6 Great and Free Photo Editing Apps on the OnePlus Phone and Android

As a OnePlus user and a photographer, you can bet I’ve spent a good deal of time wading through the many photo-editing apps free to download through Google Play. Here, I take a brief look at 6 great (and free) editing apps on the OnePlus phone.

The OnePlus

Relatively new to the scene, you may never have heard of the OnePlus before. One Plus Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (referred to as OnePlus) is a Chinese phone manufacturer founded in December 2013. Known for its slogan never settle, OnePlus released the OnePlus One smartphone in 2014. Since then there have been numerous incarnations of the OnePlus family, the most recent being the OnePlus 7T Pro.

OnePlus smartphones run on the Android operating system (OS). That means that most editing apps accessible to the OnePlus phone are available to all other smartphones with an Android OS (like the Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy range for example).

While I’ll be exploring the next couple of editing applications on my own OnePlus phone, the apps I go into are available for all Android systems.

My (slightly beaten up) OnePlus 5T

6. VSCO

VSCO (Visual Supply Company), is both a photo-editing and social media app aimed at the photographically-inclined. Sometimes compared to Instagram, VSCO is best known for its high-quality filters.  The basic VSCO version is free, but only 10 filters are available without paying $7.99 a month (or $31.99/year) for a VSCO membership.

While the filters that are available for free are definitely a cut above (and certainly worth the download), users looking for cheaper alternatives may turn elsewhere for greater flexibility. Personally, I’ve found that more often than not, the 10 free filters suit my needs just fine. The quality and variety of the free filters make VSCO my go-to for a quick filter fix.

5. Bonfire Photo Editor Pro

Bonfire Photo Editor Pro is an app paired with an easy-to-use layout. However, it’s the sizeable variety of features that come with Bonfire that makes this app especially attractive.

Along with standard filters, Bonfire has numerous options that allow you to add artistic effects to your photos. Pop art, oil painting, and impressionist presets are all available, as well as, skin smoothing filters and adjustment settings like contrast, vibrance and brightness.

If you are after a casual editor or a way to play around with arty effects, Bonfire Photo Editor Pro is a fun option.

4. Snapseed

Loaded with heaps of presets and manipulation tools, Snapseed is marketed as a free, professional-grade photo editor. Exposure adjustments, lens effects, filters, a healing tool, and a correction brush all come packaged within the Snapseed app. Plus, a double exposure function enables the combination of two or more photographs to create a ghostly image effect.

With over 100 million downloads, Snapseed is a favorite among photographers and casual users alike. Snapseed was one of my first editing apps on the OnePlus phone. It has since earned a spot in my most frequently used apps tray.

3. PicsArt

Although many features in PicsArt are in-app purchases, the app still supports basics like cropping, filters, artistic effects, facial definition and drawing without cost. What sets PicsArt apart, however, is the AI-generated filters available for free. Called Magic, the PicsArt effects transform an image to fit themes like Flora, Highlight and Plein Air.

Immersive and intelligent, photographers may not find professional uses for these effects, but they are great fun to mess around with.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express

For editing apps on the OnePlus phone, Adobe Photoshop Express is extensive. Features like perspective correction, noise reduction, filters, effects (including artificial light leaks and bokeh effects), exposure adjustments, text options, and blemish removal are all found on the user-friendly UI.

The app has over 90 filters available, with substantial variation within each grouping.

To cater to social media trends, Photoshop Express has a collage function and the option to add stickers and borders to images. It also includes an extensive range of aspect ratios for cropping your images to precise dimensions.

1.  Fotor

With plenty of filters and adjustments at the ready, Fotor is great for getting the most out of an image. The app comes with standard essentials like contrast, sharpness, shadow, highlight, and color temperature adjustments.

In addition, scene filters optimized for specific lighting conditions and subjects streamline the editing process. An intuitive focus function adjusts blur in aperture increments and a range of borders and stickers and a collage function meets social media design trends.

Conclusion

There are plenty of editing apps on the OnePlus phone (and for phones running the Android OS generally) to download. With so many options for free, it can take a bit of experimentation to figure out what works best for your process.

The apps I’ve listed are my personal top 6 – if you have a favorite app that isn’t on the list, go ahead and mention it in the comments below! Happy editing!