I’m sure you’ve seen some pretty cool looking filters on Instagram. Well, I’m not gonna tell you that the newer versions of the apps are useless (you can do almost anything with them). But if you’re really looking for an app that will “wow” your followers, here are some apps you should use instead. They look pretty cool and they follow the latest trends inside the editing community. Get started with aesthetics.
Unfold
Unfold is the ultimate aesthetic app for Instagram Stories and Snapchat. It gives you minimalistic templates and advanced text tools with aesthetic fonts to create beautiful stories. The idea is for you to be able to tell your stories in a thoughtful and curated way with a design-focused tool.
According to Cobo and McCune, the founders of Unfold: “Social media is this constant battle to stand out from the crowd. Unfold allows people to create and express themselves in a way that’s simple and intuitive and we think that is the reason people have responded so well.”
Massive influencers and brands are using the app. The popularity is potentially down to people wanting to be more creative on social media. This app allows you to do that without having advanced skills in Photoshop or other major editing platforms.
Price: Free to download, and it comes with some free templates. To access more advanced templates and features, you have to subscribe to Unfold+.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 9/10
Filmm
Filmm was founded by Zoella and A Color Story to add effects and filters to videos. It allows you to add authentic film textures, light effects and VHS distortions to any video clip. You can also browse through the music options to add a track to your clip.
The effects are varied and they are continuously bringing out more. You can add light leaks, dust, grain and other film-like effects to your videos. The selection of over filters has been developed with aesthetics in mind.
You can edit the dimensions to various social media platforms, including Instagram Stories, which is its most common use. It even includes a story splitter that splits your video into 15-second clips as required by Instagram Stories.
The app itself is incredibly easy to use. It has been designed so that anybody could use it without having thorough knowledge or experience in video editing. It also allows you to add elements on top of each other – adding a filter and then inserting an effect on top. If you’d like to create some aesthetic Instagram videos, this is the app for you.
Price: Free to download, and it comes with 100+ filters and effects. You can also purchase other advanced Filmm packs with more filters and effects, or subscribe to get everything for one price.
Availability: Currently only available on iOS.
Rating: 10/10
Prequel
Prequel is a video and photo editor which allows you to create aesthetic Instagram Stories with a high-quality finish. It allows you to add filters and effects, much like the Filmm app, but the effects and filters are completely different in style and colour schemes.
In this app, you can trim videos and quickly adjust video speed for short videos. It also includes a built-in camera app equipped with advanced tools you can use while taking pictures or videos.
The effects include glitch effects, origami, mirror, topical, instant camera, VHS and so much more. You can even add rose petals flying across the screen if you really want to. The options are fantastic.
The filters and effects aren’t separate on this app, like they are for Filmm. This means you cannot easily layer them on top of each other. The effects are a lot crazier too, rather than subtle, so it depends what kind of vibe you want to go with.
Price: Free to download. You can also subscribe to get unlimited access to all of Prequel’s features and tools.
Availability: Currently only available on iOS.
Rating: 9/10
VSCO
VSCO is a sophisticated editing app for creators. It allows you to use a variety of filters and tools to make your photos and videos aesthetically pleasing.
An article by Forbes states that “since VSCO launched its first mobile app in 2012, it has amassed 150 million-plus Android and iPhone downloads.” The success of this application comes down to them realising very early on that you don’t need a professional camera to take good photos. You simply need an app to make your mobile photos look just as great.
The filters on the app area all beautiful and have a variety of different styles available. You can also edit standard elements such as contrast, saturation, exposure and grain. There are some great, basic VSCO presets available for free.
You can even subscribe to VSCO Membership to get ALL of the presets. Although that costs money, it’s absolutely worth it, trust me, because I’ve been a subscriber for a long time now. As well as being able to access advanced filters and editing tools, it also allows you to edit videos too. You can transform your videos on mobile with presets and editing tools, and add vintage film looks. Totally worth the investment.
Price: Free to download, and it comes with some free presets. To access all of the presets and advanced tools for both photos AND videos, you would have to get VSCO Membership for $19.99 USD per year.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 9/10
Adobe Lightroom CC
Lightroom is perfect for people who love photography. It gives you all the advanced tools to edit your photos professionally through any mobile or tablet device.
You can experiment with colour by adjusting specific colours, use light tools and add effects. The best part is that you can save all your hard work in editing as a preset. This allows you to use the exact same adjustments into other photos, too.
Price: Free to download, including a lot of free tools. You can upgrade for premium features to have more precise control.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 10/10
Enlight Pixaloop
Enlight Pixaloop is probably the coolest app of them all because it’s just so different from the rest. This app can bring your photos to life by creating moving elements in still photos. You can magically animate your photos by just swiping across your screen. It really does take photo editing to the next level.
