? You must have a certain set of aspirations that you want from an app. While priorities may vary from person to person, let’s have a look at the top and most common features that you may look for in a filter app:
1. Wide range of filters:
A filter app should offer a wide range of filters and options, allowing you to be flexible in your photo editing experience. A good app also offers all the basic features, including quality enhancement and beautification.
2. Editing tools:
You may want to edit your recent or previously taken photos. A good filter app offers both options. You would like a filter that takes live pictures and edits them immediately. Additionally, a filter app must be able to edit your old photos to increase their appeal.
3. User interface:
The best filter app is easy to use. It should have a user-friendly interface with easy options for editing photos. While a complex app may offer more editing freedom, it will not attract more users if the options are not easily understandable.
4. Sharing options:
The sharing feature is a must in today’s world of social media and interconnectivity. You would want to edit a picture and be able to share it across your social media channels. A filter app must offer sharing features with the most common platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Best free photo filter apps sharing
Let’s move on to our best recommendations for photo app filters. These filters offer multiple options to enhance your pictures according to your desires. However, every photo app offers different options. That’s why we have covered the differentiating overview of each app.
Here are some of the best free photo filter apps:
Snapseed
Are you looking for a professional photography experience? Check out Snapseed. This Google app offers highly customizable editing tools and is one of the best filter apps for personal and professional photography.
Some of its salient features include the following:
- Professional level of editing options.
- A huge variety of filters.
- Photo healing brush
- Offers HDR photography
- RAW editing options.
Price: Completely free to use.
User interface: Easy-to-use interface with swiping options for editing.
Pros:
– A large set of photo editing options.
– Not loaded with advertisements.
– Provides some detailed editing options, like grunge and grainy film.
Cons:
– Some advanced features are complex to understand.
– Doesn’t offer a large set of options for social media sharing.
VSCO
VSCO is a popular photo and video editing tool. This app allows users to edit and share photos across multiple social media channels. It has many presets that can help users get started with their editing experience.
Here are its main features:
- Basic to advanced levels of editing.
- Numerous filters to edit photos and videos.
- Easy-to-use options for picture and video clarity.
- Edits your RAW photos.
- Offers all the usual editing options, like contrast and saturation.
Price: Free version with paid features for up to $59.99 annually.
User interface: Easy to use.
Pros:
– You can easily use advanced features, like exposure and color combination.
– It offers high-quality filters and integrated social media.
– Offers over 200 presets of editing.
Cons:
– Advanced features are paid.
– Limited presets in the free version.
Adobe Lightroom
Lightroom Photo & Video Editor is a dynamic filter app offered by Adobe. This app uses AI technology to provide better results. You get easy-to-use filters to enrich your photos using this app.
Here are the salient features:
- Offers every major editing tool, including color saturation, exposure, and contrast.
- The editing experience is diversified while keeping the original image saved separately.
- Preloaded image editing templates are to be used for easy and time-saving editing.
- You can process and edit multiple photos at the same time.
- It lets you capture photos directly from your camera and edit them immediately.
Price: $9.99 per month.
User interface: A little difficult
Pros:
– Uses AI to enhance photo quality, saving time and effort.
Cloud synchronization to save your editing efforts.
You can integrate with other Adobe tools like Photoshop and Creative Cloud Apps.
Cons:
– The app’s interface and features are a bit difficult to use.
– No free plan is available. You can only use the 7-day trial for free.
Prisma Art Effect Photo Editor
Do you want to use art while editing your favorite photos? Prisma Art Effect Photo Editor may be the right choice for you. This app uses AI to integrate art with advanced editing. It is specifically meant for creative people.
Here are its main features:
- Picture art is inspired by famous artists around the world.
- The app comes with over 300 preloaded art styles and effects.
- Works equally well with or without the internet.
- One-click sharing options across multiple social media channels.
- Offers to save edited photos in high quality.
Price: A free plan is available. Advanced features come with a paid monthly subscription for up to $20.
User interface: Easy to use
Pros:
– Simple interface and easy-to-use features.
– The app keeps on updating with new options and filters.
– You can interact with the wide Prisma community to exchange ideas and solve problems.
Cons:
– It may not be appropriate for professional photo editing.
– The free version puts a watermark on edited photos.
Picsart AI Photo Editor, Video
Picsart is one of the highly popular apps for photo and video editing. It offers many editing options, from background editing to adding beautiful text and frames to images. With over 1 billion downloads in the Google Play Store, this app offers everything you need to edit your favorite pictures and videos.
Here are its salient features:
- Huge variety of filters, effects, and designing tools.
- In addition to editing, you can create your avatars with this app.
- Improves the overall look of low-quality photos.
- Basic to advanced features, including background removal and adding text to your images.
- A huge PicsArt community for interaction and sharing mutual experiences.
Price: A free version is available. Advanced features are available for up to $15 per month.
User interface: Easy to use
Pros:
– Provides all editing options for daily usage, like collage making, cropping, and cloning.
– Offers drawing tools for creative users.
– Includes simple-to-use video editing options with multiple effects.
Cons:
– Access to full features requires a paid subscription.
– The free version comes with frequent advertisements.
