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I tried Canva’s photo editor to see if it could replace my favorite free app

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Megan Ellis / Android Authority

I’ve been using Canva for years, mostly for simple designs. So when I saw that Canva had rolled out a new photo editing tool, which is more advanced that the simple tweaks you can make in a design, I was interested in trying it out.

I stumbled across a useful feature that’s not in my favorite photo-editing app Snapseed, so I wondered if Canva could actually replace the free app’s place in my workflow. I tried out the Canva app’s new tool to see just how effective it would be at replacing Snapseed, and whether many of its features were locked behind a paywall.

What is the most important feature in a photo editor? 11 votes Availability on desktop and mobile. 9 % Generative AI tools. 45 % One-tap edits and filters. 9 % Selective editing features. 0 % Sliders for contrast, saturation, and other attributes. 36 %

My favorite Canva photo editor feature is one Snapseed doesn’t have

Megan Ellis / Android Authority

I don’t bother with generative AI on my smartphone, but there is one AI feature I enjoy when it comes to image editing: background selection and removal. I love Snapseed and its selective editing tools, but I sometimes wish I could just select the background or foreground with one click.

When I tried out Canva’s new photo editor for the first time, I was excited to find that it had these automatic selection tools. Not only were they available for free, but they were also really accurate. Snapseed doesn’t have this type of automatic selection, while I’ve found Google Photos’ editing tools to not be as accurate as I would like when blurring the background.

When I tried out Canva's new photo editor for the first time, I was excited to find that it had auto-select tools.

I’ve found that I’ve had to edit photos less in general as camera smartphones have advanced, especially now that I’m trying out the vivo X200 Pro. But when it comes to photos that I use for the websites I work for, I sometimes wish the background would be more out-of-focus. The X200 Pro is pretty capable at adjusting the focus to hone in on the subject of the photo, but since I’m usually handling two phones at the same time for an image, I sometimes struggle to get the camera to focus correctly.

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