How to Use Snapseed on a Samsung Galaxy Phone

Google has released an updated version of Snapseed, its free-to-use photo-editing app for Android. Version 4.0 of Snapseed for Android came out in May 2026 with a redesigned interface and an integrated camera app, and Google has released a few updates since then.

This guide uses Snapseed on a Galaxy phone running the latest version available. While Snapseed’s editing tools will feel familiar to anyone who’s used the app before, the redesign changes where you’ll find some of them. Here’s how to edit photos in Snapseed for Android, from making changes to exporting full-size copies of your photos.

What changed in Snapseed 4 on Android

9to5Google reported on 8 May 2026 that Google has started rolling out an update to Snapseed for Android. It’s version 4.0 (it went to 3.0 for iPhone in June 2025, but didn’t get that version number on Android). Snapseed is Google’s photo editor, available for Android and iPhone/iPad. The Play Store listing shows an update on 2 November 2026, which is version 4.2 of Snapseed, according to APKMirror. Google’s listing says there are no subscriptions, ads, or watermarks.

Note that much of the information about Snapseed online refers to version 2 of the app, including the instructions for using Stacks in Snapseed’s own help documentation. Here’s where to find those options in the current version, according to 9to5Google’s tour of the updated app and the description in Snapseed’s Google Play Store listing (updated 2 November 2026):

The gestures within a tool haven’t changed, as you still swipe up and down to scroll through the different controls, and side-to-side to adjust the values.

Google’s previous suite of photo tools included a Tune Image tool that could be used to adjust exposure and colour, but this isn’t listed among Google’s photo tools any more. Adjust is now the tool that you can use to perform these tasks.

Set up your Galaxy before you edit

Tip: Snapseed will tempt you into holding back when adjusting colours if you’re using a Samsung phone because the Settings > Display > Screen mode setting is probably set to Vivid, which boosts saturation and sharpness (change it to Natural for more natural and balanced tones).

Snapseed’s RAW Develop tool can open some types of RAW files (according to Google’s listing), so if you shoot RAW you could edit them with Snapseed. If you take a look through the help pages, though, you’ll see that Snapseed saves at the original resolution only up to what can be processed by your phone, 20MP for Android phones according to Google’s help page (although that was written before version 4 of Snapseed, so take that with a pinch of salt). A 12MP image from a Samsung Galaxy phone should be fine, but if you’re editing much higher resolution images, say 50MP or 200MP, it’s worth checking the details for a file edited in Snapseed by opening it in Gallery and swiping up.

You can also set Pro mode to create a DNG file as well as a JPEG (Samsung’s Expert RAW app saves 16-bit linear DNG files, for what it’s worth). It’s probably worth having a play with Snapseed’s RAW support with your own files to see what you get before you start counting on it. Our RAW vs JPEG guide explains when the bigger file is worth shooting.

A five-step edit for Galaxy photos

This sequence works well for most photos taken with a phone, because each step builds on the one before. Sharpening is done toward the end of the process so it doesn’t amplify noise that gets amplified further by increasing the overall exposure of the photo.

1. 1

   Set exposure and colour in Adjust

   Open the photo you want to edit and head over to the Tools tab. Next, choose Adjust. From here, you can either let Adjust work its magic automatically to set colour and exposure, or do it yourself. Either way, it’s a great place to start with editing. First, adjust the exposure until the sky isn’t so bright and glaring. Then, bring up the darker areas of the image just a tad. If the colours still don’t seem quite right, you can use the White Balance tool next. Try to keep an eye on the histogram so you can make sure you’re not blowing out the highlights.

2. 2

   Make local changes with Selective or Brush

   Selective lets you change the brightness or contrast in the area around the point you apply it. Brush is similar, except you manually paint on warmth or exposure changes. Smart masking can isolate a person (or other subject) or the background with one tap, so if you just want to affect the sky behind a person, it’s faster than brushing.

3. 3

   Clean up with Healing

   Use Healing to remove small imperfections like bits of dust and intruding elements like people walking through the shot. Work with short strokes, zoomed in, and undo if you see smearing from a particular patch. Samsung’s Gallery app includes a few generative AI tools too that work well on larger objects, if you have a Galaxy AI phone, as our Object Eraser and Photo Assist guide shows.

