The Best Mobile Photo Editing Apps for 2026 – PCMag UK

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A big screen is desirable for editing photos, but sometimes you want to correct or embellish a picture while you’re on the go. You might be surprised at just how much image editing you can do from your phone. Even advanced functions, such as blemish correction, gradients, HSL color correction, masking, overlays, and tone curve adjustments, are no longer the exclusive domain of desktop programs. We’ve been testing photo software for more than 30 years, so you can rely on our expertise in selecting the best mobile photo editing apps below. Some also add cloud storage, tools for organizing your pictures, and even social media spaces to showcase your photos. We don’t include gimmicky apps that perform only one type of editing, such as face beautifying or collage creation. Our favorite of the bunch is Google Photos, but take a closer look to find the one that suits you best.
Lightroom’s mobile app allows for in-depth post-shot editing and shooting in raw format on the iPhone (Android phones can achieve this within their native camera app) for greater flexibility in correcting exposure, white balance, and other aspects. You can also take photos with filters, such as a black-and-white one. Otherwise, adaptive presets for portraits and skies, auto people and object selection, content-aware object removal, and basic video tools are all at your disposal. The free version offers a decent selection of editing tools and filters, while a paid subscription adds cloud storage and additional effects, including healing, masking, and suggested presets.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS, web
Desktop Lightroom users: If you rely on the desktop version of Lightroom, this app lets you access and edit all your synced photos.
Mobile photographers: If you primarily shoot photos on your Android phone or iPhone, the Lightroom mobile app provides access to top-notch photo correction and editing tools.
Afterlight is an impressively powerful and feature-rich mobile photo app that emphasizes creative filters, including film, vintage looks, textures, and overlays. The free version also offers a good set of basic editing features—such as contrast, cropping, exposure, and saturation—but many of the app’s best tools are available only in the paid version. Paid account perks include advanced HSL filters, gradients, material and text overlays, sharpness tools, and tone curve editing. The company periodically adds new filters and effects.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS
Artistic photo enthusiasts: If you like to make your pictures look unique with film-like filters and such, Afterlight is a good choice. Just prepare to pay to access them.
Social posters: Whether you’re a marketer or an influencer, Afterlight helps you make your images stand out on Instagram and other social networks.
The mobile version of Apple Photos allows you to apply special effects to pictures taken on your iPhone or iPad, including Long Exposure and Bounce effects for Live Photos. With iOS 18.1 or later and an iPhone 16 or 15 Pro or later, you get AI features like Clean Up to remove distractions from photos and Visual Look Up to get info about a place in your image. The app supports Apple’s ProRaw, which combines the advantages of raw camera formats with Apple’s computational photography wizardry. The app looks and feels slick and features all the standard exposure and color adjustments you could want. Apple Photos also excels at organizing and finding specific photos, utilizing on-device AI to help you search for particular objects and people. For sharing images, you have the option to use iCloud links or Shared Albums.
Platforms: iOS, iPadOS
iPad owners: Apple Photos syncs your collection across iPads, iPhones, and Macs, allowing you to use the iPadOS version of the app to edit photos taken on any of the other devices, and vice versa. The iPad has a larger screen than the iPhone, so the editing and viewing experience might be more enjoyable on the former if you are on the go.
iPhone shooters: This is the only app iPhone owners can use to take advantage of certain proprietary Apple imagery features.
Aside from allowing you to store photos in the cloud, Google Photos offers top-notch organization features. Free users receive a comprehensive set of editing tools for adjusting contrast and exposure, as well as those for adding text, creating stylish collages, cropping, and applying overlays. The app also has effective filters, including Airy, Dynamic, HDR, Luminous, and Radiant. If you sign up for the company’s Google One subscription, you get unlimited saves for the AI-based Magic Editor features, which let you remove or move objects around while recreating the background. Google Photos also offers superb search tools for finding pictures based on places, people, and objects. Finally, its AI-powered Memories albums remind you of the good times.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS, web
AI photo tinkerers: The app features cutting-edge AI tools, including Magic Eraser, Nano Banana, Remix, and Unblur.
Anyone who wants a free photo app: Since it works on every major platform, anyone can use Google Photos without paying a cent.
Photo collectors: Google Photos offers some of the simplest and most effective ways to organize large photo collections, allowing you to easily find a picture based on when it was captured, where it was taken, and who is included.
Photoroom is a social marketing app that’s fully stocked not only with AI features (such as automatic background removal), but also with standard photo editing tools (including color, cropping, and lighting adjustments). It also includes numerous collaboration features for teams. It’s not free, but it does offer several pricing tiers that cater to both individuals and large enterprises.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS
Companies: Photoroom offers plans for corporations that require hundreds of thousands of images annually.
Social marketers: The app offers a ton of imaging features that should appeal to marketers, including logo creation and product shot staging with AI-generated backgrounds.
Picsart is a do-everything photo app. It has a seemingly endless assortment of editing and enhancement tools. On top of that, the app includes a dedicated social space for sharing photos and an AI text-to-photo image generator. Members can participate in challenges and follow topics and creators. You can instantly remove backgrounds from portraits and replace them with textures and whatever you like. Its best editing features require a paid account, however.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS, web
Content creators: PicsArt has all the tools and effects to make your images stand out on social media. Content creators can work with textures and share their work directly within the app to reach an audience.
