Nowadays, with the improvements in smartphone cameras, a lot of people tend to use their smartphones for photography. Of course, it may not match the DSLRs for professionals – but with some post-processing on Adobe Photoshop, the results are impressive.
Nowadays we found all smartphones are coming with robust camera’s and they even work in low light conditions. So, literally, smartphones are replacing the DSLR needs for normal users.
There are several types of photo editing apps available for Android. However, Photoshop is still popular for its photo editing capabilities which are we seen in Windows and Mac platforms.
All things considered, we know that you are probably looking for a Photoshop alternative on Android. Of course, Photoshop for Android will be exciting – but it isn’t just there.
So, in this article, we shall take a look at the best alternatives to Photoshop for Android. In addition to this, we’ll answer some FAQs about Photoshop for Android.
Let’s dive in…
Is Photoshop Available For Android?
Yes, and no.
You may observe multiple Adobe Photoshop apps on the Play Store that includes:
- Adobe Photoshop Express: Photo Editor Collage Maker
- Adobe Photoshop Fix
- Adobe Photoshop Mix
- Adobe Photoshop Sketch
If you go on exploring them one by one – you will notice that they serve different purposes. Adobe is trying its best to offer different abilities for smartphones. But, you won’t find a single app for all kinds of uses. So, there’s that.
Obviously, not everyone will prefer to have multiple apps installed just to edit a single image. So, we need adobe photoshop alternatives to help make the best use of your smartphone.
Best Free Photoshop Alternatives for Android Mobile
Note: All of the alternatives that we mention here are available for free. However, they may include in-app purchases for additional features/ad removal.
1. Snapseed
- Best Feature: HDR, RAW files & non-destructive editing
- Cons: Lacks fancy features
A lot of my friends use this and also recommend me to use it when post-processing an image. Well, personally, I don’t utilize any image editing apps – but if you ask me what’s close to Photoshop for Android, I will definitely mention Snapseed as one of the best there is.
It has been developed by Google. If you take a look inside it, Snapseed includes 29 tools and filters. You also get a tool for HDR – that’s pretty interesting. Not just tools and filters like any other applications – but it is also capable to open RAW files. So, that’s a plus. You can also export the RAW image as JPG after editing.
The most impressive thing about Snapseed is that it gives you precise control over what you want to do on your smartphone. Technically, they claim it to be non-destructive. You can tweak the image by adjusting the exposure, saturation, and so on. Other basic functionalities like cropping, rotating, white balance, and perspective tool do exist.
2. PicsArt Photo Studio
- Best Feature: All-in-one image editing tools (rich in frames, filters, etc.)
- Cons: Lacks layer editing capability
This is one of the oldest image editing applications that I would recommend as a Photoshop alternative for smartphones. Personally, I’ve been using this when I had Android 4.x running on my Android smartphone. If I have a good memory, maybe it was on Android 3.x (Ginger).
The reason I mentioned it – is that it has evolved a lot since then. In addition to what it offers for free, you can opt for PicsArt GOLD to access premium stickers, fonts, frames, collages, and masks. The premium upgrade will also get rid of the in-app advertisements.
Excluding the premium content, you can easily make collages with the help of community uploaded pictures. The community uploaded pictures are free to use for edits and you can create a collage card for a birthday or similar. For colleges, there are multiple templates/grid styles available for use. So, you don’t need to put a lot of effort to make a great collage.
Just like every other image editing apps, it does offer all the basic functionalities to tweak and enhance the image. The filters available are quite impressive, in my opinion. You should try it out!
3. Pixlr
- Best Feature: Layer editing & Cross-platform (even for desktop via web browser)
- Cons: The in-app ads might annoy you if you do not upgrade.
Pixlr is a popular choice among a lot of users with multiple devices. If you have an iPad, desktop, and an Android smartphone, it should be a good choice. Yes, desktop as well – because it offers an online editor that you can use easily on your web browser.
So, being a cross-platform solution with a bunch of functionalities does make it a great choice for a lot of people.
