The iPhone's camera has come a long way.
From the 2-megapixel camera that shipped with the very first iPhone to the stunning 12-megapixel shooter on the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, it's difficult to imagine a feature being more influential than the iPhone's camera. Perhaps more than any other aspect of the iPhone, its camera has influenced some of the most popular and widely loved apps we have today.
This list is a look at the best photography apps ever made for the iPhone, based on our list of the best 100 iPhone apps of all time. As with the rest of the apps on the list, we evaluated photo apps based on their design, cultural impact and how they resonated with users. The apps below are ranked in the order in which they appeared on the best 100 list.
For a closer look at how we chose and ranked the apps on our list, you can read more about our methodology here.
7. Google Photos
There have been plenty of photo apps for iPhone, but Google Photos outclasses them all by offering unlimited storage for every picture and video you capture. Yes, there are restrictions on size, but they’re generous, and the app is perfectly suited for cloud photo storage since it isn't weighed down by kitchen-sink cloud services (Dropbox, Box, OneDrive) or an extraneous social network (Flickr, the old Google+ app). But the real magic is in the application of Google’s search tech, organizing your pics by face, event and even object. Best of all: Google shames the iPhone’s native Photos app with better scrolling and selection tools. Now that’s thinking different.
6. Pic Stitch
As our iPhones got better at taking photos and our apps got better at sharing them, we needed better apps to show them off — what better way to do that than with a collage? With a couple of dozen layout options and custom borders, filters and other effects, Pic Stitch has long been one of the most popular collage makers. The app is a little less relevant now that Instagram and many others have added the ability to build collages, but it’s unlikely we'd have those apps today if not for Pic Stitch paving the way.
5. VSCO
Launched as VSCO Cam in 2012, VSCO quickly set itself apart with its carefully crafted “presets” and editing controls that were meant to make iPhone photos look like they were shot on film. While the concept wasn’t new, VSCO, which got its start creating presets for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, was highly praised by professional photographers and amateurs alike for its ability to add a richness and depth to photos. Though the app’s design is beautifully minimalist, the controls aren't the most intuitive, especially for casual users. But with more than 70 million #VSCO tags on Instagram, it remains one of the most influential photo apps to ever grace the iPhone.
4. Hyperlapse
Instagram’s second app, Hyperlapse, is a dead-simple time-lapse creator. Its lasting appeal isn’t the fact it can speed up and slow down recorded video footage anywhere from 1x to 12x normal speed, but its spectacular use of software image-stabilization. Normally, to get silky-smooth stabilized video, you’d need a gimbal, a steadicam or some other kind of hardware stabilizer, but with Hyperlapse it’s all algorithm-based, using data from the iPhone’s gyroscope to measure and remove frames that are shaky. The result? Cinematic-like video that’s smooth and often looks like it’s been captured with more expensive gear.
3. Camera+
Apple’s default iPhone apps are designed to get the job done, but if you want more features, a third-party app almost always does something better. Take Camera+ ($2.99), an app from Tap Tap Tap that now has over 14 million users and was ahead of its time with advanced settings people wanted but the native camera didn't offer. In 2010, the app briefly got banned from the App Store because it let users change the iPhone’s volume button into a physical camera shutter. Apple later copied that exact feature in the default Camera app in iOS 5. Camera+ was also one of the first camera apps to have grid lines, something else Apple copied. We're sensing a pattern.
2. Hipstamatic
Many people believe there would be no Instagram without Hipstamatic’s classic old-timey camera filters, but the reality is that they occupied the same space in history. Hipstamatic was the pay-to-play Apple app of the year, while Instagram was the free upstart that was bought by Facebook and never had to worry about making money. Today, Instagram is bigger than ever and using in-line ads to generate revenue, while Hipstamatic has had a more peripatetic existence, switching to in-app purchases, and, at one point, laying off all but six employees.
Even so, in the early 2010s, Hipstamatic was the photo app to use if you wanted cool filters (for more photographic control, you used Camera+) and ended up influencing a whole generation of camera and photo apps.
1. Instagram
You’d be hard-pressed to find another iPhone app that’s anywhere near as influential asInstagram. Sure, other players were experimenting with photo sharing and filters prior to the app’s launch in 2010, but it was Instagram that perfected the format.
Moreover, the app’s dominance is closely linked to the iPhone’s popularity in a way few apps can claim. Instagram, which was exclusively on the iPhone for its first two years, was one of those “magic” apps that helped make the iPhone so coveted. (When half your Twitter timeline was filled with Instagram shots, the FOMO was real.)
The app was simple, and its filtered creations were easily shareable, which helped Instagram go viral almost immediately. Like many apps, Instagram owes some of its original virality to Twitter, which helped the app take off seemingly overnight.
It grew so fast, in fact, that early users frequently experienced outages as the company’s two cofounders — its only employees in the early days — struggled to keep the app from crashing as hundreds of thousands of new users flocked to the service. Even as Instagram grew, it never got too cluttered with unnecessary features and updates.
When Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, it was generating exactly $0 in revenue. Though some initially questioned the move, Instagram, which now counts more than 400 million users, has only grown its popularity, and influence and has also introduced sponsored content.
Its design isn't perfect, to be sure (there's no way to zoom, for instance), but the app changed how we think about sharing experiences, and it's become one of the most influential social networks in the world.
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