There’s a pleasant surprise in your App Store update screen. It’s been years, but powerhouse image editor (and longtime iPhonegrapher-favorite) Snapseed for iPhone and iPad just got a full version update today. The app now sits at version 2.0.0 and gets a ton of new features. And it’s still free. Google loves us.
After Nik Software, the app’s original developer, was acquired by Google way back in September 2012, the prevailing thought in the iPhoneogra-sphere at the time was that Snapseed would be end-of-lifed as soon as updates to the iOS broke it. It was thought that Google acquired Nik to roll Snapseed and its set of of desktop photo filters to incorporate into and improve Picasa, Google’s online photo editor. A Snapseed desktop editor was killed in March 2013, which also added to the rumors.
Although it still runs great in the latest iOS, many iPhoneographers have abandoned Snapseed (unnecessarily, in my opinion) over the years. Every now and then a dot-dot-oh Snapseed update was released to address unnamed minor bugs, but the app has remained essentially unchanged until today’s full-version update.
In addition to a bunch of new features which are listed below, the app also gets a major user-interface overhaul. All the tools are there, but the new UI is flat, lean, and unlike version 1.x, it stays out of your way until you need it. Version 2 even has a new icon — a less-cluttered nod to the original icon.
Snapseed is still free. Pretty nice considering that it’s more powerful than many photo editors that charge a buck or three. You can read LoFi’s review of the new update here.
Although it seemed that the app was on life support for the past few years, really other than minor bug fixes, Snapseed worked well and we got what we needed. Hopefully, this new update indicates a renewed commitment from Google to Snapseed and the mobile photography platform.
Here’s what’s new in Snapseed 2.0.0:
• Stacks allow you to re-edit any image
• Copy your edits from one image to another
• 5 new filters including Lens Blur, Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow, previously a premium feature
• Lens blur that’s adjustable in all directions
• Brush tools to apply effects to sections of an image
• Spot Repair for detailed editing, healing, and retouching
• Transform adjusts perspective across vertical and horizontal axes, then fills in empty areas after rotations
Snapseed is a Universal app.
App Store link: Snapseed – Google, Inc.
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