Best Photography Apps for Android, From Planning to Sharing

Since phones like the Samsung Galaxy come with a competent camera app and photo and video editors, along with backup apps, we’ve focused here on useful apps that complement what’s already on your phone.

Note that we’ve broken down the best Android apps for photography by use, from planning to editing to sharing photos. And, where we have detailed articles covering particular types of apps (such as photo editors), we’ve linked to those instead of repeating the information here.

Prices in this article are as listed on the Google Play Store (US) at time of writing (5 November 2026), but may change at any time, and you should check the relevant app’s page before making a purchase.

The kit at a glance

Each line item is a task to be done as part of this workflow. All costs listed are from the US Play Store as of this writing (November 2026) and “in-app purchases” means the app can be downloaded for free but there are additional costs to unlock certain features.

What your Galaxy already covers

Before installing new apps, check out what One UI already offers. On a Galaxy S25 Ultra running One UI 9 (checked in November 2026), Gallery offers editing options including Detail enhancer (for added detail in images), Audio eraser and My FanCam (for videos), and Photo assist (AI-powered photo editing). It also has access to Studio, Samsung’s project-based video editor. Our Samsung photo editor guide covers the photo tools, and the Samsung video editor guide covers Studio.

Backups are built right in on One UI 9. Gallery can sync straight to your Google account, while the older Gallery sync with OneDrive ended on 30 September 2026, as our Samsung Cloud photos guide explains. The Tips app offers bite-sized how-to content to help you make the most of your phone. The Pictures and videos tab on that Galaxy S25 Ultra has 11 tips, including how to add a zebra pattern in Pro mode and how to turn any video into slow-mo right in Gallery.

Shooting apps

For phones that don’t support Expert RAW, Open Camera is a solid free option. Expert RAW is Samsung’s manual camera app that lets you shoot RAW images created from multiple frames on select Galaxy S and Z phones. Limited to phones up to the Galaxy S25 series, Blackmagic Camera is another free option that’s more focused on video with manual controls. Otherwise, Samsung’s Camera app should be able to handle most photography needs. Our best camera app for Android comparison also looks at Google Camera ports (for the Galaxy!) and paid apps like ProShot.

Editing apps

Snapseed (last updated 5 November 2026 by Google) and Lightroom (free download; Adobe says some features such as masking and raw editing require Premium, available via in-app purchase) offer almost everything you could want for editing photos. Snapseed is free and doesn’t contain ads or offer in-app purchases (according to its listing on Play). In our photo editing apps for Android roundup, we took a look at seven different photo editors, and the Lightroom on Samsung guide shows you how to import Expert RAW photos and work with presets.

For editing videos, try Studio in Gallery first, as it comes preloaded on your phone and lets you work with multiple clips at once. When you need more, our video editing apps for Android guide compares the third-party editors and their current prices.

Planning apps

Apps that help plan ahead can tell you the best places to get great light, if the sky will be clear, etc. Paid apps will shine here, as there’s nothing on Galaxy phones that will do this.

PhotoPills and other sun and moon planners

PhotoPills costs $10.99 in the US Play Store (no in-app purchases listed) and has an augmented reality mode that uses your phone’s compass to show you where celestial objects will be in relation to your camera. Last update: August 2026.

PhotoPills can tell you where the Sun, Moon and Milky Way will be located in the sky at any given date and time above a particular location. It also has a number of other planning tools including an augmented reality mode, calculators for things like star trails and long exposures, timelapse interval and hyperfocal distance.

Sun Surveyor ($9.99) also projects the position of the Sun and Moon onto an interactive map, and can display them in augmented reality. Last update: October 2025.

Stellarium is a free star map that can show you what the sky looks like at any location on Earth and at any date and time. Stellarium Plus costs $19.99.

Weather and dark-sky apps

• Clear Outside (free, from First Light Optics): Hourly 7-day forecast that breaks cloud cover down into three different levels (low, medium and high clouds), moon information and astronomical darkness times.
• Light Pollution Map (free, with in-app purchases): Shows an approximation of the Bortle scale classification for a given location.
• My Aurora Forecast: Aurora/Kp index forecast (with an aurora forecast map and notification alerts). Everything in the app is free, according to its listing, but there are ads.

A Milky Way plan in four steps

1. 1

   Find a dark site

   Open Light Pollution Map and find a Bortle class 4 (or less) area you can access. As our astrophotography guide shows, the core looks washed out if you’re in a class 5 suburb.

2. 2

   Check when the core is up

   Use that location’s pin in PhotoPills’ Planner to determine when the Milky Way will be in the part of the sky you want to shoot. Ideally, you’ll want to shoot on a night near the new moon so the Moon won’t wash out the sky.

3. 3

   Check the cloud

   One or two days in advance, pull up Clear Outside for your chosen location. Check all three cloud levels during astronomical darkness for the best chance of clear skies (don’t forget that stars can be obscured by high clouds too!).

4. 4

   Shoot

   If you have a supported Galaxy phone, set it up on a tripod and use Astrophoto in Expert RAW. Otherwise, Night mode will work, as will Pro mode if you set the longest available exposure time.

Backup and organising apps

The default option on most Android phones is to use Google Photos to back up your photos and videos. Google Photos will let you back up to a Google account, which its listing says comes with up to 15GB of storage (shared with Gmail and Google Drive, with more available through a Google One subscription). Note that on Samsung devices running One UI 9 (or later, according to Samsung), you can back up your photos and videos using the Gallery app by signing in with your Google account, with no need to install Google Photos.

Amazon Photos’ listing promises unlimited full-resolution photo storage to Amazon Prime members (in eight countries including the US and UK) and 5GB of storage (usable for videos too) to all customers, Prime members or not.

Whichever cloud storage service you choose, we recommend also keeping a backup of your photos and videos on your computer so that if you ever get locked out of your account, you still have access to your precious memories.

Sharing apps

Instagram (free): Post edited photos to Instagram, since it’s where most of your friends/followers are and can view your photos for free.

Glass (free Android app; paid subscriptions available): Ad-free, algorithm-free photo sharing app/community. As of this post (November 2026), Glass’s membership options page lists a free Viewer option (can view, but not post, photos) and a Member subscription option ($39.99/year, which includes the ability to post photos).

Canva (free; paid options available): Once your photos are edited, use Canva to quickly add text for printing and Instagram carousels.

Keep the kit small

• Don’t install multiple apps to do the same job. Choose one app and learn it inside-out. If there’s a feature missing that you really need, consider an alternative app.
• Be wary of apps that haven’t been updated for a long time (say a year or more). Such apps might not keep up with the latest changes in Android and One UI.
• Try before you buy. If an app has a trial version, install it and see how it feels on your phone. Only buy the app if you’re satisfied with the trial version.
• Download apps from the Galaxy Store or Google Play only. Avoid sideloading APKs from sketchy websites. Besides, the Auto Blocker feature prevents you from doing so by default on any Galaxy phone that launched with One UI 6.1.1 or later. Keep this feature enabled.