Aviary Photo Editor

CNET Editors' review

by: Jaymar Cabebe on July 12, 2012

It may not beat Photoshop, but Aviary is still one of the most comprehensive photo editors available for Android. What's more, it's incredibly simple to use.

From the get-go, Aviary makes it simple to edit your photos, as it opens up directly to a carousel of all the saved images on your device. From here, you can swipe through your photos straight away or go to your photo gallery and make your selection that way. Otherwise, the app also gives you the option to take a new photo to import into the editor.

Once you make your selection, hit Edit this Photo to bring up a navigation bar with all of Aviary's functions. Along the bottom of the screen, you'll see tons of options, from basics like Crop and Brightness to more-complicated functions like Redeye and Blemish reduction tools.

First on Aviary's feature list is Enhance, which offers an automatic photo enhancer, as well as Night, Backlit, and Color Balance tools. Also available are all of your basic editing tools that let you change orientation, crop, adjust brightness, warmth, contrast, saturation, and sharpness. All of these adjustments are made with either a simple one-tap command or by swiping a fine-tuning dial. It's all really intuitive.

And then, of course, there are the filters and stickers. Filters (or Effects, as Aviary calls them) are very much like what you might find on Instagram. You get 12 for free, but can purchase additional packs of six for 99 cents each. Stickers are movable and resizable graphics that you can use to add some fun to your photos. They come free.

More than just a basics wiz, though, Aviary also offers annotations and more-advanced photo-editing functions. The annotations include a drawing tool, text, and meme-style text editor. The meme tool works well, but the text editor and drawing tool are a little thin on the customization options. For instance, there is no stylized text available and the drawing tool only offers a single brush type. Meanwhile, the Redeye, Whiten (for teeth), and Blemish tools all work surprisingly well. To use them, you simply adjust the diameter of your brush, then swipe across the area you want to adjust.

Overall, Aviary is an incredibly well-rounded photo-editing app for Android. While some of its tools may need a bit more power, I still think its overwhelming number of useful features make it a worthwhile download.