A new, unique photo editor and layout curator
Price: Free (IAPs)
Version: 1.4
Size: 71.8 MB
Developer: Polarr
Platform: iPhone & iPad
There are a lot of photo editing apps on the App Store. There are also a lot of filter apps on the App Store. There are fewer that do both, and it’s apparent that Picky Album developer Polarr, has found its niche. This kind of app on the surface seems like a glorified layout maker, which, really, wouldn’t generally deserve much fanfare. However, this app’s developer is well-known for the Polarr Photo Editor – a strong, and varying photo editing app which focuses on providing filmic filters for photos.
Picky recognizes locations of time periods and selects the best photos from the group
You may have noticed a few posts on Facebook or Instagram recently which come with the hashtag ‘BestNine.’ These are generally the best or most liked images from the user’s account that past year. It seems that Picky Album is somewhat of a reaction to this, but also an expansion of the idea, allowing users to create curated image panels – a single square image with a variety of snaps within them – and then switch some out, apply filters, and apply basic edits to them.
It’s a lot to cover in an app which should be about simplicity and quick sharing. But what’s really nice about Picky is the curation is automated, and the option to edit further is just that – an option. On its own, it’s a great photo picker. But even better, it automatically enhances them using AI, to improve color and lighting, skin correction and toning. At such small levels, it’s not hugely noticeable but with fewer images in the frame it provides a decent polish.
Picky will automatically put your images into a collage – either export this, or upload the selection as individual photos to Facebook, WeChat or a Web URL
As you can see from the screenshot above, Picky recognized a trip to Dublin, assembling photos accordingly. We then added some filters, which appear to be equally as strong as Polarr’s efforts, though fewer in number (and with some IAP-only filters, as with Polarr,) and switched a few out. It was all very easy and the first time you do it the app helps you along with some useful hints.
Picky was able to pick out best nine images from a collection of 55 that it recognized easily as being part of the same set, despite the Camera Roll not having them in their own album.
It’s easy to switch photos and pick similar ones
Elsewhere, Picky didn’t recognize the location, just the time they were taking, collating images from ‘Around five months ago’ or ‘Around a year ago.” This could have potentially been down to these images being stored in iCloud and having location data not quite as accessible.
The great thing is being able to choose how many images fit neatly into the square. The options range from a single image – good if you just want to add one of Picky’s image filters to the image, all the way up to 2×2, 3×3, and 4×4 meaning you can insert up to 16 into one single, share, social network-ready image. From there you simply have to tap the regular share button in the top right hand corner and the app will save it either to Camera Roll, the web, Facebook, WeChat and others.
Easily share individual images, collections or collages
One of the most interesting elements of this sharing option is you don’t have to only share the curated set in one image, you can share them as separate ones. This is great for quickly sharing a set of individual photos to Facebook without going through the rigamarole of doing it via the Facebook app.
Picky, like Polarr, is a feature-rich, well-instructed, yet unique take on an over-saturated category of apps. It also provides enough features before implementing IAPs to be incredibly useful.