4. 4

   Shape contrast with Curves

   Use Curves to control specific brightness levels. The histogram will show you how changes are affecting the image as you drag. A subtle S-shaped curve with the shadows pulled down a bit and the highlights pulled up a bit will add contrast without losing details in the shadows or highlights.

5. 5

   Finish with Details

   Details can enhance textures and surface detail, although photos taken with Galaxy devices tend to be sharpened already, so it’s best not to push this one too hard (Samsung’s Camera Assistant even includes a Picture softening setting to counteract this, now called Photo softening on One UI 9). Next, open the Export tab.

Which tool fixes which problem

Here's a table with common fixes you may want to do for Galaxy photos and the corresponding Snapseed 4 tool from Google's listing to get the job done.

Shoot with the edit in mind

If a scene mixes bright sky and shade, it’s worth lowering your exposure slightly before you take the shot, as shadows are typically much easier to recover in an app like Snapseed than detail lost in a clipped sky. On One UI 9 you can find the Exposure setting within Quick controls (the button with four dots next to the zoom controls, as we checked on a Galaxy S25 Ultra in November 2026).

If you find yourself editing the majority of your photos, consider turning off the camera’s scene processing, known as Scene detection under Camera settings > Photo enhancer in One UI 9 (Scene optimizer in previous versions), which alters colour and contrast depending on what the camera thinks would suit the scene best, limiting your creative freedom when it comes to adding your own. Our Scene optimizer guide shows where the switch is on each version.

Stacks and non-destructive editing

In Snapseed version 4, according to its description in Google Play, you can edit non-destructively, so you can always undo your changes or revert to the original photo at any time.

If you make a selection (say of a person or a patch of sky), apply an effect to that selection, and then decide you want to change it, just open the Stacks icon (it may have moved, since Google hasn’t updated their help page on Stacks to reflect the new layout) and you’ll see a list of all the tools you’ve applied to the image. Choose the tool you want to modify and you can make changes without affecting subsequent changes you made to the image (or remove the tool altogether).

Each of the steps in Stacks also has a Stacks Brush which allows you to apply just that effect to parts of the image. If you set the opacity to 0, you can use the Stacks Brush to erase.

Google’s new one-tap Smart masking seems to do a pretty good job of making selections, at least of simple ones such as a person or the sky. It’s probably quicker to make selections this way than using the Stacks Brush to manually select things.

Looks, film styles and batch edits

Snapseed Camera’s film simulation feature was first added in version 4, and 9to5Google counts eleven different film stocks to choose from in its listing, including classics like Kodak Portra 400, Fuji Superia 200 and Agfa Scala 200.

There are also Halation and Bloom options to recreate the look of ageing camera lenses. Film effects can be added during editing as well as when you’re taking the photo, and can be removed again later on.

Looks are essentially saved sets of edits that you can apply to other photos. Google’s listing says you can add your own styles to your style library, including by importing .xmp presets and 3D LUTs, and there’s also a QR Looks feature for transferring Looks. Once you’ve got some Looks ready to go, you can use the Batch Editing feature to apply them to multiple photos at once. There’s also a Discover tab for finding Looks shared by other photographers, which you can test out on your own shots.

The November 2026 update also brings a new Color Grade option with colour wheels for fine-tuning your images, along with Motion Blur and Depth Lens Blur effects.

Export at full size

On your first export, it’s worth opening the exported photo in Samsung Gallery and swiping up on the photo to access the photo’s details and comparing the resolution to that of the original photo. If the resolution is lower, check out the options in version 4’s new Export tab (there is not yet any help available from Google on these options) to see if there’s an option to select photo size or quality before you start editing lots of photos.

Hang on to the original until you’re happy with your edited photo, in case you change your mind! Then you may want to delete any other exported versions of the photo you’re not happy with to avoid clogging up your Gallery app with almost identical versions of the same photo!

Snapseed, Lightroom or Samsung Gallery

If you need more powerful local controls without having to spend any money, Snapseed is the app for you. Lightroom’s mobile app has even more to offer for working with RAW files, and can also sync with Lightroom on your computer, but some features, including Generative Remove, are only available if you upgrade to one of Adobe’s paid plans, as our Lightroom vs Snapseed comparison points out. Samsung Gallery is quicker for simple fixes and for Galaxy AI edits, and our Samsung photo editor guide compares the built-in editor with the alternatives. For information on editing using a computer, see Snapseed for PC. Adobe’s Photoshop Express is a free option, best for quick retouching and one-tap looks.