You will find free effects, overlays, and so on. The auto-fix feature works flawlessly by tweaking the image perfectly.
Of course, it would depend on what kind of image you have – so it would provide a different experience to everyone. You can even sketch or draw using this app.
It also gives you the ability to edit/add layers to merge multiple photos or simply add a watermark.
However, do note that it includes in-app advertisements which might hamper your experience, so to get rid of the ads, you have to upgrade/perform an in-app purchase to remove those.
4. Adobe Photoshop Mix
- Best Feature: Layers editing & Adobe CC integration
- Cons: Limited features when compared to other image editing apps
I did mention about Photoshop Mix earlier in the article – but if you want an alternative to photoshop and don’t prefer anything except Adobe products – then Adobe Photoshop Mix will be a good choice to enhance your photos.
It also supports layer editing just like we discussed for Pixlr. You can cut out, merge, and edit multiple images to add in a single picture. Obviously, the filter effects and stuff like contrast can be adjusted with the help of Photoshop Mix.
And, if you already use Adobe CC, you can easily share your edit directly to your desktop. It also supports non-destructive editing so that you do not lose the quality of the original image, no matter if it was a RAW image or a JPG one. Also, note that you have to sign up for an Adobe ID in order to use this app if you don’t have one already. It’s free, don’t worry.
5. Multi Layer – Photo Editing
- Best Feature: Blank Canvas & Layer Support
- Cons: Basic image editing features with a simple UI
People usually look for Adobe Photoshop alternatives to get the layer editing feature. So, if that is the case – you can have this installed to make use of layer editing on your smartphone similar to what you may have done if Adobe Photoshop was available as a single solution on Android.
It does support transparency so that you can utilize PNG image files to properly layer images to make something awesome.
I didn’t notice this for myself – but a fellow blogger did point out that it supports blank canvas, which is not a common thing in photo editors. In other words, when you get a blank canvas, you get the ability to draw/make something out of nothing, even with just a few PNG icons and stuff.
Along with this specialty, you can easily cut out the background from the image and a lot more useful tools present inside.
However, do note that you get a restriction of not being able to select your own custom resolution in the free version. So, in order to do that while getting rid of the in-app advertisements, you will have to upgrade it to the premium version.
6. AirBrush
- Best Feature: Beautifying images
- Cons: Lacks some basic image editing capabilities because it focuses on beauty editing.
To enhance your pictures and get rid of the imperfections on your face, AirBrush is the next best thing that you can have installed after Adobe Photoshop applications. The most common thing – to remove and get rid of blemishes and pimples when editing your image.
Of course, everyone is beautiful in their own way. But, sometimes, you might wanna hide a breakout just because it looks odd in some way or the other. In such cases, AirBrush would definitely come in handy.
In contrast to some of the apps mentioned above, this one focuses on beauty editing but no multilayer support. The effects and filters available are quite basic but the touch-up tools to make a big difference.
7. PhotoDirector Photo Editor
- Best Feature: HDR effects, Layer editing, and Live photo effects.
- Cons: Watermark in Collages in free version
From the developer team of Cyberlink – which develops popular video editing/burning/ ripping tools, comes PhotoDirector. Of course, PhotoDirector is available for desktop users as well. However, the Android version is a stripped down edition – you could say.
You can apply filters, special effects, resize pictures, and do a lot more things. With this, you can even apply live effects while you take a photo. So, that’s something interesting. It does support layer editing and HDR as well.
To get rid of an unwanted object from an image, you can easily crop it out. In addition to this, you can take control of the white balance and saturation as well. However, do note that in order to remove in-app ads and watermark from collages, you will have to subscribe to the premium edition.
With all the rich-editing tools and layer editing support, PhotoDirector seems like a great alternative to Photoshop for Android.
8. Toolwiz Photos
- Best Feature: Filters, Layers, and more editing tools
- Cons: In-app ads
I didn’t know about this one until I searched for specific applications that support layer editing. Yes, that’s good news, you have another alternative to Photoshop.
