Whether photo filter apps are fun ways to share your mobile photos with friends or you use them to add a touch of personality and custom flair to your snapshots, one thing is for sure: iTunes and Google Play are both full of them. Some of them offer heavy editing tools, others have great social aspects to back them up. We asked you which ones you thought were the best for someone looking into trying a new one, and here are the top five based on your nominations.
When we asked you earlier in the week which photo filter apps were the best, some of you pointed out that you hated photo filter apps and would never use them. That's fine—but many more of you weighed in with your app of choice, whether it let you edit your photos on the go, make minor corrections, or just share with your friends. Here are your favorites.
The poll is closed and the votes are counted! To see which of your picks below took the top spot, head over to our Hive Five followup post to see and discuss the winner!
Instagram (iOS/Android, Free)
Now that the whole terms of service fiasco is behind us, many of you called out Instagram as being one of the best photo filter apps available, not because of the number of features or the editing tools available for your photos, but because of the massive social network behind it. Attention goes where your friends are, and that's definitely the case for Instagram. The app does have a few editing tools, like the ability to rotate or apply color-correction to your photos before sharing, but Instagram's strength isn't in making your photos look better, it's in letting your personalize them and share them quickly.
Snapseed (iOS/Android, Free)
Snapseed, a photo free editor we love on iOS and that recently landed on Android, is the product of Google's recent acquisition of Nik Software, the company that originally built the app. Call it an Instagram competitor if you want, but Snapseed's focus is on making your photos look fantastic and putting high-quality editing tools in your pocket, not necessarily on being social (although you can do that too.) Snapseed comes loaded with photo filters and personalization tools so you can give your shots that sepia, old-timey look, but it goes further than that. You can tweak and edit entire photos, or just sections of your photo that you'd like to clean up, use the Tune Image feature to tweak everything about your shot, or just hit Auto Correct and let the app handle everything.
Pixlr-o-matic (iOS/Android, Free)
Available for iOS and Android (and the web!), Pixlr-o-matic does away with the social aspects almost entirely (although you can certainly share your photo creations after you've finished with them.) The app offers hundreds of photo filters, borders, and other tweaks you can apply to your photos as you take them or afterwards, complete with the ability to overlay multiple effects and filters, preview how the final product will look, and make subtle adjustments along the way. All in all, the app offers something like five million permutations of filters and borders, so you actually can create something unique. If you prefer not to fiddle with your photos in real-time, you can always save them, play with them later, then share them with your friends.
Camera+ (iOS, $2)
Our pick for the best camera app for iPhone, Camera+ does much much more than just let you customize your photos. The app was—and many will argue still is—vastly superior to Apple's built-in camera app, and includes tools that help you take better, faster photos. On the customization side however, Camera+ does offer several photo borders, custom filters, and other personalization effects you can apply before or after saving your photo to your Camera Roll. As with other apps, you can layer effects and filters on top of one another, edit your photo, rotate it, crop it, and make it just right before you share it with the world. If you're looking for a complete camera app replacement for the iPhone or iPad, Camera+ is a worthwhile download.
Camera ZOOM FX (Android, $3)
Our pick for the best camera app for Android, Camera ZOOM FX is another app that's much more than just a tool for personalizing and adding filters to your photos. Camera ZOOM FX is a complete replacement camera app for Android, one that's fast, lightweight, and offers tools to help you take better shots, take burst shots, line up your photos, and then edit them when you're finished. The app even lets you import previously taken photos to tweak and edit them. It packs dozens of after-effects, color filters, borders, distortions, and other after-effects you can add to your shots before saving them and sharing them with your friends. If there aren't enough in the app for you, you can download add-on packs for more options.
Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to put them to a vote.
No honorable mentions this week, since the majority of you cast your nominations for one of the above five. Still, we're betting that there are more than a few great apps that didn't make the nomination round, or just didn't make the cut. Let us know about your favorite and why it's as good or better than these in the discussions below. Don't just tell us you're "surprised it's not on the list," tell us why you think it should have!
Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Make your case for your favorite—or alternative—in the discussions below.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at [email protected]!
Title photo by Vernon Chan.