Eight years on from its last major redesign, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Snapseed photo editing app had been abandoned by Google—but the new and improved Snapseed 3.0 just landed in the iOS App Store, and it brings a freshly updated look as well as some new filters to play around with.

While there aren’t a massive number of new features, the interface has been given a significant overhaul, so it’s an apt time to reintroduce Snapseed and its capabilities. If you want to carry out professional-level photo edits on your phone, it could be just what you’re looking for—and it’s entirely free.

(At the time of writing, there’s no word yet on Snapseed 3.0 for Android. But given this is Google we’re talking about, it seems reasonably likely that a similar update will appear for Android devices in the near future.)

Getting started with Snapseed

When you open the Snapseed app for the first time, you’ll be asked to open an image for editing. You’re then into the revamped interface with three tabs: Looks (for one-tap filters), Faves (for the editing tools you use most often), and Tools (for all the available editing tools).

If you switch to the Tools tab, you’ll see an Edit Faves button—use this to specify the tools you want the easiest access to, from the crop tool (which can cut out parts of the image you don’t want) to the healing tool (which lets you clean up imperfections.) There’s also an Auto option on the Faves tab, which applies an algorithmically determined set of tweaks to try and get your photo looking its best.

At the top of the screen, there are tools for undoing (the back arrow) and redoing (the forward arrow) your edits, and for seeing all the changes you’ve applied so far (the two stacked squares). You can export your edited image at any time via the upward arrow button in the top right corner.

Changing the look of your images

The Looks tab is perhaps the easiest way into Snapseed and everything it offers: You get a simple set of Instagram-style filters, both in color and black and white, that instantly change the feel of an image. These presets can be applied with a tap, and there are no further settings to configure.

There are actually some more filters over on the Tools tab, including Vintage, Film, and Grunge. In this part of the app, they’re called styles, and they come with more customization options—such as the strength of the effect or the way it’s applied. Different styles come with different options, so the Black and white style effect lets you tweak the brightness and contrast separately, for example.

As you continue to make edits to an image, you can actually make filters of your own: Head to the Looks tab, then pick Add look. This will save all the fundamental characteristics of the image (like brightness, contrast, and saturation) so you can apply them to other pictures too. Scroll to the right and tap Manage to delete or edit custom looks.

Over on the Tools tab there are dozens of tools to play around with, each with their own settings. Tap Adjust to start with the basics of brightness, contrast, highlights, and shadows, for example, or Curves to take more advanced control over these values. Tonality, meanwhile, lets you adjust different image tones separately.

Portrait is useful for adding highlights on images where a single face is the main subject, while Text lets you add some basic text effects: Make your selection from the carousel at the bottom, then double-tap the text itself to change the words and letters. Use Frames to add a selection of different borders to your picture.

For more precise edits, try the Brush tool, which lets you paint over a photo to change exposure, temperature, and other values. There’s also the Selective tool, which lets you pick out particular areas of your picture, rather than adjusting everything in the frame: Brightness, contrast, and saturation can be adjusted in this way, and there’s a simple dial to modify the strength of the effect each time.

 

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