11 Fun Photo Apps

These days we're more likely to snap a burst of pics with our trusty smartphone than to drag around our heavy DSLR to catch everyday moments. So we've found the best photo apps for every device. It makes editing easier and helps us curate our loving memories as well. So, say ‘cheese!' You're about to have more pics in your album and way fewer in the deleted file.

If making videos felt too fussy in the past, welcome to Replay. The app creates professional videos set to music with just a couple of clicks. So the chronicle of that chaotic road trip with the kids now screams wanderlust and adventure, with less emphasis on the pee stops and spilled ice cream.

This app is great for adding stylish typography to your snaps to make your own graphic art, memes or motivational images. It also offers some nice filters and layering options.

When our 7-year-old came home from school raving about making books out of photos and recording their own voices on the classroom tablets, we were more than happy to buy the app at home, too. Kiddos can use their own photos and add text and then publish to iBooks in a flash.

Lifecake is a beautiful piece of software that creates a video and photo timeline of all of those precious moments, including a date and age stamp. It allows you to select a moment in time and family members can all see and comment. Very much ‘story of my life' and sure to provoke a few sentimental tears.

In our opinion, this app is the closest there is to achieving DSLR effects while still using our trusty smartphone. It goes beyond the usual editing options to include granularity and other pro effects. A nice bonus is the community of photographers who share their creations and inspire us beyond the usual ‘grip and grin'.

We're still partial to Pic Stitch for simple photo collages for Facebook or other sites. Sure, many more have come along since then, but we just love how easy to use it is.

Have the perfect family photo save for an unmentionable on your kid's nose? Or are your toddler's night-time antics causing your under-eye shadows and bags to reach epic proportions? Face Tune makes it easy to erase marks that just shouldn't be there, allowing for a perfect family portrait.

We do love our pics in black and white. They seem to instantly look more sophisticated—more ‘Paris', less ‘panic'. So we love this app that has taught us that there are subtle nuances to black and white photography that we never knew before, like using different filters to enhance varying aspects of the shot.

If you have a thing for frames, as we do, you'll love Frametastic. Clearly one of the best features of Instagram is selecting the most awesome filter, and adding a frame via this app just takes it to a whole other level. There is even an option to choose the photos and the app will select the best frame for the collection.

There are so many features in Afterlight that we could probably spend a year's worth of waiting room downtime exploring them all. The overall feel though is a soft, vintage, distressed look. It's a great app for playing around with the differences that light and texture make to the original photo.

It's a photo. No, it's a painting. Wait, it's both! This nifty app converts our photos into painting look-a-likes with a simple tap of the screen. Kiddos love the ‘instant art' effects and some of our photos look pretty awesome in painted form.