If you’re still using the default photo management options that come pre-installed on your phone, you’re missing out. There are a ton of innovative third-party album apps out there, all of which are designed to make managing and sharing your photos easier. Here are the ones that impressed us most.
Focus
Focus is all about the tags, and in that sense, it works a bit like Gmail. Instead of worrying about folders, you assign labels to all of your pictures as they come in, and then use them to quickly find what you’re after through searching or browsing from the front screen.
You have full control over how your images are bundled together, there’s an option to pull up picture metadata for a more detailed look, and there’s an integrated passcode lock option if you need it. Not the most comprehensive app, but very intuitive. [Free, Android]
Picjoy
Sorting and organising your digital snaps can be something of a chore, so Picjoy brings with it some automatic categorization tricks to save you some virtual legwork. Events, landmarks, weather, places, dates, and seasons can all be automatically identified.
From there you can quickly search through your images, build photo journals and albums on top of your collections, and share complete stories with friends. There is, as you might expect, a throwback feature too for reliving those old memories. [Free, iOS]
Shoebox
Shoebox focuses on cloud storage, giving you unlimited room online if you’re happy with high resolution images (you can pay a small monthly fee to store them in their original resolution). It’s clean, straightforward, and a great way of freeing up space on your phone.
The Chromecast-compatible app doesn’t offer too much in the way of additional features but it can also back up photos from your Facebook account and computers, show you pictures from ‘this day in history’, and share images with ease. [Free, Android and iOS]
QuickPic
With a beautiful Material Design interface, speedy operation, built-in privacy options, advanced management controls, quick slideshow building, support for multiple online cloud services — the developers of QuickPic have packed a lot of great features in this app.
Some basic editing tools are thrown in as well, but it’s in the photo management screens of QuickPic where the app really shines. Those of you who want to take full control over exactly where and how your images are stored are likely to love it. [Free, Android]
Photo Album
There’s a lot to like about the practically named Photo Album, from its elegant layout to the quick and simple slideshow builder. You can also set up PIN-protected private albums to keep unwelcome visitors away from photos you don’t want to share with anyone.
Images are organised via straightforward drag and drop gestures, and if you want to start getting creative with your pictures then the app includes a set of handy filters and editing options. Dropbox integration is included in Photo Album as well, if you need it. [Free, iOS]
Slidebox
It’s now been well established (at least, by Gizmodo) that swiping left and right, Tinder-style, is the best way to organise absolutely anything. Enter Slidebox, which lets you sort through all those uncategorized photos on your phone to find only the ones worth keeping.
It’s not a fully fledged album app, but it does make it easier to sort your snaps into albums and discard the ones that aren’t really worth keeping — which, let’s be honest, is most of them. Comparing similar photos side-by-side is simple too. [Free, Android and iOS]
Everalbum
The first thing to note about Everalbum is that it aggregates snaps from a variety of apps (Facebook, Instagram, Dropbox) as well as those you take on your phone. Plus you get unlimited online storage for free, if you don’t mind a little resizing of your pics.
There’s some Google-esque AI here that can surface photos from places and times and even group them by emotion and mood, and all the usual sharing options are here as well (you can collaborate on shared albums with other people too). [Free, Android and iOS]