Today’s smartphones are coming with so many lucrative cameras, that even a novice will find some passion for taking a wonderful picture and edit them. Photography is a very trendy thing nowadays and platforms like Instagram are giving a new height to this gaze. Almost, every person likes to take the best pictures and upload them on a social media platform such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
Many people are taking their ordinary photos to a next level by editing them. Editing pictures using filters, stickers, and many different things gives a better appeal to it. Hence, there is a great demand for photo editing apps with exciting features. In this article, we are going to discuss how you can create your own photo editing app.
Developing a photo editing app is a challenging task as it involves creating new filters and other effects. In this guide, we have included all such aspects. Let’s begin.
Steps Involved in Photo Editing App Development
Here are major steps that you will carry out in developing Photo Editing Apps:
Research into the Existing Photo Editing Apps
You must know the working of a photo editing app. There are many apps in the market, each having unique features, but the working logic of all apps is basically the same. You should know the working of a photo editing app from users’ point of view. There are 5 major steps involved in the working:
1. Uploading a Photo
The editing journey in a photo editing app begins by uploading an image from the user’s end. The user will choose an image from his file gallery or can also take a photo instantly using the camera.
2. Applying Filters or Presets
After choosing the image to edit, the user can either edit it manually or apply the already existing filters on the app such as grayscale, sepia, etc. The app can also give the option of filter strength.
3. Photo Editing
Apart from applying filters the user can also do many things on the image such as crop, rotate, adjusting contrast, brightness, saturation, and much more.
4. Saving the Edited Image
After doing all the edits, the user will save the picture on his device.
5. Sharing Without Leaving
In some photo editing apps such as Snapseed, or VSCO, there is an option of sharing the edited image on social media platforms without leaving the app.
Features to Integrate into a Photo Editing Application
Features are the most important part of your mobile app. They can either destroy it or make it a huge hit. In a photo-editing application, the features are divided into two different categories based on their complexities – basic and advanced. Basic features are the necessary features of a photo-editing app while advanced features will make your app different from others. Let’s know each type of feature in detail.
Basic Features of a Photo Editing Application
Photo Upload
As we mentioned above, the first step from the user end in the app would be to upload a photo or take a new one.
Using Filters
A user would be able to add or change any filter on the app. Better to give a huge variety of filters but start with some basic ones such as blur or vignette. You can gradually increase the number of filters with each update.
Crop & Rotate
Crop & Rotate are very basic features that you must include in your app. In fact, many people use editing apps just for cropping purposes. So that they can upload the picture without any extra background.
Remove Unnecessary Items
There may be scenarios when the background in an image is awesome but there are some disturbing elements that are distorting the background. For this, there should be an option of removing useless elements from the background.
Collage
Collage is a great use for people who want to create an album or a group of photos of their friends, family, or loved ones. The users can combine several photos into a new combined photo. The users would also be able to select the number of photos and design of the collage.
Save and Share
After editing the image, the users have two options. First, they will save the edited photo in their device and then use it for sharing or they don’t need to leave the app and can share the photo right from the app.
You can consider these basic features as MVP features. You can implement them and release the app. After getting the feedback from users, you can roll out new advanced features with each update.
Advanced Features to Integrate into a Photo Editing Application
Use AR Filters
Augmented Reality has got a lot of popularity these days, as it provides a lot of features for photos and video editing such as overlay images above the users’ heads or changing the background of an image. You must have known about the Snapchat filters. The app uses augmented reality for its filters.
Change Background
As mentioned above, changing the background of an image can be considered as very advanced features in your app. You can use augmented reality or the user can manually edit the background.
Add Frames
You can also provide beautiful frames for the picture such as a Polaroid frame. The users would choose the image from their gallery and frame from the app.
Draw and Write on the Image
Another exciting feature that you can include in your app is to draw or write directly on the app. The users will also have options to choose the text color and personalized it. It is best for certain screenshots too.
Retouch
These days selfies are in huge trends but no one wants to show his/her acne or wrinkles in the photos. Hence, a retouch feature that can beautify the image would be useful.
Tech –Stack, and Team for your Photo Editor App
For creating a mobile application, you must hire a prominent mobile application development company, who are having expertise in developing such on-demand mobile applications. You also need to consider the budget and their hourly rates. For e.g., if you look for a team in the US, their hourly rates are quite high ranging from $80 to $100 per hour, while in south-east Asian countries like India, you can get quality services at just $20-$30 per hour. At Amplework, the best mobile application development company in India, we provide you the best mobile application development services at $25 per hour.
You will require a complete mobile application development team with different specialists such as:
- Business Analyst
- Project Manager
- UI/UX Designer
- Android Developers (1 or 2)
- iOS Developers (1 or 2)
- Backend Developers
- QA Experts
In the photo editing applications, there would be a plethora of features that should work smoothly. You need to consider modern and powerful technologies for app development.
- For Android App Development, Kotlin or Java would be the best languages
- Swift and Objective-C would be best for iOS app development
Particularly for photo editing applications, Open Graphics Library would be best to use. It is an API which is used for writing app with vector graphics.
How to make revenue through Photo Editing Apps
As you are investing your time and money into app development, it is natural that must consider a monetary outcome through it. There are many different ways to generate revenue through a Photo Editing Application.
Paid Apps
The users have to purchase the apps from the App Store and then they would be able to use it. You just need to set a reasonable price for the application.
In-app Purchases
In this model, you can provide your app for free, but there are some features on your app that will get enable on purchasing them.
Advertisements
This is the most common form of revenue model for most mobile applications. You can allow advertisers to advertise their products on the app.
Read more: How to make money through your mobile application
Wrapping Up
People will continue to shot images and improving or editing their pictures. If you wish to create such a photo editing app where the users can modify and edit their images then you can consult us. We, at Amplework, the best mobile application development company in India, are having expertise in developing such on-demand apps meeting your custom requirements.