Fotor, AI Photo Editor, Collage
Fotor is another good photo editing app. It offers all the major photo editing options, including background removal, quality enhancer, and photo retouching. With over 10 million downloads on the Google Play Store, this app remains one of the best options for editing.
Here are its main features:
- Provides all-in-one editing tools for beginners and advanced users.
- Uses AI technology to get the work done quickly and efficiently.
- Provides automatic editing with a single-tap solution to save time.
- In addition to the background removal, this app allows you to remove other unwanted objects from a photo.
- Provides professional editing features, including retro effects, art effects, and aesthetic styles.
Price: A free version is available. Advanced features require payment of up to $7.49 per month.
User interface: User friendly
Pros:
– Single tap operations for easy editing.
– Pre-loaded with usable designs.
– Ideal for professional photography editing.
Cons:
– Comes with in-app purchases.
– Does not provide video editing tools.
AirBrush: AI Photo Editor
AirBrush is a popular photo editing app that provides easy-to-use filters for quick editing. With its simple editing functions, users find it very convenient to edit their daily photos.
Let’s have a look at the main features:
- Special beauty filters, including pimple remover and blemishes.
- Skin, teeth, and eye beauty filters.
- You can increase the quality of your photos using this app.
- You can have a live editing feature using this app with your camera.
- Share your edited pictures directly to your social media accounts.
Price: Free version with paid advanced features for up to $99 annually.
User interface: User friendly
Pros:
– Swiping features to edit pictures easily.
– Provides all the basic features to beautify pictures.
– It supports previous Android versions up to version 6.
Cons:
– The free version comes with advertisements.
– Paid features may be costly.
Remini – AI Photo Enhancer
Remini is one of the highly popular apps for editing photos and videos. It is especially famous for restoring and enhancing the quality of old or low-resolution photos. With a simple interface and a huge variety of beauty filters, it has become one of the most highly-rated photo editing apps on the Google Play Store.
Here are its salient features:
- Fun features, including age time lapse.
- You can create your photo avatars in cartoon forms.
- Shows different versions of a user, including baby, adult, pregnant, etc.
- Creates professional photos for your resume.
- You can enhance the quality of your photos and videos.
Price: Free version with paid subscription for advanced features for up to $170 per year.
User interface: Simple and easy to use.
Pros:
– Enhances the quality of your old pictures.
– Uses AI to edit your pictures automatically.
– This app is available in multiple languages.
Cons:
– The free feature has limited options, and it comes with ads.
– Paid features may be expensive.
Photo Lab Picture Editor & Art
Do you want an app that can easily change backgrounds, turn you into an astronaut, or beautify you in a few clicks? Try Photo Lab Picture Editor & Art. This app has a wide range of options for editing your pictures easily with pre-loaded frames and edited sets.
Here are its salient features:
- Easy photo editing with single-tap options.
- You can change the backgrounds of your pictures with a single swipe.
- Use the AI technology to increase the overall appeal of your pictures.
- Offers smart filters to tweak your photos according to your choices.
- You can make cartoon portraits of your selfies.
Price: Free version with a paid subscription of $30 per year.
User interface: User friendly
Pros:
– Offers advanced photo collages to combine them with love cards.
– Fun filters to turn your pictures into multiple professions and events.
– Comes with over 900 effects and 50+ pre-set styles.
Cons:
– Advertisements and watermarks in the free version.
– Paid features may be expensive for some users.
Not feasible for kids below 12 years.
The abovementioned apps are some of the best free photo filter apps. However, most of these apps also require payment for the attractive features. Nowadays, most kids with phones want to use photo editing apps for their pictures and videos. They are also more likely to buy the advanced features of these apps.
Parents must prevent their kids from spending unnecessary time on such apps and allow them to use only free apps. However, parents cannot always supervise the app downloads on their kids’ phones with their physical presence. They must use an app that controls this unnecessary spending.
How can we avoid unnecessary costs on these paid photo filter apps on kids’ phones?
If you are worried about your kids using apps with paid features, you must use a parental control app that monitors their phone activities. A good parental control app provides all the information about your kids’ experiences on their devices.
FlashGet Kids is the leading parental control app that monitors and controls your kid’s app usage and other activities. It shows you the complete report of what your kids do on their phones. Additionally, you can use this app to block certain apps on your kids’ phones.
This app helps you save the unnecessary costs your kids may spend buying the paid features of photo editing apps. If your kids have been using their phones for extended times, you can limit their phone and app usage using this app. You can easily plan and manage your kids’ screen time.
Additionally, you will get live notifications for your kids’ activities on your phone.
You just need to download the parent’s version of the FlashGet Kids app and the child’s version on your kid’s phone and bind them together using a 9-digit code. That’s it. You can start monitoring your kids’ devices using screen time, App blockers, and other options.
Conclusion
Photo editing is one of the most commonly desired functions in kids and adults alike. With the introduction of hundreds of photo editing apps, it may be overwhelming for kids to try new apps. At the same time, these apps keep tempting users to buy advanced features. However, these advanced features may cause unnecessary expenses. Therefore, parents should use the FlashGet Kids app to control the usage of the best filter app on their kids’ devices without wasting their parents’ money.
