PicPlz for Android

CNET Editors' review

by: Jaymar Cabebe on June 28, 2011

PicPlz for Android is a camera replacement app with a strong social component. Similar to Instagram, its rival and the leading social photo app for iPhone, PicPlz lets you snap, add filters to, and share photos from your mobile device, all in one fell swoop.

First thing to know when using PicPlz is that you need an account to get started. That's because PicPlz, more than just a camera app on your phone, is connected to a full Web-based service that backs up your photos online and posts your photos to its PicPlz network. It's important to note that only the pics you snap from within the PicPlz app interface will be relayed to the cloud, so there's no need to worry about the public stumbling across any of your private pics.

Once you're downloaded and installed, the first thing you want to do is connect your other social media accounts to PicPlz. After all, the point of the app is to easily share with your connections, isn't it? PicPlz supports linkage to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, and Dropbox.

Now when you're ready to shoot, instead of firing up your default Camera app, just open PicPlz and hit the Camera button. After snapping, it will give you the option to apply any of 16 filters to your picture, many of which are retro-looking, and all of which are quite stunning. In particular, we liked the Russian Toy Camera and the Enhanced Definition filters. One thing we would've liked was the ability to apply borders to any of the filters. As it is now, only a few of the filters feature borders, which was disappointing.

After you choose your filter, you can add a caption (if you wish), then select the social media profiles you'd like to share with. You can even select none, in which case, the picture will only post to your PicPlz profile.

One thing we loved was that PicPlz enabled sharing to Dropbox. In doing so, it even kept both the original (full-resolution) copies of our photos, as well as the filtered copies, which was a nice touch.

We think PicPlz is a must-have camera replacement app for those of us who like to share photos with our social circles. It's easy to use; it syncs with several social networks; the filters are stunning; and it even backs up to Dropbox. If you like, you can also engage with the greater PicPlz network and check out popular photos posted from around the world. Overall, we highly recommend the download.