Review: SNAPSEED is Back – With Grunge!

One of my favorite iOS photo editors, Snapseed (free), has just pushed out an update that adds back a feature that had been killed and was sorely missed. Complaints must have been overwhelming to Google/Nik software, so the filter has made it back to the latest version.

What’s New?

Snapseed has been a favorite editor of mine since it first launched. It’s powerful, and it’s free. Improvements in this latest version include the ability to copy, paste and hide Control Points when using the Selective tool. It easily allows you to work on a particular part of an image and see the changes without committing to a save. Similar tools are in the Nik suite of apps that run on both Mac and PC platforms.

The latest iOS version also allows you to export flat copies of your images so they can easily be opened in Lightroom and file sharing apps like Dropbox. Google also say the app has several performance and stability improvements, along with better rendering in Snapseed’s terrific HDRScape filters.

Using the newest Snapseed

I gave the app a spin and found it responsive and there weren’t any bugs I could see or crashes. For my daily use, I really wish the app had a white balance control in the Tune Image feature. To me that seems like a significant omission.

The returning Grunge filter is nicely implemented, with an almost infinite array of variations. I took a photo of an old window at a ghost town and was pleased with how I could age and stylize it. Nice to have that feature back.

HDRScape — probably my most used feature in Snapseed, has increased range and variability, but as it was, Snapseed did about the best single image HDR renders I’d seen on any platform.

Photos are saved in native resolution, but that can be cropped and re-sized.

The Bottom Line

Snapseed is certainly the best free photo editor around, and with the recent release of Pixelmator ($4.99) for iPhone I think it’s possible to work from those two apps and have the ability to do just about anything you could dream of with iPhone photography.

It’s also good to see Snapseed evolving, and listening to customers who sometimes have better ideas than the developers.

Snapseed works in portrait and landscape mode, with on-screen controls rotating to support your choice. The only part of the app that lacks this consistency is when you load your image. Your photos only orient properly from portrait mode. The save dialog works in either position.

I can’t say enough good things about Snapseed. I hope Google continues to support it and add new features and power. This update enhances app performance, and returns the Grunge filter which was much missed by many.

Snapseed requires iOS 8. It’s a universal app, and it is optimized for the latest larger iPhones.

Highly recommended.

Download Snapseed:

App Store link: Snapseed – Google, Inc.

– Mel Martin