In addition to layer editing, you can try to blend in photos, change the perspective, and mix things up. It also includes some advanced image processing features like a magic cutout, lens corrections, refit, healing, patch, shrink, and resize.
You can also control the tone of the image by adjusting the white balance, RGB curve, brightness, and so on. There’s an auto-tune option as well – even though I’m not sure how it would work on every image, it is worth a try.
Overall, considering that it contains stickers, offers filters, comes with advanced image editing tools, I would say that it is an all-in-one package along with the layer editing support. Similar to every other app here – it also includes in-app advertisements. So, if you want to get rid of those, you’ll have to perform an in-app purchase.
9. PhotoLayers
- Best Feature: Layer editing
- Cons: Lacks image editing features
If you are super obsessed about the layer support on image editing apps for Android, PhotoLayers should be the perfect choice to explore your creativity. It supports transparency, so you can make a montage easily. Layers are one of its kind features to replace your image with a great background. If you are good at creativity, you can replace your image to an Eiffel tower background image with a few taps on the app.
In addition to its layer editing capabilities, it does not support much. You may find some basic tools like image toning, flipping, and cropping, but that’s about it. So, this is an app for a specific purpose i.e layer editing or superimposing images.
10. Image Editor
- Best Feature: Layer editing
- Cons: User Interface
Image Editor by Byte Mobile is an impressive free alternative to Photoshop for Android. It does include the support for layers and can be easily edited as per your requirements. Also, just like a paint tool, you can freely draw something from scratch, fill in colors, and do a lot more things.
It is a flexible app that you can also utilize as an icon editor. While editing the image, you can also set the picture as wallpaper after tweaking it. To point it out, you can even have stickers, images, icons, and frames to your canvas as your layers to start editing. Also, you can use this app as an image viewer, if you would want to.
Other general features include adjusting brightness, saturation, contrast, and applying filters. Even though the user interface of this app does not look appealing – it does have multi-window support, so that’s something interesting.
11. Photo Editor
- Best Feature: Supports exporting WebP and PDF & View Metadata
- Cons: No layer support
A simple yet feature-rich photo editor that supports layers. You can add frames, stickers, and images to the layers. In addition, you can also select the layers separately to edit them as you want.
You can opt for selective editing and adjust the RGB levels for color correction or adjustments. The images can be easily modified with the help of paint brushes, blur tool, and so on. You should try to blend in multiple images with this tool – while also using the magic wand to cut out the background to make some advanced edits. It lets you save the image as PNG, WebP, and PDF files – so that you do not lose transparency.
Even though this is available for free, you can go for the premium upgrade to get rid of the in-app advertisements, unlock the ability to work with selection masks, use blender modes for layers, and to be able to set a custom resolution.
12. Photo Editor by Aviary
- Best Feature: One tap editing feature
- Cons: None
Photo Editor by Aviary is free to download app available in Google Play Store. The app has a one-touch enhancement feature which instantly transforms a dull looking picture into a vibrant one.
The app has plenty of features to transform a normal image into a professionally edited photo. It has features like focus, sharpen and blur, color balance, one-tap auto enhance, memes creation feature, crop, rotate, fun stickers and many more.
The app is almost free to use, but it has in-app purchases support if you want an extra set of effects, HD output, drag and drop support and other advanced features.
Wrapping Up
Adobe Photoshop solutions for mobile is indeed available – but not as a single app. You will have to install separate applications to perform different tasks and that is inconvenient for most of the users.
For the very same reason, we listed the best alternatives to Photoshop for mobile – so that you can have the same freedom to make interesting edits to your images without installing multiple apps. In addition to this, you don’t need to spend a penny either. Yes, the in-app ads can be annoying, but if you regularly use image editors, you should upgrade to the premium editions.
Now you have 12 choices for the image editing apps like Photoshop for your Android smartphones. Take the time to try them out so you’ll see which ones will fit your needs best.
What do you think about the Adobe Photoshop alternatives for Android smartphone listed in our article? Are these good enough? If we missed one of your favorites, let us know in the comments below!