Mobile Photoshoppers: Picsart has a surprising number of Photoshop-like features, including filters, layers, and masks. You need to pay to access the best ones, but it’s still not as expensive as a Photoshop subscription.
Like Lightroom and Picsart, Polarr has a social community and tools for editing and embellishing photos. The app is available on all major desktop platforms in addition to mobile and the web. Aside from the standard editing tools for adjusting brightness, contrast, shadows, and more, it offers a wealth of gradients, overlays, and retouching and transformation tools. You also get tone curve editing, as well as LUT and raw camera file support. The cropping tool is robust, but it lacks auto-leveling. The Polarr community often creates and shares custom filters. A paid subscription gets you the full editing toolset, new content and styles weekly, and the company’s video-filter app called 24FPS.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS, web
Community builders: If you enjoy sharing not only your visual creations but also your filters and effects with a community, Polarr provides a convenient outlet.
Mobile-exclusive photo editors: Polarr includes a comprehensive toolbox of image correction and editing tools, making it suitable for those who want to do serious photo work solely on their phone. If you decide to work on a larger screen, it offers desktop and web apps, as mentioned.
One of the original innovators among mobile photo editing apps, Snapseed became part of Google’s portfolio in 2012. It still features some sturdy photo improvement tools, although it hasn’t introduced many new features in a while. Snapseed features a unique interface that allows you to make adjustments by swiping your finger left or right to select an adjustment or up and down to choose the specific adjustment. It allows you to edit raw camera files (in DNG format only) and JPEGs. Editing tools include the Healing Brush, HDR, Perspective, and Structure (aka sharpness). One significant advantage is that the app is completely free with no in-app purchases or upsells.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS
Basic photo editors: If you’re looking for a free, easy-to-use app with all the standard photo tools, Snapseed is a great option. It forgoes all of the AI features that competitors are embracing.
Raw camera file shooters: Snapseed also supports raw editing, allowing you to exert more control over your photos’ colors and lighting during the editing process.
VSCO is a longtime maker of filters for professional photographers. Its app has film-look presets and hundreds of filters, along with all the standard correction and editing functions you expect. Like some other apps in this list, it offers a community for photographers. The app gained notoriety several years ago with what was known as the VSCO girl movement. VSCO Spaces targets just that community, letting approved participants contribute, share, and discuss posts. It also supports direct messaging between creators. VSCO’s interface is modern and clear, but editing takes a backseat to the social aspect. We appreciate that it supports raw camera files and provides advanced tools, such as Split Tone and HSL editing. Video editing capabilities have also begun to make their way into the app. You have to pay to unlock all of its tools, however.
Platforms: Android, iOS, iPadOS
Photo filter lovers: VSCO offers high-quality filters that give photos a distinct and unique look. You receive additional filters if you opt for a subscription plan.
Social posters: Not only does VSCO produce Instagram-worthy images, but it also has a dedicated social community for posting your creations.

I’ve been testing PC and mobile software for more than 20 years, focusing on photo and video editing, operating systems, and web browsers. Prior to my current role, I covered software and apps for ExtremeTech and headed up PCMag’s enterprise software team. I’ve attended trade shows for Microsoft, Google, and Apple and written about all of them and their products.
I still get a kick out of seeing what’s new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine, the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft misstep and win, up to the latest Windows 11.
I’m an avid bird photographer and traveler—I’ve been to 40 countries, many with great birds! Because I’m also a classical music fan and former performer, I’ve reviewed streaming services that emphasize classical music.
For everyday work, I use a good-old Dell tower with 16GB of RAM, a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, and an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti GPU that runs on Windows 11. I pair it with a 4K Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10 monitor and a Logitech MX Vertical mouse. For offsite work, I use a 2024 Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. Camera-wise, I moved to mirrorless from a Canon EOS 80D with a Canon 70-300mm IS USM lens. I now have a Canon EOS R7 with a 100-400mm lens, but I miss my DSLR for several reasons.
In order of usage, the software I turn to most frequently is the Edge web browser, Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, Firefox, Brave, and WhatsApp. I use the Windows Phone link app to see everything on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, which has excellent telephoto capability.
For fitness monitoring, I have a Fitbit Charge 6 and use an Anker Smart Scale P1. I’m also a streaming fan, so I subscribe to both Amazon Music Unlimited (especially for its Dolby Atmos content) and Qobuz (for its high-res sound quality and classical catalog). I recently added a Vizio 5.1 Soundbar SE, which sounds surprisingly good given its low price. To holler commands instead of using a remote control, I have the Amazon Fire TV Cube in the living room, which lets me verbally tell the TV what I want to watch. It hooks up to an LG B4 OLED TV. I have a Sonos One speaker in my kitchen that also ties in with Alexa, as does the Echo Dot 2 With Clock in my bedroom. For serious listening, I have B&W 601 speakers plugged into a Conrad-Johnson Sonographe amp and preamp, with a Cambridge Audio AXN10 streamer as source. For reading, I also have a Nook GlowLight 3.
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