Animation can sound like something difficult. This app makes it incredibly easy. In a few taps you can animate the sky so that clouds are moving, or make water move on a photo of a river. The options are endless. If the sky is looking a little bit dull, you can even change the sky by choosing one of their pre-made presets. Would you like towers and umbrellas to spin? You got it!
This allows you to get incredible videos made from your photos. You can use them for boomerangs or GIFs too, if you’d like.
Price: Free to download, and it comes with free tools. For unlimited access to all the features, you can subscribe to a yearly or monthly subscription plan called Pixaloop Pro. Alternatively, you can do a one-time payment and get all the features forever.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 8/10
Facetune 2
FaceTune 2 is a photo editing application that allows you to edit, enhance and retouch your photos. The app is mainly used for portrait and selfie editing. It has received a lot of backlash in the past after people, especially celebrities, started to drastically alter their images to make themselves look different. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.
This app allows you to whiten, smooth, paint, reshape, crop and add effects. Of course, it also has some basic editing tools and filters as well.
Those features can sometimes be over-used, but that’s down to the user. I use this app for various reasons, such as whitening parts of the image. You can also use the sharpening tool to emphasise features in a photo, if I’m wearing a gorgeous necklace for example. I also like to use the defocus tool to blur my backgrounds sometimes.
It really is up to you and how creative you want to get with this app. You can apply all the tools by simply gliding your finger over the parts of the image you’d like to edit. This makes it super-easy for everyone to use.
Price: Free to download, including some free tools. You can also subscribe monthly, bi-annually or annually.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 8/10
8. Foodie
Foodie is a camera app made for taking pictures of food. Yes, that’s pretty niche, but it’s also pretty awesome. If take photos of your often, especially top-down photos, you need this app in your life.
This app gives you more than 30 professional quality live filters that are made for taking photos of food. The best part is the smart guide for taking top-down photos of food. All you have to do is just switch to the ‘grid’ view and point down at your food. Once the app turns yellow, you’re good to take your photo.
Price: Free to download.
Availability: Available to download on iOS and Android.
Rating: 7/10
Hyperlapse
Hyperlapse has been developed by Instagram to allow users to shoot polished time-lapse videos without any expensive equipment. It uses Instagram’s stabilisation tools to create a non-shaky time-lapse even when you’re recording on your phone without a tripod.
When you shoot a video on Hyperlapse, it will be automatically stabilised to smooth out any shakiness or bumps on the road to give it a more polished feeling. The idea is that you don’t have to be completely still. Hyperlapse claim you can capture the sunrise from the back of a moving motorcycle. I haven’t quite tried that yet, but doing a handheld time-lapse video is definitely awesome on the app.
Price: Free to download.
Availability: Available to download on iOS.
Rating: 9/10
Instasize
Instasize is the toolkit for creative socials; allowing you to create visually engaging videos and photos. The combination of video and colour editing and original filters make this easy-to-use app a no-brainer for Instagram lovers.
Instasize offers a premium option for anyone wanting to upgrade from their basic features. A subscription allows you to access the full filter library, including 100+ for premium-only subscribers and 80+ unique borders. You also get advanced beauty tools to edit blemishes, whiten teeth and remove redness.
One premium feature that sets Instasize aside from its competitors is the exclusive content available for its premium subscribers including tips and tutorials from experts and social media influencers.
Price: Free to download the basic version. You can upgrade to premium for $4.99 per month to access extra features.
Availability: Available on iOS and Android.
Rating: 9/10
Adobe Photoshop Express
As you might know, Adobe is the king of image editing software. Adobe Photoshop is an essential tool for designers, graphic artists, photographers and website developers. It is commonly used to edit images, creating website mock-ups, retouching images and adding effects.
If you’re not quite ready for the full deal, Adobe Photoshop Express allows you to utilise the amazing tools of Adobe Photoshop without you needing to take a course to learn more.
This app gives you the usual tools you would find in a lot of other apps, such as crop, shadows, contrast, exposure, straighten, rotate and many more. However, it includes other, more advanced, tools, such as removing red eye, smoothing for unwanted spots, adding aesthetically-pleasing frames and edges and advanced collages and text. You can even add objects from other photos to your images.
Price: Free to download, but you need to pay in-app if you want more advanced features.
Availability: Available on iOS and Android.
Rating: 9/10
Conclusion
Yay! We are done here. Your mobile phone is so powerful that it can even act as a photo and video editing device. But people are so busy these days that they rarely have the time to look through the various photo and video editing apps available to the best aesthetic apps. We recommend all these apps and we believe they will give you the aesthetic you need for your photos.