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If you want to stand out and make a killer Instagram aesthetic, you’ll need to look for ways to edit your photos beyond the best Instagram filter apps. Use a filter app if you take a lot of photos with your iOS or Android device and want to improve them on the go. There are a lot of these kinds of apps available now.
Some filters are meant to fix the colours in a photo, while others let you make it black and white or add vintage touches. It can take years of practise to learn how to edit Instagram photos to get a consistent look. But you want your photos to look good today, so we’re going to let you in on social media‘s worst-kept secret and tell you about the best photo filter apps on the market.
best instagram filter apps

For years, Instagram got a lot of criticism for having bad filters. They were among the first people to use presets on their cameras. But it seemed like they never got it right. But since then, Instagram has stepped up its game. Even though most of the names of the filters are the same as they were eight years ago, they look and work better now.
Instagram filters still need a lot of work, but that’s obvious. But at least it gives you more control over how your photos look now. You don’t have to leave the app to edit images, which makes it more efficient. You can download Instagram from Google Play Store.
Features
Pros
- Medium That Is Very Visual
- Effective Promotion
- More Appealing Interface
Cons
- Overwhelming Advertisements
- Creates The Need For A Fake Life
VSCO

When it comes to Instagram apps, VSCO filters are some of the best ones out there. VSCO was made to look like real film stocks made by big companies like Kodak and Fujifilm. If you want a grainy film look, this is the tool to use. VSCO filters don’t look fake like other apps that try to make photos look old.
They spend a lot of time making presets that match the films they copy, which is the main reason. You can try out different film stocks with VSCO, like Fuji Velvia or Kodak Portra. All you have to do is tap the screen. These presets do such a good job that it’s hard to tell them apart from real film photos.
Features
Pros
- Attractive, simple design.
- Good editing tools for exposure and color.
- The lack of like counts and comments staves off trolls and competition.
Cons
- Most filters require a paid account.
- No dark-mode support.
Snapseed

Snapseed is one of the best apps you can use to edit photos on your phone. In addition to filters, it has all the tools you need, from fixing skin tone to getting rid of spots. You can try out a lot of different filters in Snapseed. It has settings that can make your photos look like Polaroid pictures or old sepia pictures.
It also has options like Glamourglow to make portraits look better and HDR Scape to make landscape photos look better. And what if you don’t like the movie look? After that, you can choose to make your own “look.” This is what Snapseed calls “presets.” With this feature, you can change any setting, from saturation to exposure, and save it for later use.
Features
Pros
- Many enhancing effects.
- Non-destructive.
Cons
- No sharing to Flickr or Instagram.
Lightroom Mobile

If you have Adobe Creative Cloud, you need to get Lightroom Mobile on your phone. This is the best app to use if you want professional-looking filters that you can use as many times as you want. Most, if not all, of the tools for editing photos that you would expect to find on the desktop version are in Lightroom Mobile.
You can even add new filters to the app, just like you can on your computer. Oh, and did we mention that you can also buy more presets online? Like Lightroom on your computer, you can make new presets or change the ones you already have. It helps when the filter you chose changes the colour or mood of your photo too much.
Features
Pros
- Simple, clear interface
- Syncs photos to cloud storage for access on other devices
- Light, color, and detail adjustments equal to Lightroom Classic’s
- Powerful raw profiles and filters
- Strong community features
Cons
- Subscription only
- No local printing or plug-in support
- Limited sharing
Afterlight

Afterlight is a free app that lets you edit photos with powerful tools, filters, textures, and frames. It has a simple design and is easy to use. You can also buy some of its features that aren’t available in the free version.
With this easy-to-use app for editing photos, called Afterlight, you can go from being a beginner to a pro in no time. When you combine a simple design with powerful and quick tools, you can get the look you want in seconds.
Features
Pros
- User-friendly interface that is very responsive and easy to navigate
- 100% safe from bugs and malware
- 78 different textures to choose from
Cons
- It is only available in English
A Color Story

One of the best filter apps is A Color Story, which lets you make better changes than Instagram’s built-in filters. Its main goal is to fix colours in pictures. The filters make every colour, including white, brighter and more saturated. Overall, Color Story gives the shot a new look and makes it more unique.
This app has more than 100 filters, such as lens flare, bokeh, light leakage, glow, and texture. It also has 40 motion effects. You can move, resize, turn, and change the transparency of these effects. You can also make your own filters and save them so you can use them again.
Features
Pros
- Enhances Photos for Social Media Sharing
- Includes Over 20 Free Tools
- Offers Desktop Version with Lightroom Presets and Photoshop Actions
Cons
- Requires a Purchase for Many Filters and Effects
- Has a Somewhat Confusing User Interface
Darkroom

Darkroom is a powerful editor with a lot of features and a wide range of filters. You can put a filter on a “live photo,” which is an interesting feature. There are many different kinds of photo filters, from bright and colourful to faded and black and white. They are put into different groups, such as landscape, portrait, and black-and-white.
A slider lets you change how strong a filter is. You can make your own filters and save them as presets so that you can use them again later. Also, the free version of Darkroom has a batch editing mode that lets you add filters and make other changes to all of the photos in an album at once.
Features
Pros
- Darkroom User Interface very clean
- Great for cataloging and organizing orders
Cons
- The limitations for editing
FAQs
What Instagram filter do influencers use?
Clarendon
It’s also the most popular Instagram filter in the whole world. This filter brightens, brings out, and deepens shadows so that colours really stand out.
What is the best app for picture filters?
- VSCO
- Adobe Lightroom
- Snapseed
- BeautyPlus
- AirBrush
- Lensa
What filter app is everyone using?
VSCO. One of the most popular apps for editing photos on iOS and Android is VSCO. This app lets you add beautiful filters to your selfies that take them to a whole new level. There are 10 free presets that you can change with a simple slider, but you can buy more from the library of over 200 filters.
What app makes you look beautiful?
YouCam Perfect is the best app for editing selfie photos and making them look better. You can download YouCam Perfect to get all the editing and beautifying tools you need for selfies and photos, such as face beautification, teeth whitening, collages, filters, frames, effects, templates, HSL, fonts, stickers, and more.