There are so many photography and camera apps available for mobile that it can feel overwhelming to choose which to install for your device. Most people are one-and-done and don’t think about putting more than one on their phone.
But with different apps come different benefits and a range of results for your mobile photography. Whether you find your new favorite app or want to learn how to benefit from a variety of smartphone photography apps, there are plenty you’ve probably never used before that can improve your smartphone photos a lot.
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VSCO Capture
A camera-specific app from VSCO
VSCO has long been a popular photography editing tool with a difference. With editing from the VSCO desktop app and mobile apps, VSCO is known for being a hybrid of Instagram, Pinterest, and Flickr with a huge focus on photo editing and sharing. In 2025, VSCO released its camera app, VSCO Capture.
VSCO Capture is an iPhone-only standalone camera app, with all the innovation of VSCO behind it. It contains over 50 live camera filters and manual controls to get the best photos you can. There’s an auto or manual option, so you have control over how detailed your photos are captured.
You can shoot in RAW with Capture, while choosing which filters or presets to apply to your photo. You’ll have control of exposure, flash modes, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance just like if you used a DSLR or similar. The application of live filters is a unique bonus not found in many manual phone cameras—but these filters add value rather than cheapening your photos like the mostly unused camera filters on the native iPhone camera (I bet you’d forgotten they’re even there).
VSCO users can use photos taken and edited in Capture to share them in VSCO feeds, as the accounts are interlinked.
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Lightroom Mobile
Camera and editing rolled into one
It might be overlooked as a free tool because most people expect Adobe tools to charge money, but Lightroom Mobile has a lot to offer for the cost of nothing. While there is a Premium option—and most Creative Cloud subscribers get access to Premium bundled in their subscription—you can do so much with the free version of Lightroom Mobile.
Not only does Lightroom have a built-in camera, but it also has a host of near-professional level editing tools akin to those found in the desktop software.
As with many Adobe apps in the modern day, you’ll find many AI features in Lightroom Mobile. Some of these are limited to Premium users, but there are some that are accessible for free. There are some standalone mobile apps which offer great AI-powered editing if you’d prefer.
You can shoot in RAW mode using the Lightroom camera—although free users can only edit RAW photos taken from their phone, as editing imported RAW files is reserved for Premium users. Sometimes editing in RAW is seen as a waste of time, but I think it’s good to have the option.
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Snapseed
Free photo editing from Google
Snapseed isn’t a new or particularly unheard of photography app, but I think it gets overlooked a lot since it’s not branded—although it’s owned by Google—and doesn’t get shiny new features very often, but it has had an interface update in June 2025 that makes it feel more modern and intuitive to use.
As a photography app, Snapseed is the one that’s been on my phone the longest. It’s one of the best free photo-editing apps and the best for creating double exposure effect images on mobile too.
Although it doesn’t have its own native camera in the app, its editing features let you add, edit, or imagine many possibilities onto your pre-existing photos. While most of it’s editing tools are photo-enhancing, there are also some more fun features which allow you to add text or frames to your images rather than solely focusing on the photographic improvement.
Snapseed is a very easy app to use with a wide array of features. It avoids heavy AI use, although there are a couple of more intelligent features, like moving the head pose of a human subject and a smart expansion—although these intelligent tools aren’t the best in the field. I’d rather use Snapseed’s more traditional editing features like Lens Blur, Double Exposure, and other adjustments.
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Adobe Project Indigo
It’s beta for now
Adobe Indigo is a beta mobile camera app that replicates the power of a DSLR or manual camera directly in your phone. Even in beta mode, Adobe Project Indigo is really impressive. So I expect once out of beta, it’ll be a powerful tool you’ll need on your phone at all times.
Although the beta is free, there’s no knowledge of whether the fully released version will be a paid app or not. It’s not even known if “Indigo” will be a standalone tool or be built into one of Adobe’s existing apps—likely Lightroom Mobile if this is the case. As a standalone app, its name is likely to be different too, since Adobe names its beta projects with code names.
The night mode settings in Indigo are more impressive than other phone camera night modes I’ve used. I like the flexibility of settings changes available, but most of all, the quality of the photos taken through Indigo are way better than my phone’s native camera.
You should try different photography apps
Don’t think that just because the one app you have on your phone works well, that other apps can’t improve your photography. It’s also common practice for many photographers—both smartphone or traditional—to utilize multiple apps or tools to create their perfect images. You can benefit from the camera in Adobe Indigo but use the editing tools in Snapseed, and then use the sharing features found in VSCO Capture to capture, edit, and share your best smartphone photos with the world.
