I tried popular AI editing apps on Android — only one earned a spot on my phone

My camera roll is a graveyard of good intentions. It’s filled with thousands of almost-perfect shots.

There’s the stunning sunset, ruined by a photobomber. The family portrait would be perfect if my kid’s face weren’t shadowed. The once-in-a-lifetime travel shot is slightly blurry.

For years, fixing them meant opening a desktop app and spending an hour wrestling with sliders and layers. Today, AI puts a perfect photo with one tap.

Google Play Store is packed with apps that make the same claim. With aggressive subscriptions, confusing interfaces, and inconsistent results, which ones deliver?

I decided to find out. I installed popular AI photo editors on my Android phone to find one that deserves a permanent spot on my home screen.

The apps competing for a spot on my home screen

Before we dive in, we should know each app’s reputation. Each has champions and critics, and their identities are as varied as the photos they edit.

Google Photos

It’s the default for hundreds of millions of Android users. It’s known for fast search and practical AI tools like Magic Eraser.

However, as users have recently noted, its editing interface has undergone a controversial redesign that many find less functional.

Photoshop Express

This app promises to bring the industry standard to your pocket, carrying the weight of the Photoshop name. It uses Adobe’s Firefly generative AI and fits well if you’re already in the Creative Cloud ecosystem.

Picsart

If you use Instagram or TikTok, you’ve seen Picsart. It’s more of a creative suite than a pure editor, with stickers, templates, and filters.

It offers a large AI toolset, but as a design-first platform, its photo features must compete with more focused editors.

PhotoDirector

It markets itself as a desktop-grade editor with a full AI suite and positions itself against all-rounders and specialists. Nevertheless, this needs to be proven.

Remini

Remini focuses on restoring low-quality, blurry, or old photos. That narrow focus can be a weakness. Is it an indispensable tool or a one-trick pony with limited daily use?

Fotor

A veteran in the online editing space, Fotor offers a versatile set of tools across mobile and web platforms. It has a comprehensive feature list and occupies a middle ground. Is it a jack of all trades and master of none?

Canva

Canva is a popular design tool for quick flyers, presentations, and social posts. Its photo editing centers on Magic AI tools that are easy to use. Like Picsart, it’s a design suite first, which may limit its depth for serious photo editing.

I tested AI photo editors side by side

I took three tests targeting core AI features to cut through marketing claims. I used the same source photos across all apps to keep the comparison fair.

This wasn’t about the longest feature list but about which app performed best on the tasks that matter.

Which app handles one-tap edits best?

The best improvement depends on the goal. Picsart, Photoshop, and Fotor perform well for a natural, subtle lift. They improve existing qualities without looking artificial.

For a brighter, more vibrant look (still close to the original), Canva and PhotoDirector also work well.

Google Photos shifted the whole atmosphere of the image to a pinkish tone. Similarly, Remini changed the clouds to a more grayish tone.

Some may prefer this, but it feels overly edited for my taste. Overall, Remini delivers the strongest technical boost.

If you want a less processed look that preserves the original mood more, Picsart is better.

How each app handled a difficult removal task

This feature matters most to me, so it carries more weight than the other tests. If an app performs poorly here, it’s eliminated.

To raise the bar, I used a difficult photo with many people, some partially hidden behind objects. PhotoDirector and Google Photos auto-detect subjects well.

Between them, PhotoDirector took the lead. Its brush softened transitions and sharpened boundaries for the cleanest output.

Picsart lacks auto-select and relies on a manual brush, which is a negative, but the results were promising.

Google Photos was acceptable, but still left some shadowing. Fotor’s auto-detector missed several subjects and was effectively useless. Fixing it required brushing each person by hand, defeating the convenience.

Photoshop also struggled. Without auto-select, it required manual brushing. It handled the removal well initially, but to my surprise, it replaced the last person with an AI-generated figure.

Retries kept inserting new people instead of removing them, making it unusable.

Ultimately, PhotoDirector was the clear winner, followed by Picsart and Google Photos. Picsart and Fotor were inferior, but did enough to advance to the next round.

Canva, Remini, and Photoshop failed outright and were eliminated.

Which app restores a blurry old photo better?

In a direct comparison test of unblurring my childhood photo, PhotoDirector and Picsart stood out as the top performers.

PhotoDirector excelled by restoring facial and hair details while accurately preserving the original contrast.

Picsart delivered a well-rounded and balanced result, but the final output was still soft.

Google Photos also successfully unblurred the image but altered it slightly by increasing the face’s contrast.

Fotor proved ineffective as it failed to correct the facial blur and instead made only minor, irrelevant adjustments to the clothing.

Why I chose Picsart as the app to keep

I didn’t test every feature, such as blemish removers or advanced retouching tools. Doing so was outside the scope of this article.

Instead, I focused on core editing, which I use most across key tests. For a well-rounded package with solid editing tools and a full design suite, choose Picsart.

It performed well across all three tests and stands out for its creative design tools. I kept it on my phone.

Canva, by comparison, still has a long way to go regarding its editing options.

If raw editing performance is your priority, and you don’t need design extras, choose PhotoDirector, as it consistently produces cleaner results.

PhotoDirector also has extras like photo-to-video conversions and AI-generated effects.

PhotoDirector is $10 monthly, while Picsart Pro is $14 monthly. I think Picsart is worth the extra cost.

Google Photos deserves a mention as well. It lacks the depth of Picsart or PhotoDirector but delivers solid results for a free app.

It’s handy for quick, everyday edits, though results aren’t as polished and the toolkit is limited compared to paid options.

What to look for before paying for an editor

Mobile photography has come a long way, and with a little help from an AI editor, you can achieve stunning results.

However, there isn’t a single one-tap-fix-all app. Run the same photos through each app, zoom to full resolution, and compare the results.

Check how natural the edits look. Are skin tones realistic or over-smoothed? Does background cleanup leave halos or ghosting?

An app that handles one photo well but struggles on the next isn’t worth paying for.

Wait to subscribe until you see how an app handles the images that matter most to you.

These apps offer free trials, so test them with your own workflows.